Miniature Pecan Or Walnut Tarts

You Will Love These Miniature Pecan Or Walnut Tarts!  

These are like miniature pecan pies.  The filling of these cookies is so delicious, and the crust is the best; it’s a rich cream cheese and butter crust.  These  little tarts are nice to use when you are creating your own assortment of cookies for a dessert platter.

 This recipe makes 24 miniature pecan or walnut tarts.

for the dough:

• 3 ounces very cold Philadelphia cream cheese
• 1/2 cup(1 stick) very cold unsalted butter
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• pinch kosher salt
• pinch granulated sugar

for the filling:

• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the filling ingredients by hand in a medium mixing bowl; set aside. 

Make dough in bowl of food processor using the metal blade.  Put the flour, salt, and sugar in bowl and pulse one or two times.  Then cut cold butter and cream cheese into tablespoon size pieces and distribute over the flour mixture in food processor.  Pulse until comes together as a ball.  Flatten a little bit to make a round disk, cover with waxed paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Take out 2 miniature muffin tins.  Break off 24 small pieces of  dough.  Take each piece of dough and place them into the muffin tins.  Then, use your thumb or forefinger to press each piece of dough so that you make a crust that lines the bottom and sides of each muffin space. Use about a teaspoon to fill each crust with the filling.  Use up all of the filling. 

Bake about 30 minutes until crust is browned.  Cool on wire racks.  Serve or freeze in ziploc bags.