Brown Sugar and Walnut Mini Tarts

The mini walnut tarts are on a cutting board

5 from 36 votes

Brown Sugar and Walnut Mini Tarts

Sweet, crunchy, and buttery, these Mini Walnut Tarts are made with only a few ingredients you probably already have! These cookies are a staple over the holidays and perfect to add to a cookie tin!

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: Cookies

Calories: 136kcal

Author: Lynn Polito

Equipment

Stand Mixer

Ingredients

3 ounces Cream Cheese Full Fat, room temperature
½ cup Butter Room Temperature
1 cup All Purpose Flour

For the Filling

1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1 large Egg
1 cup Walnuts Chopped
2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment add the butter and cream cheese. Cream together for 1 minute until well combined.
Lower the speed and add the flour to the bowl. Mix on low speed until combined, about 2 minutes. At first the dough will look crumbly, but then it will come together.
In a medium bowl, add the brown sugar, egg, chopped walnuts, and vanilla. Mix well with a spoon until fully combined.
Roll the dough into balls and place each ball into a mini muffin pan spot. Press the dough ball into each of the muffin tin cups, evenly spreading out the dough on each cups. Make sure to get the dough up the sides of each of the mini muffin cups.
Add a small spoonful of the walnut mixture into each of the mini muffin molds.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the mini tarts are slightly browned. Check after 20 minutes to ensure the tarts are baking evenly. Remove the tarts from the mini muffin tin as soon as they get out of the oven. This will prevent tarts from sticking to the pan.

Notes

Pecans can be substituted for walnuts in this recipe.
Make sure the dough goes all the way up the sides of the muffin tin cups.
Do not overfill the muffin cups with the filling. If the filling is overfilled in the cups, it will spill over onto the muffin tin and stick to the pan.
If you are concerned about the cookies sticking, add mini cupcake cups to the muffin tins and press the dough into the muffin cups.
It's easiest to take the tarts out of the pan as soon as they come out of the oven. The longer they sit in the muffin tin and the cooler the sugar gets, the more likely it will stick to the pan.

Nutrition