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What to eat in Canada? Top 20 Canadian Desserts

Last update: Fri Mar 21 2025
Top 20 Canadian Desserts
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01
Beaver tails
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Beaver tails are sweet, flat, and thin Canadian pastries made from whole wheat flour. The dough is hand-stretched and shaped to look like a beaver's tail - unsurprisingly, one of Canada's national symbols. The shaped dough is fried (a technique referred to as float-cooking) on canola oil and smothered with butter and a variety of different toppings.


Beaver Tails originated from a recipe created by Grant Hooker's family and have been served commercially since 1978. It is believed that the pastry evolved from a yeasty, wheaty dessert made from excess dough that was first made on early Canadian and American farms. 

MOST ICONIC Beaver tails

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02
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A warm and light piece of traditional Canadian Saskatoon berry pie is a regional trademark, especially when accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream on the side. It is made with Saskatoon berries, native to Western Canada, which grow from the Plains to the coast of British Columbia.


The indigenous people of Canada used Saskatoon berries as a food source, grinding them into a paste and drying them for storage over the winter. Later, they were used in pemmican, pies, and various desserts. The city of Saskatoon in Canada is, in fact, named after these same berries, which are also protected by the Slow Food initiative. 

MOST ICONIC Saskatoon berry pie

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Pancakes are traditionally consumed across North America and Canada, made from a starchy batter, eggs, milk, and butter. Their origin is probably German, with the traditional Pfannkuchen recipe being brought by German immigrants who settled in the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.


The pancake has a similar appearance and flavor as the French crêpe but differs in diameter (5 to 10 cm) and thickness. The thickness is achieved by the use of a leavening agent, either baking soda or nutritional yeast. American and Canadian pancakes are typically served for breakfast, in a pile, topped with maple syrup and butter. 

MOST ICONIC Pancakes with maple syrup

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04

Sweet Pie

QUEBEC, Canada
4.1
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Sugar pie is a popular dessert in France, Belgium, the United States of America, and Quebec, Canada. The dessert consists of an open pie without a top crust, filled with a combination of sugar, maple syrup, cream, butter, and a bit of salt. The pie is usually flavored with vanilla.


The popularity of sugar pie throughout the world is due to the fact that many immigrants from Northern France and Belgium went to Canada, discovering maple syrup along the way, which was sometimes the only available sweetener. Today, sugar pie is a holiday favorite in Quebec, when it is usually topped with a dollop of whipped cream. 

MOST ICONIC Sugar pie

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05

Dessert

QUEBEC, Canada
4.1
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The name of this Canadian dessert literally translates to unemployment pudding—it originated in Quebec during the Great Depression, and was supposedly created by female factory workers. Being strapped for cash, they would prepare this recipe with stale bread as the base.


Today, there are two classic ways to make it, both of which use a basic cake batter and either a homemade syrup or the store-bought maple syrup. In one variation the batter is poured over the syrup, whereas in the second the batter is covered by the syrup. 
06
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Butter tart is a humble food that achieved iconic status in early 20th-century Canada. The filling is traditionally made with a combination of walnuts, eggs, brown sugar, butter, and white vinegar, and it's then placed into small, flaky, deep or shallow tart shells before baking.


Early versions of the recipe, dating back to 1915, suggest that currants and raisins should also be included in the mixture. There are lots of theories about the origin of the tart – some say that it is related to pecan pie, which was brought to the country by American slaves, some say it evolved from Quebec's sugar pie, while others say it's linked to Border Tarts from southern Scotland. 

MOST ICONIC Butter tarts

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07
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Timbits are bite-sized doughnut holes made from leftover doughnut dough, fried in vegetable oil and available in a number of varieties such as yeast, cake, apple fritter, honey dip, old fashion plain, chocolate glazed, blueberry, strawberry, lemon, and filled timbits.


They are sold in North American fast food chains such as Tim Hortons and Dunkin' Donuts. The bit in Timbit is an acronym for Big in Taste, which is an original campaign slogan from the 1970s. In Quebec, people prefer to use the generic term doughnut holes or trous de beigne instead of timbits. 

MOST ICONIC Timbits

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Nanaimo bars are creamy, chocolatey dessert treats originating from Nanaimo, a city "so beautiful it's alright to stare". The same can be said for Nanaimo bars, layered cookies that don't need to be baked, consisting of a mixture of crushed graham crackers, coconut, and nuts acting as a base that is topped with a creamy, vanilla-buttery middle layer and finished with a layer of glistening, semi-sweet chocolate.


Their origin is shrouded in a veil of mystery, and the only thing known about them is that they originate from Nanaimo, where the locals held a contest to find the best Nanaimo bar recipe. As to who chose to crush the biscuits and top them off with creamy custard and chocolate is still unknown. 

MOST ICONIC Nanaimo bars

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09
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Visually reminiscent of cinnamon rolls, pets de sœurs (lit. sister’s farts or nun’s farts) are French Canadian pastries with an unappetizing name. They consist of flaky pie crust dough that is rolled up with a paste of brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.


However, there are a few varieties, so brown sugar can be replaced with molasses or maple syrup. These sweet treats are especially popular during the festive Christmas season.

MOST ICONIC Pets de sœurs

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Sweet Pastry

THUNDER BAY, Canada
3.4
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Persian is a Canadian pastry roll characterized by an oval shape and a layer of pink icing that can be made with either strawberries or raspberries. These yeast-risen, fried cinnamon rolls originated at Bennett's Bakery in the city of Thunder Bay.


It is believed that Persians were named after a general named John Blackjack Pershing, although it is still unclear when these tasty rolls were invented. Nowadays, Persians are commonly prepared for fundraisers and similar social events.

MOST ICONIC Persians

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Pudding
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, Canada
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Sweet Pastry
NEW BRUNSWICK, Canada
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Cookie
CAPE BRETON ISLAND, Canada
n/a
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Sweet Pie
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, Canada
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Cake
WINNIPEG, Canada
n/a

TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.

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Canadian Desserts