Pecan Tassies

To me, nothing says Thankgiving like Pecan Tassies. Well, excpet for maybe the turkey & dressing.

And, pumpkin pie.

Regardless, I only make Pecan Tassies around Thanksigiving. These are the perfect dessert fingerfood for the Holiday season. I've been waiting and waiting on BBLady to post the recipe, but I see she's too busy peddling her chocolate porn to worry about something timely like pecans.

Most Tassie recipes are quite similar & the main problem I've always had has been too much filling and not enough dough. I had the same issue again last night & modified the amounts for this recipe. This should make 60-70 tassies. If you think you need less, try this recipe. It makes 24-30, but there will be quite a bit of filling leftover/wasted. Besides, if you think you don't need 70 tassies, you are obviously hanging out with the wrong crowd.

Pecan Tassies

Dough:

6 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup butter, also at room temp
2 cups all-purpose flour

Cream together butter & cream cheese with the electric mixer. Add flour & mix until it starts to form a ball. Shape the dough into a large ball, wrap with plastic & refrigerate until easy to handle (at least one hour).

Shape dough into small balls about 1 ½ inch in diameter. Place into mini-muffin pan and press into "cups". I use my Pampered Chef dough shaper.

Filling:

• 3 T butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ - 1 cup of chopped pecans

Mix the filling ingredients together with a wire whisk. Fill dough cups about ¾ full. I use the PC mini scoop. Bake at 325F for 30 minutes or until the dough is very lightly browned & the filling mostly set.

Remove immediately from the pan & cool on a rack. Tarts should come out of the pan easily. Unless the filling runs over the edges - then it might be stuck. Run a butter knife along the edge to loosen.

I don't know for a fact, but I've seen several references that these freeze well. Which is great. Make ahead of time & defrost at room temperature when you need them.

Enjoy! ~HausFrau

Taffy Apple Pizza

Ingredients:

1 Pkg. (18 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened

1 Pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Cinnamon

1/4 c. caramel ice cream topping

1/2 c. peanuts, chopped (optional)

The Method:

Place dough on a round or square cookie sheet/stone. Roll dough to about 1 in. from edges. Bake at 350F 16-18 minutes or until brown. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen cookie from sheet/stone.

Using an electric mixer, combine cream cheese, brown sugar, peanut butter and vanilla in a bowl until creamy. Spread mixture over completely the cooled cookie.

Arrange the peeled apples over the cream cheese mixture & sprinkle with cinnamon.

Microwave the caramel topping in the microwave on high 30-45 sec. or until warm. Drizzle over the apples. If desired sprinkle the peanuts on top of the caramel.

Cut like you would a pizza.

Tip: To help prevent the apples from browning drizzle with lemon juice or Fruit Fresh.

Editor's Note: Hey, I'm surprised that BB Lady didn't go ahead and give us a from-scratch sugar cookie recipe. I'll have to dig around, find mine & post it because it totally rocks.

Bake the cookie on parchment paper & remove the paper after it cools. This prevents the cookie from sticking & unnecessary kitchen profanity. Not that I would know, or anything.

But, BB Lady does.

If you are in the market for lightening up this recipe (only so you can eat twice as much, not because you dare to calorie count a dessert recipe) here are my suggestions:

Use reduced fat or fat free cream cheese. Usually, I'm not a big fan of fat free, but (butt?) with the peanut butter & sugar you are about to add, you won't notice the missing fat. I am a huge fan of real peanut butter - the kind you have to stir & refrigerate - and think it would be really good in the recipe because of its incredibly nutty flavor. Besides, who needs extra preservatives?

Oh, yeah, those would be in the prepackaged cookie dough. Not that we care.

You can also shave off a few calories by using Splenda Blend Brown Sugar - follow the package directions, because I do believe you only use 1/2.

Make sure the apples are sliced very thinly. Someone made this somewhere in my past and the apples were way to chunky. It's really about the cookie & cream cheese, not big-honking pieces of fruit. To prevent browning, apple slices need to be lightly coated in citric acid. Sprite & 7-Up work well without adding extra tartness.

Just for the record, this dessert is really good sprinkled with pecans or walnuts.

And, Thank You, BB Lady for posting this. I haven't thought about Taffy Apple since the late 90's when this recipe was making its rounds on the Pampered Chef circuit.

~HausFrau