Pecan Tassies Recipe

Pecan Tassies are one of those desserts that has been in my family for generations. Grandma used to make them, then Aunt Cathy, and my Mom, now it's been passed to me, and I make them every holiday or special occasion. And sometimes just for the fun of it as they are so good, I just can't help myself. Whenever I make them, they disappear almost as quick as I make them, people just eat them up, and I can never keep them around long enough to eat as a snack. (Maybe this is a good thing...I'd be ten tons if I ate these all the time, but OMG, they are divine!).
The most important part of this recipe is the miniature muffin tin, you just can't make them without it. This pecan tassie recipe will make two tray-fulls of tassies (plus a little extra). I just made some of these today, and halved the recipe and got exactly one miniature muffin tin (24) pieces. Yum.

Pecan Tassies Ingredients:

crust:
1- 8oz. pkg. cream cheese softened
1 cup butter (or 2 sticks)
2 cups flour
Pecan pieces (you may use cashews, walnuts or a mixture of whatever nuts you like)

filling:
2 cups brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
dash salt
1 1/4 cup light corn syrup
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 eggs beaten
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:
Spray miniature muffin tin with cooking spray. Mix cream cheese, butter and flour until dough forms. Divide dough into four parts, put three parts into fridge to keep chilled while working with dough. Divide each part into twelve pieces and roll into balls, then flatten out with fingers and palms to make each baby pie crust, form into miniature muffin tin. Repeat with remaining dough. Make filling by adding all ingredients and blending well until a nice light color is achieved and a bit lighter than you started with. Add a few pecans (or cashews and walnuts, or whatever nuts you want to use) into each little pie crust. I like to fill a one cup pyrex glass measuring cup with filling and pour into pie crust on top of the nuts until almost full (don't quite fill to top or it will flow over and cause a mess). Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes or until set. Cool and gently use a knife to remove. You may have leftover filling.

Today when I made these I didn't have any vanilla so I used almond extract, and instead of pecans used walnuts, and cashews, and halved the recipe. (I used two eggs because you can't really split an egg in half). I filled up one miniature muffin tin and had 24 adorable little nut pies. I had an extra pie crust left over from Christmas and used the leftover filling (and more nuts of course) to make a small pie. Yum-O. My better half LOVES these so I'll have to keep them away from him until the company comes tomorrow, or there may be none left~!

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Boy, am I gonna' have to use the treadmill for an extra few hours tomorrow!!!