Pecan Tassies Recipe (small batch) - Dessert for Two (2024)

Published: Apr 25, 2012 · Modified: Aug 18, 2019 by Christina Lane · This post may contain affiliate links · 35 Comments

Pecan tassies are cream cheese cookie dough cups stuffed with chewy, sweet pecan centers. They taste just like a mini bite of pecan pie--heavenly! One of my favoriteholiday cookies!

This is normally the time of year when I try to score good deals on plane tickets home for Christmas and Thanksgiving. You would think that buying this early in advance would be cheaper, and it is, but only slightly. However, I’m just a few weeks away from moving within driving distance of my family. Hallelujah!, no more flying home for the holidays. I’m so ecstatic, I can't stop thinking about it.

All that thinking about the holidays made me crave the pecan pie my Dad bakes every Thanksgiving and Christmas. I hope this doesn’t embarrass him, but my Dad can bake one helluva pie.

Pecan tassies are Southern delights:

Instead of baking a whole pecanpie, I made pecan tassies. If you’ve never had a tassie, it’s a cookie cup with a custard filling. It tastes like a bite of pecan pieencased in a rich cream cheese dough.

Pecan tassies are a classic Southern cookie to bake around the holidays, but what do you do when you crave them in April? Do you make an entire batchof 4 dozen cookies? No way, we make ascaled down version that only makes 8 cookies.

Pecan tassies recipe, step by step:

In case you've never made tassies, I did a little step-by-step of how to get a ball of dough into a cup shape.

After chilling your dough, divide it into 8 balls

Then, using your thumb, press the dough down into the cup and press the dough up the sides of your mini muffin pan. Please note that we're using a mini muffin pan, not a full-size regular muffin pan, ok?

You just made tassie cups! Now, pour in your pecan custard mixture, bake 20 minutes, and enjoy!

Yield: 8 cookies

Pecan Tassies

Ingredients

For the dough:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (plus extra for pan)
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup flour

For the custard filling:

1 large egg
1 tablespoon melted butter
⅓ cup brown sugar
¼ teaspoon whiskey (or vanilla)
⅓ cup chopped, toasted pecans

Instructions

First, make the dough: combine with an electric mixer the softened butter and cream cheese. Add the flour and beat until incorporated. It might not come together into a dough just yet; use your hands to clump it together into a ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, grease 8 cups in a mini muffin pan with the extra butter, and preheat the oven to 350.
Divide the dough into 8 equal-sized balls, then press the dough in the cups, as shown above.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, melted butter, brown sugar, whiskey and pecans. Divide this mixture evenly among the dough cups.
Bake for 20 minutes. The pecan filling with puff up and rise above the edges of the dough. Yummy!

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

More Christmas

Lemon Ricotta Cookies
Flourless Cookies Recipe
Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Buddy the Elf Hat Rice Krispies Treats

Reader Interactions

Comments

Jessica says
May 28, 2012 at 10:33 am
Just finished making these and they're pretty awesome! The perfect 4 bite treat. I actually quadrupled the recipe and made 21 tassies in a regular-sized muffin pan. I also recommend more pecans, you can never go wrong with more nuts ;)
Reply
Amber says
November 14, 2017 at 8:55 pm
Perfect! My husband doesn't love nuts, let alone an entire pie full of them, so this rendition of a perfect pecan pie made bite size is just what I need! I wait all year to bake a pecan pie only to have a slice or two & not a bite more for another 364 days. AGONY! It looks like I'll be indulging my pecan pie loving sweet tooth a bit more often! Thank you, as always, for yet another fabulous dessert! <3
Reply
julie says
December 11, 2017 at 7:56 am
I have pampered chef Mimi muffin pan... it specifically came with a wooden contraption that has a wide flat end on one side and a smaller flat and on the other side and it's used 2 press dough into the muffin cups if you look on the Pampered Chef website maybe they sell the wooden-handled thing by itself
Reply

« Older Comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.