Maple-Syrup Butter Tartlets: A recipe

Why didn’t you tell me?

Hello! Hello!

Earlier this week, I wrote about my friend, the beloved novelist Louise Penny, whose latest Chief Inspector Armand Gamache book, THE MADNESS OF CROWDS, comes out next Tuesday. I wrote about having made lemon meringue cookies for Gamache when her last book, ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE, was published. And I set myself the task of celebrating her new book with Butter Tarts, a true Canadian specialty, and one many of her readers suggested I bake, since there are always butter tarts in Louise’s books, usually being eaten by Gamache’s second-in-command, Jean-Guy.

It wasn’t until after I announced that I was about to bake my first Butter Tarts that the warnings starting coming in.

Are you going to make the filling runny?

Or firm?

Oh no! I didn’t know that gooey vs set could rile even the nicest Canadians.

Raisins?

No raisins?

I knew there were raisin-haters in the world – I’d come up against them before – but I didn’t know that the honor of a nation depended on shriveled grapes.

Pecans?

Don’…