Louisiana Pecan Tassies

Ingredients

For the dough:

• 3 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 c flour (scoop it out and level it)
• 1 cube (8T) butter, at room temperature

For the filling:

• 1 large egg, slightly beaten
• 3/4 c firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 T butter, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 c finely chopped pecans

To make the dough combine the cream cheese, flour, and butter in a small bowl, using a pastry blender or a spatula – or your hands.  Mix it until you get a firm dough with all the flour incorporated. Make it into a ball, then wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 2 days.  If it’s been in the fridge for more than 2 hours, it will need to set out a bit to soften before filling the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  The recipe will make 24 mini-muffin size pastries, so you need pans to accommodate that.  My mini muffin tins have inside measurements of 2″ wide and 1″ deep.  Do not try to use a regular muffin pan.  Do not grease the pans (though if you have a non-stick pan, use it).

Take pinches of the chilled dough and shape into about 1 1/2″ round balls.  Place each ball in one mini-muffin well and press the dough with your thumb, working the dough until it comes near the top of the well and also covers the bottom.  Be sure there aren’t any places where the filling can leak through.

For the filling, combine the egg, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and pecans in a small bowl.  Mix well.  Then carefully fill each dough shell until it’s about 3/4 full.  If you go higher than that you risk the filling expanding over the top as it cooks and sticking to the sides, making the tassies very VERY hard to get out.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the tops of the tassies are golden.  Transfer the pans to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the outside edges of the pan.  The tassies should then be lifted gently out.

The tassies freeze exceptionally well, so you can just whip them out of the freezer as needed.  The absolutely perfect dessert for the busy holiday season….except that your guests may eat too many!