Pecan Tart Pies
Yields:________
Total Time:________
Recipe May Be Halved

Ingredients:

  • 8 Ounces of Cream Cheese
  • 1 Cup Butter
  • 2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
  • 2 Large Egg
  • 1 1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar
  • 2 Tablespoon Melted Butter
  • 2 Teaspoon Vanilla
  • 2 Pinches of Salt
  • 1 1/3 Cup Ground Pecans (divide in half)

Equipment:

  • Stand or Hand Mixer
  • Large Mixing Bowl
  • 4 Mini Muffin Pans
  • Cookie Sheets
  • Wooden Spoon
  • Oven
  • Refrigerator
  • Nitrile Exam Gloves (optional)

Pre-Preparation:

  1. Lay out all ingredients/equipment 15 minutes prior to cooking/baking.
  2. Please note: This recipe is moderately difficult. It demands a great deal of patience and time. Please do not attempt this recipe without planning to spend at least 2-3 hours in prep time. This is due in large part to the cheese pastry for the crust and the effort and patience it takes to get the dough pressed properly into the muffin tins.
  3. Please do not attempt to prepare this recipe without halving it and using only 2 muffin pans.This will only further aggravate and frustrate you. You TRULY need the FOUR mini-muffin pans.

Directions:

  1. To create the Cheese Pastry: let cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter soften to room temperature.
  2. Blend cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter together.
  3. Stir in flour until creamy.
  4. Chill dough for 1 hour.
  5. After chilling, shape dough into 2 dozen 1 inch balls.
  6. Then, press dough against bottom and sides of pans. Note: To make things easier on yourself , you might want to consider using a pair of Nitrile Exam Gloves to form the pastry dough with your fingers as the separation you get between the dough and your fingers keeps the dough from being as hard to form with your bare fingers.
  7. For your pie filling, beat together egg, brown sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, vanilla and salt.
  8. Set aside.
  9. Sprinkle half of the nuts in pastry cups.
  10. Add filling mixture, top with other half of nuts. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes.
  11. Cool. Makes 4-5 dozen individual pies.