Mother's Cheese Cakes (Christmas)

A Christmas cookie tin standby from the cream cheese pastry era. Despite the name, these aren’t cheesecakes in the modern sense. They’re miniature tartlets built on a tender cream cheese-butter crust and filled with two choices: one nutty, one tropical.

The cream cheese pastry is the real hero. Equal parts butter and cream cheese folded into flour creates a crust that’s both flaky and tender, closer to rugelach dough than traditional pie crust. It presses easily into mini muffin tins without the need to roll or chill excessively.

Filling #1 is essentially a pecan pie in miniature. Brown sugar, one egg, butter, chopped pecans, and vanilla blend into a rich, gooey center that sets into a chewy filling. Filling #2 leans coconut with shredded coconut, white sugar, egg, butter, and vanilla for a sweeter, more delicate tartlet.

Having both on the holiday tray is the point. Guests get to pick their favorite, or take one of each. They store beautifully between wax paper in a tin for up to two weeks, making them perfect for baking ahead during the chaotic December cookie-exchange season.

Pro Tips

• Press the pastry only about ⅛ inch thick into the muffin cups. Too thick and the filling-to-crust ratio goes wrong.
• Don’t overfill. A full teaspoon of filling per tartlet is plenty; overfilled tarts boil over and stick.
• Run a paring knife around each tartlet the moment they come out of the oven to keep them from gluing themselves to the tin as they cool.

Variations

• Stir a handful of chocolate chips into the pecan filling for a turtle-style tart.
• Add ¼ teaspoon almond extract to the coconut filling for a macaroon note.
• Swap pecans for walnuts or a mix with hazelnuts.