Overall this is a keeper of a recipe. However I had to make some adjustments as I went along. First make sure that the eggs that you use are large or extra-large otherwise you will have to use a little water to make the pastry the right consistency to pat into the mini muffin pan. Also I added a pinch of salt to both the pastry dough and the filling. It's kind of cumbersome to work with one pan as I did...if I make this recipe again which I probably will I will invest in another muffin tin that way I can bake the shells all at the same temperature and then lower the temp for the filling. Otherwise this is a very nice recipe to fill in your holiday cookie tray!
Wonderful - big hit!! Don't forget to have some halved pecans on hand for the tops - the list of ingredients leaves this out. I add a pinch of salt and decrease the almond extract to 1/2 tsp - the almond flavor is a bit overpowering. Note that the recipe says to decrease the temperature when baking with the filling - it's easy to overlook that instruction. Also it helps to separate the dough before shaping it (makes exactly 24 shells). I have made these several times and I now cut the filling ingredients in half because I end up with so much left over (tastes great warmed over vanilla ice cream though!). A very pretty way to serve them is to place them on a large white platter and arrange blueberries and whole strawberries with the stems around them. Thanks for the recipe!
I thought these were quite alot of work for the outcome. I liked the tarts but you really have to stay on top of these. I only cooked the shells for 5 minutes (dot of brown in center) or they were compeletely burnt after the second bake. Once I got the cook time down they turned out great.
These tarts were great! My whole family and my church loved them! I lined the muffin tins with tiny muffin cups to make it less messy and they turned out fine. Great recipe and a very attractive dessert!
My first time with pecan tarts. I should have realized when mixing the crust that the crust is more cookie-like than pie-crust-like. My crust was a little hard probably due to over-baking. As mentioned by another reviewer the ingredient list does not list 'pecan halves'. Fortunately I had a bunch of pecans in the freezer and was able to select enough presentable halves. I used a twenty-four section mini-muffin pan and felt that my crust was a bit thick in places in the bottom. Had the crust been thinner I would have had many more than twenty-four. I had at least half the filling left so...? The taste of the crust and filling was very good. For those who try this recipe as first-timers just be aware of the quantities/ratio of crust and filling.
I didn't realize that this recipe was for the mini muffin cup pan and since I had some regular sized frozen tart shells in my freezer I used them instead and just followed the rest of the recipe from the filling on. However I made a mistake and filled them without baking the shells first and ended up having to bake the filled tarts for 25 minutes. Not that it was such a bad thing in fact we liked them even better they turned out really chewy like candy and the filling baked into the pastry part and gave the crust a really nice taste.(they were a little difficult to get out of the aluminum shell though because they bubbled slightly over the edge - had to use a fork - so I wouldn't make them like this for company) I will try these again but bake the pastry part first to see the difference. It made 7 regular sized tarts.
Very easy to make and very delicous!! I had leftover tart shells prior to making this so I only made the filling. End result tasted like the store bought brand!!! Maybe better! I found that if you're just going to make the filling then to fill the tart shells almost to the top and then cover with pecans. So if you have 6 tart shells make enough filling for 12. I also found I had to put these in the fridge afterwards so that the filling would solidify a bit more. I don't know if others found this a problem and maybe I didn't leave it in the oven long enough. But overall takes two minutes to prepare!! Very convenient dessert:)
I'm made three batches of these for Christmas this year and they were the best. I added them to my neighbors and friends Christmas baskets and was asked for the recipe. I didn't change anything in the recipe. Will make again and not just for Christmas.
I followed the recipe to a "T" when making the crusts but the dough was FAR too dry. I added a a tablespoon more margarine but the end result was crumbly tart crusts- they were TOO crumbly. I loved the filling! I will search the site for another suggestion for the shells though.
