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!
What Are Tassies?
(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
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.
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.
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!
. 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!
Maple Walnut Tassies Recipe
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 You’ll Need
Instructions
- 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.
- 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
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. 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. See recipe Note.
Yes. You can halve the recipe by halving all of the ingredients in the dough and the filling.
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