Helen Nugent didn’t start out as a baker – she studied fashion merchandising at Seneca College – but stepped back from a corporate career eight years ago to create Batterednbaked on Instagram and has never looked back.
She and her husband ran a successful communications business specializing in corporate writing for clients like Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons. While she enjoyed the work, she was ready to try something new. “I knew I could write,” Helen explains, and “always liked baking, so decided to combine the skills and give it a go.”
Her Irish mother taught her three sisters and her how to bake back in London, Ont., where they would spend Saturdays perfecting the art of pastry-making. She says that her years in business taught her always to say “yes” to a new challenge and then work hard at learning how to succeed. Her son suggested using Instagram as a platform. “I learned to embrace social media, which made it all possible. It was just before Covid hit and a time of decorative baking, so design played a big part in my pie creations – it brought out an artistic side of me I didn’t know existed.”
You only need to look at the cover of her first cookbook, Pie Style, published in late 2020, to realize her flair for design. Helen jokes that “it got to the point where I would see unique patterns and think they would make great pie crusts – the quirkiest example was an intricate sewer grate in Brooklyn!” Our own Steve Hardy covered Pie Style in the March 2024 issue of Leaside Life.
This June Helen’s latest book, Small Pies Big Flavor, will be available from Indigo or your favourite Canadian bookseller, and it’s also available presale. The new recipes “embrace an ethos of minimizing excess – fewer ingredients, less waste, but big flavour,” Helen explains. There are 48 recipes in total – 24 sweet and 24 savoury selections.
One of the sweetest ones is for butter tarts. The first written mention of this Canadian speciality was in 1900 in a cookbook written by the Women’s Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie, Ont. But it is widely believed that the butter tart was a smaller, improvised version of the tarte au sucre, from France, brought to New France in the late 1600s by the Filles de Roi. You may remember from history class that these women were sent by King Louis XIV to Quebec to correct the gender imbalance and ultimately marry and bear children. In total, 800 single (and in a few cases widowed) women arrived. Ever resourceful, they added maple syrup and dried fruit to the old French favourite. Thus, the butter tart was born. Helen’s is not too runny and the perfect size and shape, with a flaky crust. She even adds her own touches such as a sprinkling of peanuts. She aptly calls her creations nutter butter tarts.
As well as writing cookbooks and maintaining her business on Instagram, Helen also teaches pie baking from her home on Rumsey Rd. Since starting two years ago she has offered 30 classes to a maximum of eight students per session – six being the sweet spot, she explains. Students learn everything they need to know to make a perfect pie. In this three-hour class, they make the crust, the filling and the decoration. Everyone takes home the pie uncooked so it can be baked later or frozen for another day.
Most of the classes take place in the autumn so think pumpkin or apple pie. Students arrive strangers but quickly realize they have met before or else live beside someone else’s good friend. Helen quips that she often must reign them in so their pies are completed in time.
The students are definitely enthusiastic. Helen recalls an incident from last summer. The class was halfway through a session when there was a power outage. She announced they would have to finish the class another time, but instead the participants were unanimous in wanting to finish by cellphone flashlight.
Helen’s can-do attitude drives what she does; let it motivate you to pick up her new book and try her recipes for yourself, and especially her uber-Canadian butter tart. Better yet: become a student and take a sweet class. The calories are well worth it.
Recipe:
Nutter Butter Tarts
From: Small Pies Big Flavor
These yummy butter tarts are perfectly sized for a small group, with a rich, gooey filling and a crisp nutty topping – and no tempting leftovers!
Makes 4 butter tarts (4-inch tart shells)
Ingredients
- 4 par-baked tart shells (cooled)
- 1/4 cup (62 g) corn syrup
- 1/4 cup (50 g) brown sugar, packed
- 3 tbsp (42 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp white vinegar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup (40 g) mixed nuts or trail mix, chopped if large
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Ensure the par-baked tart shells are fully cooled before filling.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the corn syrup, brown sugar, and melted butter egg, vinegar, vanilla extract, and salt until everything is fully incorporated and the mixture is slightly thickened.
- Divide the filling evenly among the tart shells, filling each about 2/3 full.
- Sprinkle the mixed nuts or trail mix evenly over the top of each tart.
- Bake for 14–16 minutes, or until the filling is puffed and slightly set in the center, with just a little jiggle.
- Let the tarts cool in the pan for 10–15 minutes before carefully removing them. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
- The vinegar adds depth to the sweetness, enhancing the flavor of the caramelized filling.
- If using trail mix, avoid one with chocolate or add it after baking if desired.
- Adjust the baking time for slightly runnier or firmer tarts, depending on preference.
