(0:00) Our host has an extensive chat with "Ontario's Best Butter Tart Festival" best in show winner from 2023, David Baxter of Circles & Squares Bakery Café in Toronto.

(0:00) Tom Baker returns to talk about his mom's well-guarded recipe, how it's really difficult to have a bad butter tart (2:58), his case for the butter tart as the most Canadian food (4:22) and what got him his big chance to become a butter tart judge (6:04).

Then Blair and I meet up in the tasting room (12:24) to "weigh in" on a few butter tarts we tried, the differences of size, of goo constitution, of serving temperature, and of ingredients. Your host stops by the "For The Love of Butter Tarts" Festival in Elmira, Ontario (22:05). Lastly, the incredible disappearing key ingredient in an unearthed recipe (28:52) confounds host and guests alike.

(0:00) We are talking today about that most contentious of butter tart debates: do raisins belong in butter tarts? My all-star line-up of guests includes Tom Baker, who has the enviable task of judging butter tarts at the big festival. After Tom breaks down some of the criteria of what makes a tart great and the uniqueness of ones he's tasted (0:45), we hear again from Barb Rowlandson with a great story on butter tarts leading to an economic revival (8:33) for Doodoo's Bakery, and then chat with the much-awarded baker herself, Diane Rogers (9:36). Since her tarts were sold out when I went to Midland, I decided to order some online to be shipped to my house (14:32) that I could sample with friends and family at the cottage (16:10).

(00:00) In this episode, we visit with some people who piece together some of the origin story of the humble butter tart: Laura Bassken of The King's Daughters (02:08), Barb Rowlandson (04:55), and Jenn Huddleston of Simcoe County (10:47).

Plus, a fortunate find in an apartment complex in Regina, Saskatchewan, and a conversation with a friend on Six Degrees of Tom Baker.

Find more content related to this episode on Instagram @buttertartpod

(0:00) Host Sandy Clipsham pays a visit to Ontario's Best Butter Tart Festival, to get a finger in every tart.

He talks to folks like Maid's Cottage (5:34), Grandma's Beach Treats (7:49), and festival founder and best in show judge Barbara Rowlandson (10:47), before going the extra kilometre down a dusty country road in pursuit of some tarts that were sold out at the festival. Back home (22:00), some curious kids check out what's arrived.

Find more content related to this episode on Instagram @buttertartpod

(00:00) In this first episode, host Sandy Clipsham gets to know what Canadian butter tarts are and what would compel one man to make a whole batch of episodes of a podcast on...well....nothin' but a butter tart. Then Sandy pays a visit to Heather at The Flour Barrel (03:09) before trying his hand baking his first batch of tarts with a special guest at home (11:45).

Find more content related to this episode on Instagram @buttertartpod