Basically these are little cups of goodness. The cups themselves are super easy to make, and then you can fill them with pretty much whatever you want. These could even be – gasp – savory but this is not the place to go for that sort of instruction.
Below I have the instructions for making the tarts and then multiple ways you can fill it, but feel free to experiment and let me know what you come up with! But make sure to read this recipe through once before you start so you’re sure you know how you want to proceed.
One thing – for this you’ll need a tool…something to push the dough down with. Here’s a picture of what I have (it’s basically the pestle from a mortar and pestle set, but you can use anything of a similar shape to push the dough down).
Ingredients
Tarts
· ½ cup butter, softened to room temperature
· 3 oz. of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
· 1 cup flour, plus a tablespoon or more additional for dipping
Pecan Filling
· 1 t melted butter
· ¾ cup brown sugar
· 1 egg
· 2 t vanilla
· ½ cup chopped pecans
Lemon Curd
· 1 jar, lemon curd
Ok, seriously, this last one feels like cheating but it’s not. I LOVE the flavor of lemons, and you can just buy curd at most grocery stores. You don’t have to use lemon, you can look at the choices and pick what you want…or pick more than one. The key here is that these have to be cooked differently than the pecan tarts above.
Directions
Ok, on to the baking. Mix the butter and cream cheese, then add the flour and mix that in as well. Roll into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and chill this overnight.
Go do something – get out of the damn kitchen. Read a book, go to the movies…go to a bar. Got to a movie that serves alcohol and kill two birds with one stone. There’s a bunch of those here in San Francisco now and I love them.
The next day, after the dough is fully chilled and your hangover is a little less pounding, place a walnut size lump of dough into a mini cupcake pan. Dip the tool (the pestle) into the extra flour (the tablespoon or two above) and push down, turning slightly. This pressed the dough down and it will go up the sides, making a little cup.
For the pecan filling, mix everything except the pecans together until they’re well blended, then stir in the pecans. 
Fill each tart about ¾ full. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 250 and leave them in there for another 30 minutes, until the edges start to brown. Cool them in the mini cupcake pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to completely cool.
For the lemon curd, once again, put the dough into the mini cupcake pan and use the tool to make little cups. So far, the same. This time, though, bake them at 350 for 20 – 25 minutes, cool them in the pan for about 10 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to completely cool.
I do not know the details of why the cooking process is different, but it is and it works. Do. Not. Question. My. Grandmother.
As you can see from the photos, I made both the pecan and the lemon versions. If you want to do this, you should double the dough recipe because the dough recipe covers enough cups or the pecan mixture, or enough cups for one jar (12.7 oz – I used Bonne Maman) of lemon curd.
Also, like I said, you really can put anything in these. One final option is to bake the tarts empty, and then put filling in them afterwards. To bake them as just shells, put the dough into the mini cupcake pan and use the tool to make little cups and bake the shells at 378 for about 10 -15 minutes or until they start getting brown. Cool them in the pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to completely cool.
Once they’re cooled you can fill them with stuff like:
· Chocolate pudding and then top with whipped cream
· Vanilla pudding mixed with fruit (or without, but the fruit – chopped seedless grapes, apricot pieces, banana pieces, peach pieces, orange pieces, etc. make the whole thing more interesting and, frankly, kinda fancy).
· Jell-O (again, with or without fruits, but again fruit is more interesting and honestly not that hard to do)
· Your choice?????
Ugly Desserts 
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