Pecan Tassies

Rhonda Little

Christmas in July usually means great sales and running around in the dead of summer buying things that you hide away and pull out when you don’t want to go shopping during the dead of winter. Around the Foodie Corner, Christmas in July means taking a wintry dessert like Pecan Pie, and turning it into a delicious morsel that’s perfect for a summer picnic…Pecan Tassies. The recipe for these handy, dandy pecan “pielets” was submitted by our friend from Texas, Rhonda Little, from her blog, rodalena. They are yummy one- or two-bite treats that you can pop into your mouth; they offer up a little pecan filling with each bite. Rhonda advises doubling the recipe, because they’re that good. Yup, Christmas in July!

Pecan Tassies

In a glass mixing bowl, cream the following:

1/2c. softened oleo (Rhonda: “That’s butter, you Yankees. Not, I repeat, not, margarine!”)
3 oz. softened cream cheese.

Add a little at a time:
1c. all-purpose unbleached flour

(You want a soft dough to form.) Cover dough and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350. Spray a non-stick mini-muffin pan with cooking spray. Shape dough into one-inch balls and place one ball into each cup. Take a pestle, a tart shaper, or your fingers, dipped in flour, and form dough into shells. Keep that flour on standby–the dough is sticky.

Filling:

In a mixing bowl, combine the following:

2 Tbsp. melted butter
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans plus 1/4c. for topping

Carefully spoon filling ingredients and the one cup of pecans into tart shells. Toss a few of the extra pecan pieces onto the tops. Do not overfill! Bake 20-25 minutes, until shells are golden brown.

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