Mary Berg loves a project in the kitchen, but even she has her limits. Butter tarts and croissants are two of them – the former thanks to the “Butter Tart Lady” at the Gravenhurst Farmers’ Market in Muskoka, Ont., and the latter thanks to her own “simply cannot be bothered with all that rolling, resting and laminating” philosophy.

Her solution? Bring the sticky, maple-rich flavours of a butter tart to store-bought croissants. Day-old ones work especially well, soaking up the bourbon-spiked maple syrup before being filled with a buttery maple-pecan mixture and baked until golden and crisp.

Butter Tart Croissants

Mary Berg

Flaky store-bought croissants get the butter tart treatment with a sticky maple-pecan filling and bourbon-spiked maple syrup.

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Ingredients

Syrup

½ cup maple syrup
¼ cup bourbon or rye
¼ cup water
⅓ cup raisins (optional)
½ tsp vanilla extract

Croissants

200 g pecans divided
6 tbsp all-purpose flour
¼ tsp kosher salt
½ cup butter at room temperature
½ cup icing sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
6 day-old croissants
icing sugar to serve

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Syrup

In small saucepan, combine maple syrup, bourbon or rye and water and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Add raisins (if using). Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes to cook off some of the alcohol and slightly plump raisins, then remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Set aside to cool.

Croissants

Place 140 g of the pecans in small food processor and pulse until texture of almond flour. Add flour and salt, pulse to combine and set aside.
In medium bowl, beat butter, icing sugar and maple syrup until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes by hand or about 1 minute if using electric mixer. Beat in eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Add pecan mixture and mix just to combine.
Slice croissants in half lengthwise. Set top halves aside and dunk bottom halves in syrup. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and spread about two-thirds of pecan mixture overtop. If using raisins, use slotted spoon to remove them from the remaining syrup and scatter overtop.
Dunk top halves of croissants in sryup, then sandwich with bottom halves. Spread remaining pecan mixture onto top of each croissant. Finely chop remaining 60 g pecans and scatter overtop.
Bake croissants until golden brown and crisp, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly oe all the way to room temperature before dusting with icing sugar and serving.

Keyword butter tart croissants, butter tarts, croissants, dessert recipes, Maple syrup, Mary Berg, Mary Berg dessert recipes

Recipes excerpted from Mary’s Comfort Classics by Mary Berg. Adapted for ELLE Gourmet. Copyright © 2026 Mary Berg. Photographs by Kyla Zanardi. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved