Resembling miniature pecan pies, Pecan Tassies have a buttery crust and a filling of brown sugar, pecans, and vanilla extract.
On the 8th day of Christmas, My Casual Pantry baked for me…
Pecan Tassies
Pecan Tassies are the cookie form of pecan pie. These miniature bites are loaded with pecans and a brown sugar filling and baked in a buttery, flaky shell. Perfectly nutty and sweet; perfectly scrumptious; perfectly holiday.
Making the Pastry Dough
The dough for the shell of the tassies is a blend of butter, cream cheese, and flour. This makes a very flaky, delicious crust. The dough needs to chill for one hour before using. This is more than enough time to chop the pecans and mix up the tassie filling (brown sugar, egg, butter, extract). Then, relax with a cup of coffee while the remainder of the hour ticks by! (Or fold laundry and sweep the floor…..no, the coffee sounds better to me!!)
Combine the butter and cream cheese, both cut into cubes, in a mixing bowl. Add the flour and using a pastry cutter, cut the butter and cream cheese into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Then, with your hands, work the dough to form a ball.
TIP: Shape the dough into an even log or brick before wrapping in plastic wrap to refrigerate. Once the dough has chilled, the dough needs to be divided into 24 even pieces to form the individual tassie shells. With the dough in an evenly shaped log or brick, the chilled dough can be cut in half, each half cut in half again, and so on until there are 24 even pieces of dough. This method is much easier than trying to guesstimate a 1/24 portion of dough.
Using your hands, roll each portion of dough into a ball and flatten into a circle. Then, shape each circle of dough to line the miniature muffin cups.
Assembling the tassies
Sprinkle half of the pecans in the bottom of the muffin cups. Next, using a small cookie scoop, divide the filling evenly among the 24 muffin cups. Finally, top with the remaining half of the pecans. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until filling is set. Let cool completely before removing tassies from the pan.
A bite-size taste of pecan pie, Pecan Tassies are delicious additions to holiday cookie swaps, cookie platters, or bake sales.
Pecan Tassies
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 ounces cream cheese, cubed
- 1/2 cup butter, cubed
- 1 cup flour
Filling
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon soft butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
Dough
- To a mixing bowl, add cubed butter and cream cheese. Using a pastry cutter, cut flour into the butter and cream cheese until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Using your hands, work the mixture into a dough. Form the dough into an even log or brick shape. Chill the dough for 1 hour.
Filling
- While the dough chills, beat together egg, brown sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, vanilla, and salt.
Assembling the Cookies
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Cut the chilled log of dough in half. Cut each half in half again, and so on until there are 24 one-inch equal portions of dough. Shape each piece of dough into a circle and press into ungreased miniature muffin pans.
- Divide half of the pecans between the 24 pastry filled cups. Top each with filling, being careful not to overfill. Top each cup with remaining pecans.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until filling is set. Let cool before removing from pans. Store in an airtight container.
For pecan lovers, try this Christmas cookie recipe too – Santa’s Whiskers Cookies.
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