An excellent variation on classic nut tassies with cranberries. These wonderful fall tarts are baked to gorgeous perfection in a tiny muffin pan. Perfect for cookie trays and celebrations.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Total Time: | 45 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 24 tarts |
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cranberries
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together the butter and cream cheese. Mix in the flour until well blended. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- While the dough chills, make the filling. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar, melted butter and vanilla. Stir in the cranberries and walnuts.
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Roll the dough into 1 inch balls. Press the balls into the cups of mini muffin pans so that the dough covers the bottom and sides. Fill each one with a generous teaspoon of the filling.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges of the tarts are lightly browned.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 106 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 11 g |
| Cholesterol | 23 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 46 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 6 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Took quite a bit longer to bake than noted in the original recipe; I ended up with a total oven time of about an hour. It was delicious and not too sweet, which is maybe not so great for others, but I loved it. Will make again.
I used dried cranberries instead of fresh. The dough is a little sticky to work with, but I kept chilling it in between batches. My only complaint would probably be that the recipe as is only makes 12 in my muffin pan! Update on 6/11/16: made it using the dough recipe from Brandy’s Blackberry Cobbler on this site… It was just right, flaky and a little salty to set off the sweetness of the filling.
I formed the pastry into a ball and placed in the refrigerator to chill. For the filling, I finely chopped 1/3 cup of cranberries and 1/3 cup of pecans in my food processor. Since I used unsalted butter, I added ½ teaspoon of salt. I also added ¼ t. of pure orange extract and 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. I removed the dough from the refrigerator and cut it into halves. I placed one half onto a floured pastry cloth and replaced the other half in the refrigerator. I rolled the pastry and cut with a 2 ½” cutter, laid the cut rounds of dough on top of each lightly sprayed, mini muffin cup and used a tart tamper to form the shells. I filled each shell about 3/4 full. Recipes makes a tasty and festive addition to a holiday cookie tray!
I doubled the recipe to use an eight ounce package of cream cheese, this yielded 33 tarts that baked in 25 minutes. I used chocolate chips for the nuts because I needed it to be nut free. Next time I would not double the filling as I had quite a bit left. They were very tasty! Next time spray top of pan with Pam for easier removal and clean up.
These are lovely on a buffet table and very tasty. I too added a little more cranberries and nuts. Next time I will try some orange zest as some suggested. Thanks for the recipe.
Easy and delicious!
I made these with the addtional nuts and cranberries. also addes the orange zest…very good. but I think I needed to bake them a little longer due to having a hard time getting them out of the pan. They were nice n brown ,did run over so had a hard time telling if they were done. so next time I will bake a little longer . still are very good ……
these are wonderful!! my first dozen had too much dough, but the second batch were perfect. I used dried cranberries and pecans….loved them.
These were very tasty, but I really didn’t taste the cranberry. The next time I’d maybe cut back on the amount of nuts and add more cranberries.
After reading through the reviews, I decided to follow Marie C’s advice. I had to bake them a little longer (33 minutes). They were good, but I think they’re missing a little something. I’ll be making them again, but will probably add a little grated orange rind!
They seemed quite similar to an English recipe, the Bakewell tart. Quite good, the pastry with cheese is somewhat interesting. The filling is a bit drier than expected. My kids liked them but didn’t jump out of their skin.
This was awesome!! I had to give my family the recipe it was so good. I also increased the cranberries to 1/2c and the walnuts to 4T. It is also good with pecans.
Made this for my in laws for the first thanksgiving i cooked and they loved these as appiteizers.
mmmm yummy!easy, pretty, and tasty! I make cookies every year for christmas gifts and these were a big hit!
I find the usual tassies a little bland so I also increased the cranberries to 1/2c and pecans to 4T (and was eating the filling with a spoon it was so good), and I would’ve been happier with even more of both. This is a good cookie and a nice change from the usual tassie.
I found this near same recipe a few years back. As I recall the woman who submitted it won a rather substantial amount in a baking contest. The difference is she had no butter in her filling, used pecans and 1/3 cup cranberries. This is one of our favorite Christmas cookies.
These are sooooo good!!! Made them for a baby shower and everybody LOVED them. Will definately make again.