Nectarine Pecan Cookie Tarts Recipes

Steps:

• In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy; blend in flour and salt. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Shape into 1-in. balls; press onto the bottom and up the sides of greased mini-muffin cups. , For filling, in a small bowl, beat the egg. Add brown sugar, butter and vanilla; mix well. Stir in pecans. Spoon into tart shells. , Bake at 325° for 25-30 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before carefully removing from pans. Garnish with maraschino cherries if desired.

Steps:

• To Make Pastry: Cream butter or margarine and cream cheese. Add flour and mix well. Make into 48 balls; place one ball in each cup of a mini tart pan. Use your fingers or a tart tamper to press out into a tart shell.
• To Make Filling: Break the eggs, but do not beat. Add sugar, melted butter, salt, vanilla and pecans. Mix well. Fill the tart shells. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for about 30 minutes or until delicately browned.

Steps:

• Blend flour, salt and 2 tablespoons sugar in a bowl or food processor. Dice 8 tablespoons of the butter. Use a pastry blender or two knives to blend flour mixture and butter, or pulse them together in a food processor to make a crumbly mixture. Beat the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons cold water. Dribble it over the flour mixture, then stir or pulse slowly until the mixture starts clumping together. A bit more water may be necessary. Gather dough in a loose ball and form into a disk on a lightly floured surface.
• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out dough and line a 10-inch loose-bottom tart pan. Line pastry with a sheet of foil and spread pastry weights or dry beans on top. Bake 12 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter, cooking it on low until it turns a light nut brown. Pit fruit (except figs) and cut in eighths or, if fruit is small, fourths. After 12 minutes, remove foil and weights from pastry. Return pastry to oven and continue baking until it is lightly browned, another 8 to 10 minutes. Remove pastry from oven and increase temperature to 400 degrees.
• Brush pastry with preserves. Arrange fruit in tight concentric circles, starting by placing it around the perimeter, skin side down, against the vertical sides of the pastry and standing it up as much as possible. Brush with melted butter. Dust with remaining sugar. Bake about 35 to 40 minutes, until edges have browned but fruit has not collapsed. Cool before serving with crème fraîche.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Peel the nectarines and cut into slices. Toss with the lemon juice and a few pinches of sugar if the fruit is not too sweet. If the fruit is sweet and fresh skip the sugar. Set aside.
• Cream the sugar and butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and eggs and beat until combined.
• Spoon batter into a 10 inch pie pan (it will look like there is not enough batter but there is). Place the nectarine slices on top of the batter packing them in tightly. Sprinkle lightly with lemon juice and some sugar, depending on the sweetness of the fruit.
• Bake 50 to 60 minutes until golden brown. Cool. Refrigerate if desired. Sprinkle a bit of powdered sugar on top if desired.