The Pantry Shelf [Mimi's Cake Tour X Butter Tart Tour]

Bakery: The Pantry Shelf
Address: 169 Kent St W, Lindsay ON
Website: n/a
Style: North American
Price: $$

A little recap: So, some absolute genius at Kawarthas/Northumberland Tourism created the Butter Tart Tour: a "tour" (rather, several smaller tours) of 40+ local bakeries, cafes, markets, and other businesses making and baking their own butter tarts. Participating locations are spread out all over the county, from farms, to small towns, to Peterborough  itself, and are marked with a Butter Tart Tour logo (left) in their window and, surprisingly, no butter tart is alike. On the most recent "tour", I tried five bakeries in five towns and butter tarts (with some extras along the way) were purchased for the big challenge: five butter tarts, all at once.

I know you've been waiting for this! Alright, perhaps I'm the only one, but nonetheless, after some delay (big translation project...) I return with the current gold medal winner! Of course, there are still a great many butter tart stops on the tour and that will have to happen at another time, but in the meantime, of the five that were a part of the inaugural Mimi's Butter Tart Challenge, the victor was... The Pantry Shelf, in Lindsay! Strangely enough, The Pantry Shelf wasn't just a bakery like other stops, with lunch items (their soups seem to be one item everyone is raving about) and gourmet foods, a sort of hybrid cafe/bakery/food store that knocked our socks off!

What made their butter tart so darn good? The combination of *the* best tart shell: softer than a traditional pie shell, these were rich and flaky. Combine that a thicker buttery filling, available with pecans or with raisins (personally I would have preferred pecan, but that was a purchasing choice so as to make them all alike), that was just melt-in-your-mouth good! Actually, it was incredibly difficult to choose between the buttery mass from Pantry Shelf or the "butter bomb" at Bobcaygeon Bakery. On their own, they were probably at the same impressive level, but these guys blew the competition away with these delectable shells. Mmmm.... what a treat! *-*

And with that, I conclude my first butter tart tour. It was tough competition and all were worthy of honours, but alas, a challenge is a challenge. So it's five down and a couple dozen to go! Kawarthas, I'll be back. ;D

Rating: ****