Don't we all just love lil tassies, those perfect little bites of pie-ish heaven? I made these Petite Macaroon Cups with Almonds around the holidays last year and wanted to try another variety this year. This recipe came from a site called TheBakingPan. While I was making these my friend Martha came to visit, she helped me take some of the pictures and assisted in taste testing the final product. Five or six tassies later ( we had to make absolutely sure we LOVED them) we were in agreement, these are amazing! I'll be making them for Thanksgiving dinner at Martha's house this year. This recipe is the perfect combination of pumpkin and warm spices paired with the pecans to make your mouth do a happy dance. My husband actually preferred these to Pecan Tassies, he said they weren't as sweet to him. Just like Pecan Tassies are a little taste of a gooey crunchy pecan pie, these tassies are a taste of a pumpkin pie with pecans on top. They are delightful! Let's get started with the recipe.
Cream Cheese pastry
I think every tassie recipe I've made has begun with a cream cheese pastry, this one is no exception. The pastry only has 4 ingredients, flour, salt, cream cheese and butter. The cream cheese and butter need to be at room temperature. Room temperature doesn't mean ..ready to melt. It should still keep it's shape if you put your finger in it.
Slice up your butter and cream cheese and put them into a medium size bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer like a Kitchen Aid. Beat until well blended.
This is what it looks like blended,
The next step is to add the flour and salt to the blended butter and cream cheese. Mix the flour in till it's just incorporated.
Take your dough out of the bowl and onto a clean surface.
Shape the dough into a 6 inch disk, it doesn't have to be perfect.
Wrap it in plastic wrap (unless you forgot to get plastic wrap, if so, a plastic bag works just fine) and put it in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours. My dough was refrigerated for 1 hour.
After an hour I took the dough out of the refrigerator and made 24 dough balls. They were not all perfectly uniform little dough balls, I did my best to make them all the same size. I put them into 2 ungreased mini muffin tins.
If you have a better way to do this let me know, I just stuck my finger into the dough ball and pushed the dough up the sides of the mini muffin tins.
Place plastic wrap over the mini muffin tins and refrigerate while you make the filling.
Pumpkin Filling
I measured out all my pumpkin filling ingredients.
Put all your pumpkin filling ingredients in a medium size bowl and WHISK them together.
Do not over mix and do not use an electric mixer, it will put to many air bubbles in the batter. Set the filling aside for now Time to work on the Pecan topping.
Pecan Topping
I used my fingers to mix everything together , even though there's a little melted butter in the ingredients it's not a wet mixture.
Fill your pastry crusts 2/3 full with your pumpkin filling. The filling will puff up during baking. A 2 cup measuring cup will hold all your pumpkin filling and make filling the crusts very easy and mess free.
Evenly distribute the pecan topping onto the tassies. Bake tassies at 325 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans midway through baking to ensure even browning. Remove from the oven and let cool 5 minutes. Take a butter knife and gently go around the edges of each tassie to loosen any sticky gooey stuff, it makes it easier to remove the tassies from the tins when they cool.
Out of 24 of these little gems, at the end of the day one lil tassie stood alone on it's dish..... ONE. To say we all liked these is an understatement. ENJOY!
God bless you and yours!
Pumpkin Pecan Tassies
TheBakingPan
In a medium mixing bowl, using an electric stand mixer or hand mixer, add butter and cream cheese; mix together on medium speed until smooth and thoroughly blended. Use a rubber spatula to scrap down the side of the bowl as needed. Add the flour and salt, mixing just until combined.
Pat pastry into a 6 inch disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 to 2 hours.
Remove chilled pastry from the refrigerator and divide into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place in an ungreased mini muffin pan. Press the pastry against the bottom and up the sides of each cup to form the Tassie shells. Tip: Using one 24-cup or two 12-cup mini muffin pans is ideal. If you have only one smaller pan, keep the extra pastry in the refrigerator until ready to use.
Cover filled pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate Tassie shells until firm, at least 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Filling:
In a large mixing bowl, add the brown sugar, pumpkin, melted butter, egg, whipping cream, rum, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Use a wire whisk and whisk together just until smooth. Tip: Do not over-mix, and do not use an electric mixer as this will create too many air bubbles in the filling. Set aside.
Topping:
In a small bowl, combine chopped pecans, brown sugar, and melted butter. Set aside.
Remove the pastry filled muffin pans from the refrigerator. Pour the filling in each cup, filling only about two-thirds full. Don’t over-fill as the filling puffs up while baking. Tip: to make filling the cups less messy, use a liquid measuring cup with a spout to pour the filling. Sprinkle the pecan topping on top of the filling in each cup.
Bake:
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown around the edges. Rotate the pans from front to back toward the end of the baking time so the Tassies brown evenly. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes. Run the tip of a small sharp paring knife around the edges of the muffin cups to loosen the Tassies. When Tassies are cool enough to handle remove from the muffin pan and place on wire cooling rack to let cool.
