Butternut Squash Tarts with Caramelized Onions and Crispy Sage

Butternut Squash Tarts with Caramelized Onions and Crispy Sage have that a slightly sweet-heat with the creaminess of Havarti cheese, and comfort of caramelized onions and texture pleasure of the crispy sage!

Earlier this week I was looking through the Pillsbury Crescent Recipes on allrecipes.com. I found a recipe for Onion-Cheese Custard Tartlets. Well, I had the onion and cheese part, but we all know how I feel about eggs for the most part. I was craving a little buttery, sweet, heat topped with a little savory so I decided what better way to utilize these tarts than some of my butternut squash! I kept the onions and cheese and made a few other additions to get the flavors I was craving and came up with these Butternut Squash Tarts. These are absolutely delicious! Grumpy and I both loved them. We even had the leftovers the next evening for our dinner and just reheated in the microwave they were still yummy.

Author: Grumpy's Honeybunch

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 6 tarts

Ingredients

1 (8 ounce) can Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls or Pillsbury® Crescent Recipe Creations™ refrigerated flaky dough sheet
4 cups butternut squash, cubed into bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon (or to taste) cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ cup havarti cheese, cut in small cubes (or monterey jack works well too)
9 fresh sage leaves
½ large onion, sliced thin
2 tablespoons butter

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Mix squash, olive oil, salt, cayenne, and brown sugar and place in roasting pan. Place in oven and roast until pieces are tender. About 30 minutes.
While squash is cooking, prep onions by placing 1 tablespoon butter in medium hot skillet and cooking until browned. This took me about 20 minutes. Remove onions from pan, wipe out any moisture and place remaining tablespoon butter in pan. Cook until it starts to bubble, then add fresh sage and fry until sage becomes darker and butter is browned. Remove sage from pan and set aside on paper towel.
If using crescent rolls: Unroll dough into 1 large rectangle on work surface. Press into 12x9-inch rectangle, firmly pressing perforations to seal. If using dough sheet: Unroll dough on work surface. Press into 12x9-inch rectangle.
Cut dough into 6 squares. Gently press squares into 6 ungreased muffin cups, shaping edges to form rims ¼ inch high.
Mix cooked squash (will still be hot) with 3 pieces of sage (crumble the sage into the squash), and havarti cheese. Scoop squash into muffin cups. Top with caramelized onions.
Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups and garnish with fried sage leaf.