In honor of National Cookie Day, we are sharing some of my Mom and Nana’s favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas cookie recipes today. This next one up is the absolutely decadent Pecan Lassies. Talk about bite-size morsels of heaven in your mouth! I have to tell you right now, the picture doesn’t do them justice. In order to really appreciate these little treats, you need the ones warm out of the oven with little bits of that brown sugar, buttery goodness oozing down the outside of the crust to truly appreciate these little guys!
These are – hands down – my absolute favorite cookies of the holiday season. They have several different names as well – pecan tassies, crunch cups, pecan tarts – doesn’t matter what you call them, they are just as delicious and made relatively the same.
Mom’s Pecan Lassies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 6 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 and 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups chopped pecans
- Two mini muffin pans
Directions
- Combine 1 cup of butter and cream cheese in a bowl with mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add flour gradually (great time to get the kids or grandkids involved) beating on low speed until well blended. Shape mixture into 48 little balls and place on a baking sheet. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease the mini-muffin pans. (I use a cooking spray) Press the chilled dough ball into each cup with your thumb and then spread out and up to form a shell for the ingredients.
- Wisk the brown sugar, eggs, 2 tablespoons butter, vanilla extract, and salt together in a bowl. Stir in 1 and 1/4 cup of the pecans and then spoon into the little shells you just made. Top with remaining pecans.
- Bake in the preheated oven approximately 12 to 15 minutes – the edges of your shell should be a light brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow the pans to cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes. Once cooled, GENTLY remove the lassies from the pan and allow them to cool completely for about 20 more minutes.
- Keep stored in an air tight container – if they last that long!
I plan on doing some baking this weekend, and these little guys are definitely on the list of treats to make. I just hope that I do my Mom and Nana proud. I’m sure they will both be looking down from heaven, over my shoulder, waiting with a handful of flour to toss at me if I do something wrong!
Happy baking,
