Easy Pecan Tassies Recipe with Cream Cheese Crust for Holiday Cookie Trays

These pecan tassies are mini pecan pie bites with a buttery cream cheese crust and a gooey brown sugar filling, baked in a mini muffin tin. They take about 1 hour including chill time, make 24 tassies, and the dough can be made a day ahead.

Pecan tassies are basically tiny pecan pies, minus the fuss of rolling out a full crust. If you love pecan pie but dread dealing with a pie plate, these are the answer.

The crust is a simple cream cheese pastry that presses right into the muffin cups with your fingers, no rolling pin needed. It bakes up buttery and a little flaky, almost like a shortbread cup for the gooey pecan filling.

They’re a cookie tray staple for a reason. If you’re building out a holiday spread, my classic pecan pie is the full-size version of this same flavor.

Why You’ll Love These Pecan Tassies

• Mini pecan pie flavor with no pie crust rolling
• Buttery cream cheese pastry shell
• Make-ahead friendly, dough chills a day in advance
• Perfect bite-size for cookie trays and parties
• Freezer-friendly once baked

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 7 tbsp (100g) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 oz (85g) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour

For the filling:

• 3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup (85g) pecans, finely chopped
• 24 pecan halves, for topping

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Cream cheese: Use block-style, not the tub kind, and let it come fully to room temperature. Cold cream cheese won’t blend smoothly into the butter and leaves streaky, hard-to-press dough.
• Butter: Room temperature is important here too. If the dough still feels sticky to press into the cups, dust your fingers with a little flour rather than adding more flour to the dough.
• Brown sugar: Dark brown sugar gives a deeper, more caramel-like filling than light brown. Either works, it’s a matter of preference.

How to Make Pecan Tassies

Step 1: Make the Dough

Beat the softened butter and cream cheese together until creamy and fully combined. Mix in the flour on low speed just until it comes together into a soft dough. Shape it into a disk, wrap it, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to a day.

Step 2: Shape the Shells

Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Spray a mini muffin tin well with cooking spray, don’t skip this, the sugar filling sticks to bare metal. Divide the chilled dough into 24 equal pieces and press each one into a cup, covering the bottom and coming up the sides. If the dough starts sticking to your fingers, dust them lightly with flour.

Step 3: Mix the Filling

Whisk the brown sugar, egg, melted butter, vanilla and salt together until smooth.

Step 4: Fill the Shells

Put a scant teaspoon of the chopped pecans into each shell, then top with about a teaspoon of the filling. Fill them only to about two-thirds full. The filling puffs up as it bakes, and an overfilled shell spills over and bakes onto the pan, which is a pain to clean.

Step 5: Top and Bake

Press a pecan half onto the top of each tassie. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling looks set with just a little give in the very center, it firms up more as it cools.

Step 6: Cool Completely Before Removing

Let the tassies cool in the pan completely, at least 20 minutes, before running a small knife around the edges and lifting them out. Pulling them out warm is the main reason shells crack or stick, the crust needs to firm back up first.

Tips for the Best Pecan Tassies

• Grease the pan well even if it’s nonstick, the sugar filling is sticky and will grab onto bare spots.
• Room temperature butter and cream cheese make the dough far easier to press into the cups.
• Make the dough the day before so it’s one less thing to do on baking day.

Add These Pecan Tassies to Your Cookie Tray

These little tassies disappear fast at a party, they’re the kind of thing people come back for seconds of before they even realize they ate the first one.

They also freeze beautifully once baked, so you can make a batch weeks ahead and just thaw them the morning of.

If you bake a batch, leave a star rating and tell me how yours turned out.

For more mini holiday treats you will love:

• Classic Pecan Pie
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Caramel Cheesecake for Two
• Salted Caramel Cheesecake
• Cranberry Walnut Bread
• Lemon Cinnamon Rolls