Cherry Tassies Recipes

Steps:

• In a small bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add enough water until dough forms a ball. Refrigerate for 30 minutes., Preheat oven to 450°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut out eight 5-in. circles. Place each over an inverted custard cup on an ungreased 15x10x1-in. baking pan; flute edges. , Bake 10-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before removing tart shells from custard cups; cool completely on wire racks., For filling, in a large saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Drain cherries, reserving 1 cup juice. Set cherries aside. Stir reserved juice into sugar mixture until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in cherries, butter, almond extract and food coloring if desired. Cool to room temperature. Spoon about 1/4 cup filling into each tart shell.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 24 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.
• In medium bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed. On low speed, beat in flour and salt until dough forms.
• Shape dough into 24 (1 1/4-inch) balls. Press in bottoms and up sides of muffin cups. Fill each cup with about 2 teaspoons chocolate chips. Top each with a cherry.
• Bake 13 to 16 minutes or until edges of cups are golden brown. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from muffin cups to cooling rack; cool completely.

Steps:

• In a small bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth; gradually beat in flour. Refrigerate, covered, 1 hour or until firm enough to roll., Preheat oven to 375°. Shape dough into 1-in. balls; press evenly onto bottoms and up sides of greased mini muffin cups., For filling, in a small bowl, mix egg, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and salt until blended. Stir in 1/3 cup pecans; spoon into pastries. Sprinkle with remaining pecans., Bake 15-20 minutes or until edges are golden and filling is puffed. Cool in pans 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool. Freeze option: Freeze cooled cookies, layered between waxed paper, in freezer containers. To use, thaw in covered containers.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make the dough: Process pecans in a food processor until finely ground (you should have about 1/2 cup); set aside. Put mascarpone or cream cheese and butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until well blended. Add flour, ground pecans, and salt; mix just until dough comes together. Alternatively, stir together ingredients with a wooden spoon in a large bowl.
• Roll dough into eighteen 1-inch balls, and press into bottoms and up sides of cups of mini-muffin tins.
• Make the filling: Whisk the egg, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, butter, and salt in a small bowl. Stir in pecans. Spoon about 1 1/2 teaspoons filling into each muffin cup.
• Bake pecan tassies until crust begins to turn golden, about 20-22 minutes. Let cool completely in tins on wire rack. Unmold. Pecan tassies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers up to 3 days.