what's cooking wednesday - maple butter tarts

Well, due to some posting issues last night, here I am up before the butt crack of dawn to get this post up and running for you. It's actually a nice time of morning to be up. The house is so quiet.

Butter tarts have long been my favourite in the tart genre. I don't often buy them because I'll eat the whole package myself, if I can hide them well enough from Michael. I have never actually attempted to make my own, though. The October issue of Canadian Living (my new favourite magazine!) had a great and easy recipe for maple butter tarts. Maple being another favourite flavour of mine and I couldn't resist. Of course, I rarely trust my own skills when it comes to baking, so I warned Grandma Linda they would only be making an appearance if they actually turned out.

I also I should go on record as saying I did not make my own pastry this time around. I could have yes, but I find it tedious, even more so when Tenderflake frozen tart shells are on sale. Mike actually became a pastry snob there for about a minute or two. Bemoaning the fact the pastry wasn't homemade, until I suggested that perhaps he not eat them. His tune changed rather quickly after that. All that to say I'm only giving you the recipe for the filling today since pastry recipes are easy to find (check the side of the tenderflake box) and the frozen tart shells even easier.



Maple Butter Tarts

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnut halves
1/4 cup dried currants
1/4 cup golden raisins

In a bowl whisk together brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, eggs, cider vinegar and salt. Divide wlanuts, currants and raisins evenly amongst frozen pastry shells. Spoon filling into each shell. Bake in the centre of a 350 degree oven until filling is set and pastry is golden, 20 - 25 minutes.

Of course if you were going to make the pastry yourself, you would roll it out, cut it out and fit it into a muffin or tart pan, fill with the filling, bake and then run a knife blade around the edge of the finished tart shells to release them from the pan. Let them cool in the pan for 20 minutes before removing them to cool further on a rack.

Recipe Notes: What can I say, these were a hit. The maple flavour is light and not at all over powering. Personally I don't care for walnuts or currants, so I went with straight raisins. And just regular old sun maid raisins, since Mike doesn't like the golden raisins and the regular kind was all my helpful neighbour had. I had to borrow some, since I found out at the last minute I had no raisins in the pantry. Anyway, these will definitely make it into my baking rotation.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret. Much to Kaffy's chagrin, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday.