Monday, October 8, 2012

Canadian Thanksgiving + Butter Tarts!

Even though we are not Canadian, we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving today.  I've always wanted to do it, and everyone was home for a school holiday today, so we went for it.  I've been looking for an excuse to make these butter tarts for almost two years now and I'm so glad I finally had a great excuse today!  Butter Tarts are a classic Canadian dessert.  I've wanted to make them ever since the good ol' 90's song, Steal My Sunshine by Len.  I used to listen to this song in high school.  There's some silly dialogue in the beginning that goes like this: Tim: hey Matt.  Matt: Yeah Tim? Tim: Hey have you talked to Mark lately? Matt: Uh..haven't really talked to him but..he looks pretty uh..down. Tim: He looks pretty uh..down? (while laughing) Matt: Yeah well maybe we should cheer him up. Tim: What do you uh.. suppose we should do? Matt: Well does he like butter tarts??!!  (Vid at the bottom of this post!!)

Cheesiest thing ever, but I loved it.  You should go listen to the song (link above) if you haven't already!  Anyway, when looking for a recipe to make these, I came across a Joy of Cooking one, and I bookmarked it to make, but then I came across one with a maple flavor by the Canadian cooking blog, Closet Cooking, and knew that was the one I had to make.  I only changed one thing- I omitted the raisins and just added more walnuts in their place. 

These are like tiny pecan pies, but with walnuts.  I love pastries like this- so delicious.  I found one pastry for a single-crust pie (using my mom's recipe) was the perfect amount for this.  I cut circles that were a little less than 4 inches.  Then press them into a standard muffin tin.

Maple Butter Tarts
adapted from Closet Cooking

1 pie crust pastry for a single-crust pie (chilled)
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup butter (melted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
1/2 cup raisins (optional- or just sub with more walnuts)

1. Roll the pastry out to 1/8 inch thick and cut out 12, 4-5 inch circles.  Press the circles of dough into a standard sized muffin pan.  Chill the muffin pan in the fridge for 45-60 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Mix the egg, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter,vanilla extract, salt, walnuts and raisins (or extra walnuts) in a bowl.  Pour the mixture into the tart shells.  Bake until set, about 15-25 minutes.
Our meal to Celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving!  :)


**This post and photos are property of http://dishingwithdish.blogspot.com/ **

5 comments:

LadyJayPee said...

Well, that made my mouth water...the plate-o-food at the end: NEED turkey and potatoes & gravy!

What a Dish! said...

Thanks! I know, I just wanted an excuse to make it, haja!

Unknown said...

Wanna eat them! I will try to make them really soon.....:)

Anonymous said...

When can you make them for me?? I will try to make them!

What a Dish! said...

We need to make the Portuguese ones too! :) Let's do that soon- maybe next week.