Dutch Oven Bakery [Mimi's Cake Tour X Butter Tart Tour]

Bakery: Dutch Oven Bakery & Restaurant
Address: 7 King St W, Cobourg ON
Website: n/a
Style: Canadian 
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 often marked with a Butter Tart Tour logo (left) in their window or some other paraphernalia; surprisingly, no butter tart is alike.

Yay! I've been waiting so long to get the Butter Tart Tour going again; that is, to resume the unofficial and unauthorized (LOL) collaboration with the Butter Tart Tour and get some more locations on my own map! Having taken Hwy 2 from Kingston, I chanced about more than I could handle... and had to turn some down by the end. I know, sad but true. However, I did manage three Cake Tours in Cobourg which is impressive in its own right. That, my friends, is occasion enough to celebrate. :)

The first stop was the Dutch Oven Bakery, located right on the main street and featuring a plethora of humble Canadian classics: multitudes of squares and tarts, some cakes, cookies, and my personal enemies: cupcakes. Ahem, but I was there for one thing and one thing only: butter tarts. And I came out with two. ^^

One of my international correspondents has once told me that  I should write baked good-related articles on here as well, and one of these should include an article all about butter tarts and the regional differences between a Western butter tart and the Ontario butter tart. What he means is that the Ontario butter tart has a thick shell, usually folded by hand for a rustic look, and comes in either a thicker or runnier filling. In both cases, they're never as "set" as the finer-shelled Western butter tart. The two, surprisingly enough, aren't interchangeable; these little guys stick to their respective geographical areas, so it was pretty amazing to find Dutch Oven with both a thicker-shelled, runny tart and a thinner, more "Western" butter tart (one was slightly more expensive than the other... and I've forgotten the prices). Of course I took both. ^^

Despite the shell, the thinner one still had a typical "firm" (versus runny) filling: a nice golden crust atop a buttery centre that wasn't as set as it looked, that being filled with raisins and liquid yum. :P A good butter tart.

The second, more classic "Ontario" butter tart had a delectable shell and a rich molten centre with that amazing baked top. As is often the case with runny tarts in transport, upon reaching the destination most of the filling had trickled into the box and out of the tart. Nonetheless, excellent shells on both and delicious fillings. I'm not sure where it would rank on the butter tart tours done so far -- probably third is my guess -- but it was the best (of two, mind you) in Cobourg.

Rating: ***1/2