Lemon Tassies

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We saw my husband's Mom and my Mom this past weekend. We are fortunate because we do see both Moms frequently. I wanted to make my Mom and my husband's Mom a special treat. I knew they liked lemon desserts so I decided to make Lemon Tassies cookies.

Sometimes when I make a lemon dessert, they are too sweet or too sour. I think these were the right combination. The other nice thing about these cookies are they transport easily. I even stacked them and it didn't affect the filling. Next time, I may use the left over egg whites to make meringue to top the cookies. This recipe will make about 12 medium size cookies or 24 mini cookies. I actually made 18 cookies.

Lemon Tassies
Crust:
2 cups all purpose flour
10 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup and 2 Tbsp sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp lemon zest, finely grated
1/2 tsp salt
cooking spray
Filling (recipe below)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Coat 1 muffin tins with cooking spray.
3. In a food processor, process the flour and butter until fine crumbs.
4. Add the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt.
5. Process until just combined and sandy in texture. Do not over process.
6. With the dough, form 12 balls.
7. Place each ball into the muffin tin and press the dough into the tin to make a cup.
8. Bake the crusts for about 8 minutes and then rotate the pan.
9. Bake the crust for another 8 minutes or until lightly browned all over.
10. Remove the crusts from the muffin tins and allow to cool onto a wire rack.

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp lemon zest, finely grated
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract together until smooth.
2. Fill each cooled crust with the cream cheese filling.
3. Place the cookies onto a cookie sheet.
4. Bake the cookies for 6 minutes and rotate the pan.
5. Bake the cookies for another 6 minutes or until the edges of the filling begin to color.
6. Transfer the cookies onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies.

Did you already know....
-Tassies are little cups with a filling.
-Tassies should be bite size.
-Other fillings for a tassie are pecan, peanut butter, caramel, etc.