Nana's Little Kitchen Sugar Free Southern Pecan Tassies (LowCarb, S)

Southern Pecan Tassies

Ingredients

FOR CRUST:

3 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 scant cup THM baking blend, pack this VERY loosely *notes on subs

FOR THE FILLING:

1 egg
1/2 cup powdered xylitol ** See note on this sweetener
1/8-1/4 teaspoon Stevia (this will be very sweet as I am trying to stay as true to the original recipe as possible you may leave this out for a milder sweetness).
1 dash salt *very important to cut stevia flavor
1/2 teaspoon molasses - optional - adds 2 1/2 carbs to the whole recipe
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup broken pecans (divided out evenly among "tarts")
24 whole pecans halves (optional but good)

Instructions

FOR THE CRUST:

Blend the softened cream cheese and butter together well and then add 1 scant cup THM Baking Blend
Chill one hour (or so, I usually pop them into the freezer for a few minutes while I assemble the rest of the filling and chop the nuts).
Remove from the fridge and roll into 24 balls then press into the bottom and sides of mini muffin pans. **I have only made these with silicone baking pans and they come out easily when cooled.

FOR THE FILLING:

Beat together the egg and add the sweeteners, salt, molasses, and vanilla.
Add the nuts to this mixture.
Spray muffin pans very lightly(you don't want this to be damp) I have only used silicone mini muffin pans for this and I support it with a baking sheet.
Place a few pecans into each crust cup and cover with egg mixture. Bake at 325 degrees for 20-25 minutes or till filling is set. Cool and remove from pans. Makes 2 dozen.

Notes

*Note on sweetener-Xylitol is a THM low carb approved sweetener and is the only one that I was able to use in this recipe without getting a crispy, cold, texture in the filling. The addition of the stevia allowed me to use only 1/2 of the xylitol /sugar as specified for sugar in the original recipe.

* On measuring baking blend -I can't stress enough that it must be measured loosely. If you're not sure that you have accomplished that then just spoon it into the dry measuring cup and rake the flat edge of the knife across the top and then remove a tablespoon of the flour from the cup. Alternately - I generally spoon it in and rake across the top lightly with my finger and indent it slightly across the top to make sure I don't over do it. A little too much of this thirsty flour can become too much pretty quickly.

*If you'd like your tassie crusts to be fuller than shown in the pictures just double the filling ingredients. If you fill the cups all the way to the top they will occasionally puff up. They go back down as they cool but the crust will not be as smooth and pretty as when they don't rise up out of the pan.

*If you'd rather not purchase the THM baking blend online you can easily make this Quick Mix with ingredients you may already have on hand if you typically bake low carb treats.

*Alternately some people have had a lot of luck by replacing the baking blend with 1 part almond flour and 1 part coconut flour and 1 part ground golden flax seed. I have not tried this but this replacement is used a lot.

Recipe by Nana's Little Kitchen at https://www.nanaslittlekitchen.com/sugar-free-southern-pecan-tassies-lowcarb-s/