Pecan Tassies

I realize y'all are stuffed and can't even begin to think of food because Thanksgiving just passed along with all of it's leftovers.  BUT, Christmas is right around the corner and that means holiday parties, entertaining, and more yummy goodness!

A friend of mine about 2 years ago made this Pecan Tassies recipe as a dessert for her Thanksgiving get together and so she shared it with me.  These would be a perfect dessert for a holiday gathering as they are bite size and super easy to just grab and go!  

I've always been meaning to make these little morsels and Mike's friend from work gave me just the reason!  She gave me an entire back of organically grown pecans from Mt. Aukum!  So...I got to crackin with my hammer...I don't own an actual nut cracker, just the Christmas decoration variety seen below ;-)  

So...I made due with what I had and got out the hammer.  It is tedious work crackin nuts ;-) I spent about a half hour getting just a cup of pecans.  The work was definitely worth it because these pecans were so maple-y in flavor!

What you'll need:

4 oz. of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter, softened

1 cup of flour

1 egg

3/4 cup finely chopped pecans

3 squares of Bakers semi-sweet chocolate, melted

Beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium until well mixed.  Then add in the flour.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until chilled. 

Preheat the oven to 350.  Spray two 12 cup mini muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.  Then divide the dough into 24 balls.  Press the balls into the base of each cup and up the sides.  Set aside.  

Beat the egg in a small bowl.  Add the sugar and vanilla and mix.  Stir in the pecans.  Fill each cup with the mixture until 3/4 full.  

Bake for 25 min. or until lightly browned.  Let stand for 5 min. in the pan and remove to a wire rack.  Cool completely and then drizzle with melted chocolate.  (Recipe courtesy of Kraft Foods)

Before I got to crackin nuts, I should have made the pastry dough because there's some down time in chilling the dough.  Silly me for not reading the recipe ahead of time.  

And...the recipe is correct when it says to wait 5 minutes before removing from the pan.  I'm a little impatient and they aren't very pretty when you have to rip them out of their pan.  So do the waiting and it'll be much easier to remove. 

The little morsels are a perfect texture...the crumbly buttery and creamy pastry and the crunchy and gooey goodness of the brown sugar and pecans.  

Of course, chocolate always adds a nice touch!

 And like I always say...they'd be fabulous for breakfast with coffee!!