Sunday, July 31, 2011

[recipe] Mini Pecan Tarts

Crust
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 1 cup flour

Filling
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cup pecan, finely crushed


Serving: 24 mini-muffin sized tarts


Directions:
- Combine crust ingredients: cream cheese and butter first, then sift in the flour
- Once the dough is formed, cover in plastic-wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour
- While dough is chilling, prepare filling by combining all ingredients: Beat egg and vanilla together slightly, and then combine in all sugar, and then add in pecan. Adjust to taste as needed.
- To assemble pies, spray mini-muffin pan with non-stick spray. Divide dough into 24 balls. Press each ball flat into 3-inch circles, and push into each mini-muffin cup (no liner). Then spoon filling into each cup. Filling will expand so fill just below full.
- Bake 25 min at 350F or until golden brown
- Cool on wired rack


Serve: Warm or room temperature
Store: Cold or Room temperature


Variation:
- Can decorate with powdered sugar, or drizzled melted chocolate
- Probably also great with cool whip or ice cream
- Also works great with graham cracker crust
- Original recipe called for packed brown sugar, but since I ran out I added in granulated cane sugar, and it was just fine
- Add freshly ground nutmeg to the filling for a little extra kick

Notes:
- To combine ingredients, can just use spoon in mixing bowls
- Salted butter was fine. Took butter from fridge and just slices into thin pieces to make it easy to combine.
- Leave cream cheese at room temperature for 15 min to make it easier to combine.
- To flatten dough, it's fastest to just press dough flat in your palm. No need to form exact circles. 
- I toasted the pecans before I crushed it. Not sure if that helped but certainly didn't hurt.