Light Pecan Tassies in Cream Cheese Pastry

Submitted by CookbookCarrie

"This is From Cooking Light November 2000 issue and they are fabulous, the best part, only 77 calories each!!!"

 

• Ready In: 40mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 24

ingredients

• Pastry dough

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 dash salt
• 1⁄4 cup low-fat cream cheese, softened (2 oz)
• 2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons margarine, softened
• 2 tablespoons skim milk
• cooking spray

• Filling

• 1⁄3 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1⁄2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1⁄3 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. To prepare Pastry: Combine flour, 1 Tbsp sugar, dash of salt in a small bowl. Combine cream cheese, butter and milk in large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended.
3. Add flour mixture; beat at low speed until just blended and crumbly.
4. Press into a ball. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead lightly 3 to 4 times.
5. Divide dough into 24 portions, Place 1 portion in each of 24 mini muffin cups coated with the cooking spray.
6. Using your fingers, press dough into bottom and up sides of cups.
7. To prepare filling: divide pecans evenly among muffin cups.
8. Combine brown sugar and remaining ingredients in a small bowl; spoon about 2 teaspoons filling over pecans in each muffin cup.
9. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned and filling is puffy.
10. Cool in cups for 10 minutes on a wire rack.
11. Run a knife around the outside edge of each cup and remove them from the pan, allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Reviews

[Chris from Kansas]

Wow! These are really great. A perfect treat for pecan pie lovers like me that don't want to feel all the guilt. They don't seem quite as sweet as pecan pie, which I like. They take some time to make, but are worth the effort. I think they will become a regular part of my holiday baking. Thanks for sharing!

 

[truebrit]

Carrie, these are really tasty, and so pretty! (see pic.) I was careful not to overfill the muffin cups with the filling, as I didn't want them to overflow and stick to the cups. They turned out great, and I didn't even need to grease the muffin cups beforehand. They slid out easily. (I use Baker's Best muffin cups, and I rarely need to grease them.) I left them in the oven for 20 minutes, but I think that 18 minutes would have been sufficient. I'll probably bske more of these to give away at Christmas. Thanks for posting the recipe!