The title of the post from the other day meant this:

Our new workstation is in the basement (family room) and when I look up, this is what I see. The lights on our tree outside…they look like colorful stars.

Anyway, this post is about the Christmas Cookie Exchange party I’m going to at a friend’s house this afternoon. My mom and I (mostly my mom) would bake cookies every year at Christmastime while my brothers and my dad would go hunting. It was something I looked forward to every year, especially having my brother out of my hair. :)

One of my favorite Christmas Cookies are Walnut Tarts. I wasn’t so fond of them as a child but as an adult, I really dig these. So here is my step by step recipe (my mom’s, actually). We both agree that this recipe really does not make 6 1/2 dozen. More like 5 to 5 1/2.

WALNUT TARTS

Ingredients:

SHELL:

1 – 8 oz. pkg. of cream cheese
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of flour

*Beat the above together.

The crazy baker’s tip: Let the cream cheese and butter sit out for a bit just to get to about room temp. It’s easier to beat them. Then, slowly add in the flour so the mixture makes more of a dough rather than pieces. If that happens, then just dip your hands in (after the mixer is off of course) and squish it all together. That’s what baking is all about, gettin’ dirty.

FILLING:

1-1/2 cups of brown sugar
2 tblsp. of vanilla
4 tblsp. of butter (1/2 a stick)
2 eggs
2 cups of crushed walnuts (you can BUY it like this to save time!)

*First, melt the brown sugar (I have used light brown sugar), vanilla and butter in a medium sized pan.

Then, turn off the heat and put in one of the eggs. Mix that in with a fork or your spoon. Then, put the other egg in and do the same. You don’t want scrambled eggs in your filling so just make sure it’s not so hot in there and you get it mixed in pretty good.

Last, stir in the 2 cups of walnuts. The crushed walnuts come in a 2 1/2 lb. bag, so you can save the other half cup and eat them later. Walnuts are GOOD.

Here are the tools you’ll need:

*Get yourself two mini muffin pans.

*A medium size mixing bowl with high sides (because if you’re like me when you’re using a mixer, your kitchen gets decorated with dough)

The crazy baker’s tip:

Use a tart press. This is a little wooden gadget. Mine is from the Pampered Chef. I also found one on Ebay for my mom. They run right around $4.95 or something. You don’t need to spend more than that because it’s not really something you’ll use that often. Although, it is a nice chew toy for a baby. It’s made pressing the shells into a cup shape a breeze. Although, after a while, I end up just pressing them out with my fingers. The dough is pretty greasy, so it doesn’t stick to your fingers so much.

So, shape your dough into your mini tart pans. I do two at once, that’s TWO DOZEN down in 16-18 minutes! Right on.

Like I said before, we really think this recipe only makes 5 to 5 1/2 dozen, so you should have enough dough to make another two pans, MAYBE another half pan.

The crazy baker’s tip: I generally put enough dough into the tart pans so that it’s not “transparent” to the pan. That makes for a very thin tart and will break before you put it into your mouth and if you’re at a party and you have cookie falling all over the place, you look like a dud. So, when I am finished making all of my shells, I usually go back through and put “patches” of dough where I can see pan.

Put your filling into your shells. I drop the filling into each shell, only filling them just about half full. They will rise up. The best part of the cookie, I think, is when the filling goes just a little above the shell. That crispy bite is the best. Be careful though, because when the filling comes up over the shell, it can make the tart stick to the pan when you’re trying to get them out for cooling. You have to be a master Walnut Tart maker, like me, for that not to happen.

Bake for 16-18 minutes at 350 degrees. The tart shells will be a nice golden brown and look sort of like a chicken nugget, or so Hailey thinks.

The crazy baker’s tip: Now, when you’re tarts are ready to come out of the oven, I generally let them sit for a few minutes to cool down, then, if you place a cooling rack over the tart pan and flip it upside down, the tarts should come right out. If they don’t, you’re screwed. Just kidding! Just give them a slight “twist” or use a tiny paring knife and they should slide right out when the pan is tipped over.

Voila. There are your Walnut Tarts! Hope you enjoyed this recipe and you enjoy the tarts more. This cookie will go down in history with my daughter, as it has with me because of my mom, as one of the best “cookies” at Christmastime.

*PS: this is what the “colorful stars” look like when your cat bumps into your elbow while trying to take a picture: