12 Days of Baking ~ Day 10

Today's recipe is my new one for the year!  Every Christmas I try to find at least one new recipe to try.  This one caught my eye for a couple reasons.  One is that when I was a kid, I never tried most things with nuts.  My mom and grandma would both make pecan tassies, and I never even tried one.  I assumed I didn't like nuts.  Then I hit my teens, and my way of rebelling was to love nuts.  It's a long, dumb story...but I decided I was going to be someone who loved nuts so I wouldn't be like someone else.  Well, I didn't even need to pretend, because it turns out I really do love nuts!  So this year I decided to try my hand at some pecan tassies.  But I have to add sugar upon sugar, so I changed a toffee-pecan tassie recipe into a chocolate-toffee-pecan tassie.  They are so, so yummy.  They are like little 2-bite chocolate pecan pies, but with the great addition of a sweet toffee aftertaste.  You really gotta try these!

Chocolate-Toffee-Pecan Tassies

1 (15 oz.) pkg. refrigerated pie crust
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 TBSP flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 (8 oz.) pkg. toffee bits
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Unroll pie crusts.  Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut out 48 circles, rerolling dough as needed.  Fit circles into mini muffin pans, pressing dough into bottoms and up sides.

In a large bowl, combine melted butter, eggs, brown sugar, flour and vanilla.  Stir in pecans, toffee bits and chocolate chips.  Spoon filling evenly into crusts, coming just to top of crust edge.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until filling is set and crust is lightly browned.  Remove from oven and gently run a knife around any edges that are baked onto the pan.  Let cool for 5 minutes, then carefully remove tassies to a cooling rack.  (They should pop out pretty easily with a knife inserted along one side.)  Cool completely on wire rack.  I'm assuming these would freeze nicely, but I haven't tried yet.  YUM!!