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!  :)

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