Sweet Southern Pecan Tassies are a favorite Southern cookie, especially during the season of Christmas, boasting creamy centers brimming with nuts inside melt in your mouth cream cheese cookies!

So, What Are Pecan Tassies Anyway?

It is thought that Pecan Tassies are an adaptation of the French-American recipe for Pecan Pie. Despite not being from a southern state by birth, I have ALWAYS known of these addictive two-bite cookies.

I call them a cookie because I bake them along with cookies. Maybe this is because I have been baking from the pages of Southern Living Magazine since I was ten. Well, that and I watched Martha Stewart include them in her cookie gifts on an early episode of Martha Stewart Living in the 1980s. And, just like the previous season, I always ask myself why I do not assemble them more often than at Christmastime. After all, they are simple to make and yield 24 SCRUMPTIOUS miniature bites.

This holiday season, I thought it best to finally answer the questions I receive about the kind of baking I do. I received yet another inquiry last week and so decided to (roughly!) video my six or seven or eight recipes that will make up the better part of my gift tins.

I am planning one dozen gift tins this year, so a few less than in previous years. The work is not any less daunting, so I tend to select recipes that are straightforward to assemble, are NOT multi-step, are very pleasing visually, and TASTE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Hey guys, I just turned 50 in November, so I have to pick and choose my cookie battles carefully!

What I Include In My Cookie Gifting Tins At The Holidays

This year, my bottom layer will consist of Date & Nut Loaf, Christmas Bread, and my Pecan Dessert Bites. The top layer will be traditional Christmas cookies, Pecan Tassies, Church Street Cheesecake Squares, and Fudgy Pecan Bourbon Balls.

I order tins directly from Amazon (like these) because they arrive quickly and there is ample selection without breaking my wallet. I have included a few of the designs I have purchased for this year as well as tins I have purchased in the past.

The best is a tin storage unit that arrives with a dozen holiday-themed empty tins that are THE PERFECT SIZE for gifting. I include a poem thoughtfully written inside each card instructing the receiver to return the tin to my front porch once the cookies are eaten, so that this Elf (me :-)) can happily refill it for them again next year. Then, I easily store them in that handy storage unit. Whoever came up with this is genius.

Why Tins For Food Gifting Over Boxes?

If you are like me, you receive LOTS of cookies and sweets. Tins keep them from going stale too quickly. Boxes are no more than cardboard which ultimately, is paper. Paper absorbs. I have tried boxes. I find boxes absorb the moisture from the baked goods and leave me with stale products in fewer than a day or two. After spending all of that money in ingredients and time in the kitchen, no boxes for me. I want to bake the best bars and cookies and nut tassies, and have them be delicious by the time my receiver digs in.

How Long Will Pecan Tassies Keep?

I absolutely know I have to answer these questions, but I am snickering to myself. WHY?? Because these will not last long enough to have these questions even come up! Think I am kidding? Picture this; each tiny cup of a mini muffin pan is lined with a soft dough made with cream cheese and unsalted butter and a dusting of all purpose flour. Then, each little cup is filled with a filling that can only be described as ‘Heavenly.’ Light brown sugar, eggs, chopped pecans, a dash of vanilla extract are baked off for just around 20 minutes.

I like to sample one or five while they are still warm, the filling pooling out after a take a first bite. Lawdy! Trust me, there is a WHOLE LOTTA LOVE baked inside each and ever one of those lil muffin cups. Oh, and to answer the questions…no refrigeration and they will keep for up to two weeks in a tin with a snug-fitting lid. You may even freeze tassies for up to one month.

How Do You Make Pecan Tassies?

Gather a couple of mini muffin tins, soften some cream cheese and unsalted butter to room temperature, and bring it home with some deliciously sweet chopped pecans. I like to measure one cup pecans because I over-stuff my tassies, but 2/3 of a cup is all that is required. Now, I went looking for pecans at three local groceries last week. I was shocked, SERIOUSLY SHOCKED, to find that shelves were bare of pecans. I should not have been surprised, as many shelves here in the Palmetto State are void of product due to folks laying low and self quarantining again. Shutdowns in other places are definitely affecting availability.

If you cannot find pecans, or if you can only find the super expensive and tiny “baker bags,” do this: 1/3 cup pecans and 1/3 cup walnuts. Whirl them up in the Cuisinart and do not think another thing about it. Walnuts are the most similar in buttery texture to pecans. And combined with every other lux ingredient in these little guys, nobody but YOU will be the wiser. I know, I never said these were low in calories. Hey, it’s the Holidays…

Despite not being from a southern state by birth, I have ALWAYS known about Pecan Tassies, an addictive lil two-bite holiday cookie.

This pecan tassie recipe yields 24 tiny ‘nut cups.’ They are super rich and loaded with sweet and nostalgic ‘tastes of home.’ You will find many a recipe for pecan tassies or pecan cups as the folks here in Carolina refer to them, all over the internet. All are similar in ingredient and in assembly except for one step in the method. For the best pecan tassies, do you fill the cups with nuts separate from the brown sugar filling, or mix the nuts into the filling before spooning it into the cups?

The answer is to make your nut cups based on what kind of time you have to get ALL of your baking done. In my above video for easy pecan tassies, I demonstrate the former and traditional method, which is filling the nuts and the filling separately. The result are heavily textured pecan tassie cookies. If you prefer a smooth top, mix the nuts directly into the filling and spoon individually. This step also cuts way back on the time for this recipe for tassies. And by the way…either method TASTES EXACTLY THE SAME.

All images and text ©Jenny DeRemer for Not Entirely Average, LLC

On the left, a smooth tassie; mix the chopped nuts directly into the filling and spoon into the muffin cups. On the right, a textured tassie; fill the muffin cups half way with chopped nuts, spoon some filling in over the nuts, then more nuts on top. Both methods taste exactly the same, it is only the final visual product that looks different.