Description
These two-bite maple walnut tassies are made up of tender cream cheese cookie dough and a gooey-sweet filling. A dusting of confectioners’ sugar on top makes for a sweet finishing touch. You can make the dough for the crust ahead of time, and assemble the tassies in advance as well. See Make Ahead Instructions.
Ingredients
Dough
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces (226g) full-fat brick-style cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Filling
- 2 large eggs (cold is fine)
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (60ml) pure maple syrup
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/4 cups (150g) finely chopped walnuts
- optional: 1/2 teaspoon maple extract
- optional for garnish: confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Make the dough: Place the flour, granulated sugar, and salt in the bowl of your food processor. Pulse a couple times to blend. Add the butter and cream cheese. Pulse until the dough comes together. **If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a mixer for this step. Mix the dry ingredients together, and then beat in the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until the dough comes together.
- Divide the dough in half (each half weighs about 430g each, or a little less than a pound). Use your hand to flatten each half into a disc, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and up to 3 days.
- After the dough has chilled, lightly grease two 24-count mini muffin pans (I use nonstick spray). If you only have 1 mini muffin pan, you can bake these in batches.
- Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator (one disc is enough for one 24-count pan). Tear off a scant Tablespoon of dough, about 18g. Roll into a ball, then place in one of the mini muffin cups. Repeat with remaining dough to fill all the muffin cups in the pan. Use your thumb to press down in the center of each dough ball to make a large, deep indent. Place the pan in the refrigerator, and repeat with second disc of dough and second mini muffin pan (or if you only have 1 pan, wait to do this until the 1st batch is done baking). Keep the dough in the refrigerator while you make the filling.
- Make the filling: In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, maple syrup, melted butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt together until combined. Fold in the chopped walnuts, and maple extract (if using).
- Preheat oven to 375°F (191°C). Remove both pans of tassie shells from the refrigerator. Use a teaspoon to spoon the filling into each of the tassie shells. You may have a little filling leftover.
- Bake the maple walnut tassies for 18–22 minutes, or until the shell edges are lightly browned and the filling looks set. Let the tassies cool in the pan for 10–20 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. I use a spoon to help remove the warm cookie cups from the pan.
- Once cooled and just before serving, use a sieve to lightly dust the tassies with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
- Cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the dough ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 day, or freeze for up to 3 months. If using frozen dough, thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using. You can also prepare the maple walnut tassies through step 6 and keep them in the refrigerator for up to 1 day before baking them. Baked tassies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator and, if desired, bring to room temperature before garnishing with confectioners’ sugar and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor | Mini Muffin Pan or this one | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack | Fine Mesh Sieve
- Can I Replace the Walnuts with Pecans? Yes, absolutely! You can swap out the walnuts for the same amount of very chopped pecans. Pecan tassies are the original and most common variety of this cookie.
- Can I Make These Nut-Free? I don’t recommend it, as nuts are the main ingredient in the filling. I haven’t tried the filling with oats, though they could be a fine substitute. For best results, I recommend a different cookie such as peppermint snowballs, shortbread, or brown sugar stamped cookies.
- Maple Extract: A touch of maple extract adds exceptional flavor. If you have it, go ahead and add some. You can find it in the baking aisle of most grocery stores, or online.
- Halve the Recipe: You can halve the recipe by halving all of the ingredients in the dough and the filling. Yield is 22-24.
- Can I Make These Without a Mini Muffin Pan? You need a mini muffin pan to hold the shape of the tassies. Unfortunately, you can’t make/shape them without it. The filling is too thin/liquid to use as the filling for a thumbprint-like cookie on a baking sheet. A regular 12-count muffin pan is simply too large, and these would be pretty big. However, you can certainly try it and extend the bake time to about 28-30 minutes.
Keywords: maple walnut tassies