Heart Tarts

Happy Six-Days-After-Valentine's-Day! 

I actually did make these on Valentine's Day (or maybe the day after) (or maybe two days after. Hm) but they did not make it up here on time. Well, it's better late than never! Don't worry, no Valentine of mine missed out on desserts of love.

I love the crust; the cream cheese and butter mix well to make a tender, buttery, almost shortbread like crust. You can substitute any nuts you like for the walnuts, or you can use a different filling altogether. This filling reminds me of pecan pie without well, pecans. 

What makes this such a cute recipe is that it suggests baking these in heart-shaped muffins, and I have them on hand! It's always such a delight to find usable baking tools in my kitchen; it saves the time and money of going out and buying them. I actually found the heart tins before I found the recipe, so it was especially great when I came across this recipe. I haven't used them for anything else but this recipe. It's like they're meant to be.

This is a sweet gift for your own sweet one. You know how the saying goes: the best way to a person's heart is through his/her stomach. That's always the best way to my heart.

Heart Tarts

from: Taste of Home

yields 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:

1 egg
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

In a small bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until fluffy; beat in flour until blended. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle. 

Shape dough into eight balls; press onto the bottom and up the sides of greased heart-shaped or regular muffin cups. In a small bowl, beat egg. Beat in brown sugar and vanilla until blended. Stir in walnuts. Spoon into cups.

Bake at 325° for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before carefully removing from pan to a wire rack.