Grandma Johns’ Pecan Tarts

Grandma Johns was in her ‘60s when I first met her in 1976 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Her husband was about 10 years older. They often took care of my son, then an infant, and became like grandparents to him. The Johns were Armenians who had fled Turkey and the Armenian genocide of 1915. Grandma Johns was also a prodigious baker. This was what I considered her best recipe -- one that I always make during the holiday season. And my 4 year old granddaughter loves to help make the tarts.  (I don’t think there is anything Armenian about it.) This recipe make 24 tarts.

For the Pastry

3 ounces cream cheese (at room temperature)

1/4 pound butter, unsalted (at room temperature)

1 cup flour (a little more if needed)

2 muffin tins, each with 12 cups, each approximately 2 inches in diameter

•  Cream the butter and cheese until smooth.
• Add flour.
• Stir into a ball and knead a little to make it smooth.
• Grease muffin tins with soft butter.
• Divide dough into 24 pieces (about 1 round tablespoon each). Note: I take the dough and divide it in half. Then, I sub-divide each half into thirds (giving me 12 pieces) and halve each of these pieces (to reach 24).
• Roll each piece of dough into a small ball and put one in each cup of the muffin tins.
• With your thumb, press dough into the bottom and then up the sides of each cup, making a small shell which comes just over the rim.

Tart filling

1 cup pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

1 cup (light) brown sugar, firmly packed. (The brown raw sugar -- Sucre brut -- in Europe is not a substitute for the light brown sugar used in North America. It results in tarts with a different texture.)

2 tablespoons of soft butter

1 egg, at room temperature, slightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered Sugar. (Sucre glaceé in Europe.)

24 unglazed paper tartlet cups - size for petit fours

• Cream butter.
• Add sugar.
• Add egg and mix well.
• Then add the vanilla and nuts and mix well.
• Spoon into shells. (Do not over-fill shells or mixture will bubble over and make it hard to remove tarts from tin.)
• Bake in 375 degrees F oven until crust is lightly browned, 12-15 minutes. 
•  Cool in tins about 5 minutes. 
• Then scoop out carefully and transfer each tart to the paper cup.  
• Sprinkle generously with powdered sugar.