“A friend taught me how to make these when I was in university.  They are a perfect little bite-sized tarts – and are now a Christmas holiday tradition.”

INGREDIENTS

• DOUGH (1.5 x in brackets – see note)
• 1/2 pound butter (3/4 pound or 1.5 cups)
• 6 ounces cream cheese (1 250-gram package)
• 2 cups flour (3 cups)

Note: a package of cream cheese in Canada is 250 grams. Six ounces is 170 grams.  So scale up the recipe by 1.5 times for entire package.

• FILLING
• 1,5 cups brown sugar (2.25 cups)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted (3 T)
• 2 eggs (3)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (1.5 t)
• 3/4 cups pecans, chopped fine (1.5)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until well blended.
3. Beat in flour, 1 cup at a time, until the mixture forms a smooth dough.
4. Roll into small balls, and press into the bottoms and sides of tart pans or mini muffin pans.
5. In another bowl, mix together the brown sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla.
6. Add 1/2 teaspoon pecans to bottom of tart shells. Fill each of the crusts 2/3 full with the filling mixture.
7. Bake for 20-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until shell is light brown, and the filling has puffed up.
8. Cool, and carefully remove from pan.

FREEZING

You can make these ahead for the holidays and they freeze well. Place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.

Yield: 30 tassies