Random Delicious Thing: Molasses Jam Tarts in Elliston (and Fogo Island)

By Jennifer Bain | Published Sept. 18, 2026

Random Delicious Thing shines a bi-weekly spotlight on things you really must eat across Canada.

Subscribe to the Modern Traveller Newsletter to get terrific travel articles like this one straight to your inbox!

Molasses jam tart slices, as served at Me Mudder’s Bed & Breakfast in Elliston on the Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland/Jennifer Bain

WHAT: Molasses Jam Tart

WHERE: Me Mudder’s Bed & Breakfast, Elliston, NL

PRICE: You might luck into being served a slice during your stay.

DISH DECONSTRUCTION: The filling is partridgeberries (known to IKEA shoppers as lingonberries), one of Newfoundland’s favourite berries. The molasses crust has the unusual addition of warm, steeped Orange Pekoe tea mixed with baking soda.

WHY: The most delicious thing I ate all summer. I found it in Elliston, where birders come to see Atlantic puffins from land as they breed on a nearby, uninhabited rocky island. Joy Andrusiak runs a three-room bed-and-breakfast and generously shared the recipe so I’ve been recreating the tart at home using partridgeberry jam (bought on Fogo Island) instead of fresh or frozen berries that I can’t find back in Ontario. I’ll soon try it with IKEA’s jars of lingonberry spread.

FUN FACT: While having dinner at the Storehouse in Joe Batt’s Arm on Fogo Island, I spotted a $10 Jam Tart for dessert. This partridgeberry pie also had a molasses crust and was gussied up with a dollop of whipped cream.

At Storehouse on Fogo Island, the jam tart is partridgeberry pie with a molasses crust/Jennifer Bain