Cherry Tassies Recipes

CHERRY-TOPPED CHOCOLATE TASSIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
• In medium bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed. On low speed, beat in flour and salt until dough forms.
• Shape dough into 24 (1 1/4-inch) balls. Press in bottoms and up sides of muffin cups. Fill each cup with about 2 teaspoons chocolate chips. Top each with a cherry.
• Bake 13 to 16 minutes or until edges of cups are golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from muffin cups to cooling rack; cool completely.

CHERRY TARTS

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add enough water until dough forms a ball. Refrigerate for 30 minutes., Preheat oven to 450°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut out eight 5-in. circles. Place each over an inverted custard cup on an ungreased 15x10x1-in. baking pan; flute edges. , Bake 10-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before removing tart shells from custard cups; cool completely on wire racks., For filling, in a large saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Drain cherries, reserving 1 cup juice. Set cherries aside. Stir reserved juice into sugar mixture until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in cherries, butter, almond extract and food coloring if desired. Cool to room temperature. Spoon about 1/4 cup filling into each tart shell.

PECAN TASSIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In small bowl, with mixer at high speed, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup butter until creamy.
• Reduce speed to low, add flour and granulated sugar and beat until well mixed.
• Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.
• In medium bowl mix brown sugar, vanilla, salt, egg, pecans and remaining 1 tablespoon or butter until filling is blended.
• With floured hands, divide dough into 24 equal pieces (dough will be very soft).
• With floured fingertips, gently press dough pieces evenly onto bottoms and up sides of twenty-four 1 3/4" by 3/4 to 1" ungreased miniature muffin-pan cups.
• I make hundreds of these cookies every Christmas so I use a wooden tart tamper to form the shells.
• Spoon a heaping pecan filling into each cup.
• Bake 30 minutes or until filling is set and edges of crust are golden.
• With tip of knife, gently loosen tassies from muffin-pan cups and place on wire rack to cool completely.
• Store tassies in tightly covered container up to 1 week.

GRANDMA'S PECAN TASSIES

Steps:

• Combine 1 cup butter and cream cheese in a bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add flour gradually, beating at low speed. Shape mixture into 48 balls and place on a baking sheet. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease the cups of a mini-muffin pan. Press 1 chilled dough ball into each cup and shape into a tart shell.
• Whisk brown sugar, eggs, 2 tablespoons butter, vanilla extract, and salt together in a bowl. Stir in 1 1/4 cups pecans. Spoon mixture into tart shells. Top with the remaining pecans.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges of cookie shell are delicately brown, 12 to 15 minutes.
• Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Gently remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks, about 20 minutes.