Maple Walnut Tassies

A twist on the traditional pecan version, these maple walnut tassies are little bites of texture paradise. Soft cream cheese cookie dough cradles a sweet maple-brown sugar walnut filling, and a snowy dusting of confectioners’ sugar is all the decoration they need to be ready for their holiday cookie tray debut. You won’t be able to stop at just one, so it’s a good thing the recipe makes 4 dozen!

One reader, Eileen, commented: “These are just fantastic!! I added the maple extract, and I’m so happy I did. It took it over the top. I love the perfect level of sweetness and the rich cream cheese and butter dough. It complements the filling so perfectly. I will definitely make these again! ★★★★★“

“But Sally,” you may be thinking, “I thought this was Sally’s COOKIE Palooza, and these look like mini pecan pies! Have you finally run out of cookie recipe ideas?” Good question, dear reader! So let’s begin with:

What Are Tassies?

The word “tassie,” I learn, comes from the Scottish slang for a small cup, which in turn originated from the French word for cup, tasse. Baked in a mini muffin pan, these cute cookie cups are made from a soft cream cheese cookie dough, and can hold really any filling you’d like, though pecan tassies seem to be the most common. I actually have a recipe for those in my book Sally’s Cookie Addiction, which is where I started from when developing this new recipe.

(And, for the record, I will never run out of cookie recipe ideas.)

Here’s Why You’ll Love Them:

• Soft, crispy, creamy, nutty, and sweet all in one
• Unlike making mini pies, there’s no rolling out pie dough, cutting circles, and re-rolling
• A dessert recipe that makes a lot!
• They freeze well so you can make them ahead
• So much texture and flavor in one cute little cup

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Start With the 5-Ingredient Dough

The dough is made from just 5 ingredients, and comes together easily in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, you could certainly use a mixer.

1. Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of this dough.
2. Sugar: There’s only 1/4 cup of sugar in the dough, as most of the sweetness in these cookies comes from the maple brown sugar filling.
3. Salt: Flavor enhancer.
4. Cream Cheese: Cream cheese makes the dough extra soft and creamy, which I love in so many cookie recipes, like apricot cream cheese thumbprints and cream cheese sugar cookies. Let the cream cheese soften to room temperature before you make the dough.
5. Butter: Make sure you’re using room-temperature butter so it combines easily and completely with the cream cheese. My cookbook version uses cold butter, and that’s fine too, but I found this version produces a softer dough cup.

The dough is similar to the dough I use for rugelach cookies, though that dough is flakier and crisp just like pie crust. Here the dough is soft and tender, almost like a lightly-sweetened cookie.

Place the ingredients in the bowl of your food processor and turn it on. Watch as everything combines into a soft and thick dough at the push of a button:

Divide the dough in half, and flatten each half into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (This is the same way I recommend preparing cut-out cookie dough in how to freeze cookie dough.)

How to Shape Tassies

Remove one chilled disc of dough from the refrigerator—one disc is enough for one 24-cup mini muffin pan.

Pinch off a piece of dough, about a scant Tablespoon, or 18g, in size. Roll into a ball and place in a greased mini muffin pan. Press your thumb down into the dough ball to create a deep indent, and shape the dough up the sides of the muffin cup, to create the shell.

Once you’ve shaped the dough cups, place the pan in the refrigerator to keep the dough cold while you make the filling.

TIP: If you have two mini muffin pans, you can go ahead and shape the second disc of dough into tassie shells, but if you only have one pan, leave the second dough disc in the refrigerator until after you’ve baked the first batch and your pan is available.

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Make the Maple Walnut Filling

The filling is as easy as the dough, and you need just a mixing bowl and a whisk to make it:

• Eggs: Eggs bind the ingredients together and set the filling.
• Brown Sugar: Molasses-spiked brown sugar is the main sweetener in these maple walnut tassies.
• Maple Syrup: You want that true maple flavor, so use pure maple syrup here, not “pancake syrup.”
• Melted Butter: Adds just a touch of richness, and flavor.
• Vanilla, Salt, & Cinnamon: Flavor-enhancing trio.
• Walnuts: Chop them pretty finely, so you can fit more nuts in each tiny tasse!

One addition I tested and really liked after I took the above photo, was a touch of maple extract. If you have it, go ahead and add some. You’ll love that extra maple flavor. You can find it in the baking aisle of most grocery stores, or online.

Whisk all the filling ingredients together. Easy peasy!

Remove the pan(s) of shaped tassie shells from the refrigerator. Use a teaspoon to spoon the filling into each cookie cup. The amount you can fit in each cup really depends on how deep you indent the dough, so you may have some filling leftover:

The maple walnut tassies bake in about 18–22 minutes. When you’re ready to serve them, dress them up with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar. This little snow flurry is optional, but makes for a sweet and beautiful finishing touch.

The crisp sugared edges, the soft and creamy dough, the crunchy nutty filling… they look so innocent, but they’ll probably be one of the most distractingly delicious cookies on the holiday cookie tray!

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