Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Tartlets

The other Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for this week was picked by Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine. She chose the Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie. This double crust pie contains butternut squash, pears and dried cranberries. Absolutely perfect for fall. You can get the complete recipe on Valerie’s blog and check out how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers fared with this recipe.

As you can see, I didn’t make a big double crust pie. I really wanted to make this since I like butternut squash so much, but I just couldn’t envision a whole pie. I asked the other TWD bloggers about cutting this recipe down and I got a couple of suggestions. I think it being a double crust pie was what was throwing me. It was actually my husband suggested that I make them similar to how I make mincemeat pies. I ended up using the same pan that I made the mini madeleines in, which was not planned at all. I tried it and it seemed to work out just great.

I cut the recipe in half and I made 12 tartlets. I could have made one more, but there are 12 spots on the pan so that’s what I made. Instead of doing a top crust, I cut out leaf shapes and just used those to top the tarts. I’ve had those mini cookie cutters forever and I’ve used them so much over the years. I baked the tartlets for about 45 minutes and they were nicely browned. I used microwave steam-in-the-bag butternut squash which made this recipe super easy. I loved these tarts: not too sweet, great flavors of fall with the squash and the pears. I wasn’t 100% sure how all of these flavors would come together, but this tart was a hit! I especially like them in miniature form!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 328-329