Toronto Star Feature

It may just be Lebanon’s butter tart.

Though Toronto is home to a large — and growing — Lebanese community, Mafroukeh, the Middle Eastern country’s ubiquitous dessert, is hard to find in local bakeries.

“I don’t know why,” says Mohammad Jamous, who makes it fresh several times a week at Pâtisserie Royale, his east-end shop.

He throws up his hands. “We eat it all the time back home.”

Park baklava, part deconstructed pie, part pudding, Mafroukeh is a go-to-item in his native country — eaten over coffee and languid morning chats in quiet cafes, during long, late lunches in restaurants, as an after dinner treat, and, sometimes, Jamous says, chuckling, even as dinner.