Pecan Tassies

Christmas is almost here! I am so excited. But I am also sorry for missing the past two Fridays of the Christmas cookies. Things are crazy here, as they are everywhere I am sure. My first final is on Sunday (who knew they could be so evil as to put in on Sunday), then Tuesday and finally the 18th which is a Saturday. But as much as I am panicking over finals, everything Christmas is in my mind. 

Every Christmas I make up boxes of baked goods. I normally put in a variety to give options. This year these babies are going in for 'nut' segment of the box. If you do not like pecans/pecan pie, this is not for you. If you do, like I recently discover I do, love it then meet heaven. This recipe is great because you can really taste the pecans, more so than in pecan pie. And they actually don't take that long to make.

Pecan Tassies

Adapted from Martha Stewart
 

dough

1/2 cup pecans, toasted
1/2 cup (4 ounces) cream cheese
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of kosher salt

filling 

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 large egg
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350º. Process pecans in a food processor until finely ground (you should have about 1/3 cup); set aside. Beat the cream cheese and butter together. Add flour, ground pecans, and salt; mix just until dough comes together. Roll dough into twenty two (approximately) 1-inch balls, and press into bottoms and up sides of cups of mini-muffin tins.* Put approximately a teaspoon in the each muffin cup. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, butter, and salt in a small bowl. Stir in pecans. Spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons filling, basically until they are just filled, into each muffin cup. Bake pecan tassies until crust begins to turn golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely in tins on wire rack. Unmold. Pecan tassies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers up to 3 days.

* They pop right out of the tins surprisingly. I was worried they would stick but apparently not.