These mini pecan pies, in cookie form, are another one of my holiday favorites. Decadent Pecan Tassies are one of the first to disappear off of the cookie tray! A perfect combination of gooey brown sugar pecan filling and a golden pastry crust make these cookies melt in your mouth. Your Pecan Tassies will not make it to Santa’s plate on Christmas Eve!
This recipe is courtesy of Joy of Baking
Pastry Ingredients
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 ounces (170 grams) regular (full fat) cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated white sugar
2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pastry Directions
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt and beat until incorporated. Divide the pastry into four equal portions. Flatten each portion into a round disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for about one hour or until firm (can be chilled overnight).
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Have ready two – 24 cup miniature muffin pans.
Remove one round of the pastry from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface roll the pastry until it’s about 1/8 inch thick. Using a round or fluted cookie cutter, that is slightly larger than the muffin cups, cut the pastry into rounds, and then gently fit the rounds into the muffin tins. Gather up any scraps of pastry and re-roll. (Each portion will make about 12 rounds of pastry.) Repeat with the other three disks of chilled pastry. Place the pastry lined muffin tins in the refrigerator while you make the pecan filling.
Pecan Filling Ingredients
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (310 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
4 tablespoons (55 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 – 1 1/2 cups (100 – 125 grams) coarsely chopped pecans
Pecan Filling Directions
Place the eggs in a large bowl, and whisk until lightly beaten. Then whisk, or stir, in the brown sugar, melted butter, vanilla, and salt until well combined. Spoon or pour about 1 tablespoon of the filling into each of the pastry-lined muffin tins (you want the pastry cups to be about 3/4 full). Sprinkle each with some coarsely chopped pecans.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 17-20 minutes, or until the pastry has nicely browned around the edges and the filling is just set, but still a little soft in the center. (The filling does puff up during baking but will settle back down during cooling.) Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about five minutes before removing the Pecan Tassies to finish cooling on a wire rack. Pecan Tassies can be frozen.
