Do you know what a “tassie” is? It’s a cookie baked in a small muffin tin that looks like a miniature pie! There are fruit tassies, cheesecake tassies, and in this show, caramel tassies. Watch as Patti and Arlene make these, along with other delicious treats like coconut balls and Patti’s famous “Russian torte.”
Caramel Tassies
These cup cookies are filled with rich caramel.
Ingredients
- 6 oz cream cheese, softened (3/4 of a package)
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups butter
- 1 lb soft caramel candies
- 1/2 cup evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 2/3 cup WARMED evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix together cream cheese, butter and flour until a dough forms. Roll into about 60 balls. Place 1 ball into each cup of a greased mini tassie (muffin) pan. Spread the dough to cover the cup to form shell. Chill pans for 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake shells in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan, then carefully remove cups and let continue to cool until filling is ready.
- In a double boiler or in the microwave, combine caramels and 1/2 cup evaporated milk and heat and stir until melted. Fill shells with caramel mixture. In a bowl, combine butter, Crisco, vanilla, and sugar. Cream well and add warmed milk. Blend thoroughly into an icing. Frost tops of tassies and sprinkle pecan chips on top. Makes 5 dozen. Enjoy!
Russian Torte Bar Cookies
This jam-filled bar cookie has a delicious meringue topping.
Ingredients
- 3 cups ground walnuts
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 package active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
- 1 1/2 cups butter
- 4 cups flour
- 4 eggs, separated into whites and yolks
- 1/4 cup milk
- 3 jars apricot filling (10 oz each)
- 3/4 cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 1/2 sheet cake size pan with sides. Set aside.
- In a bowl, combine ground nuts, 1 cup sugar, and cinnamon and mix together. Set aside.
- Dissolve dry yeast in 1 /4 cup warm water. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and flour until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add 4 egg yolks, 1/4 cup milk and yeast. Mix well and knead on floured board until smooth. Divide dough into 3 balls.
- Roll out first portion of dough large enough to fit prepared pan. Line pan with dough. Cover dough with nut filling (reserve 1 /2 cup for top) evenly. Roll second portion of dough out and place over the nut layer in pan. Spread apricot filling evenly over the dough. Repeat with third dough ball and place over apricot layer. Trim edges to even out.
- Bake in preheated oven for approximately 30 minutes. While baking, prepare meringue by beating 4 egg whites with a mixer until stiff. Add 3/4 cup sugar gradually and beat until very stiff, but do not over-beat or else it will turn grainy.
- After torte has baked for 30 minutes, remove from oven and spread meringue over baked crust. Sprinkle with reserved 1 /2 cup nut filling and return to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes. Remove from oven to cooling rack. Cut into serving pieces IMMEDIATELY, while warm. Cookies will not cut cleanly if they are allowed to cool. Makes 7 to 8 dozen pieces. Enjoy!
Coconut Almond Balls
These chocolate-covered treats taste just like Almond Joy candy bars!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 lb powdered sugar
- 1 package cream cheese (8oz)
- 3 cups flaked coconut
- 1 cup whole almonds
- 1 lb chocolate disks for melting and dipping
Instructions
- With a mixer, cream butter and sugar in bowl. Add cream cheese and coconut and continue to mix well. Shape into balls about 3/4 inch in diameter or the size you want. Place an almond in the center and reroll to completely cover almond.
- Melt chocolate disks either over a double boiler or in the microwave. Dip coconut balls into chocolate. Place on waxed paper to set, or place in mini-cupcake papers. Makes about S dozen. Enjoy!
Transcript
- ♪ Make yourself at home ♪ ♪ Enjoy the time we share ♪ ♪ With a dash of this ♪ ♪ And a pinch of that ♪ ♪ Mixed all up with care ♪ ♪ The best company and conversation ♪ ♪ Recipes and recreations ♪ ♪ We’re cooking up something good ♪ ♪ Here at home ♪ ♪ We are cooking up something good ♪ ♪ Here at home ♪
- Well hello, and welcome to “At Home.” We are so glad to see you. We’re so glad for a lot of reasons, because this is the first program we’re back in the studio, in our studio kitchen, because we wrapped up the production of pastor Greg, and now the whole studio’s kind of back to what we’re normally have it. And we’re glad because we’re beginning our Christmas programs. I don’t know about you, but already in my mind I’m thinking, “What cookies, what cookies, what,” well today, we’re gonna give you some hints on some cookies, and one of my favorite cookie bakers is Patty, who works here on the program with us, but she also has her own cookie and baking business. She was here last year, and you enjoyed her cookies, and she’s back again this year. She’s making a Russian Torte. Wait till you see this, and some other goodies. I tell you, this is the time to get those things done so you’re not swamped closer to the holiday. First of all, you wanna make sure that you get your baking supplies in, because it’s amazing, if you have them on your shelf, get the nuts, get the extra chocolate chips, make sure you have the flour, the brown sugar, the powdered sugar, the butter, the things that you need, the vanilla, check the vanilla, check the baking soda, and the baking powder, because they go stale very quickly. Especially the baking powder, there’s a date on the bottom of the can. So if you want good things to happen when you’re baking, get your supplies, have them in your pantry, then some evening, when like, dinner dishes are over, and the kids are kind of calmed down, or they’re someplace else with some friends, you might have an opportunity to go in there and grab some ingredients, and put together a batch of cookies. The end of the program, we’re gonna tell you how to prepare them to freeze, because these cookies all freeze very, very well. And you wanna make sure you have a good supply of plastic wrap, of wax paper, and some nice containers. Start looking for some containers that seal really well around the edges, okay. So if you get all that preparation done, then it’s not so much like, “Oh my goodness, what am I, you know, I have to go and run here, and run here,” you don’t wanna do that, okay. Most of all, keep the spirit of Christmas in your heart, because that’s what this is all about, Jesus’ birthday. We’ll be right back in just a minute, first, here’s today’s “At Home” hint. Here’s today’s “At Home” hint. Store flour in a clean, tightly covered container for up to one year at room temperature. Store sugar in a tightly covered container for up to two years. If you’ve got a helpful hint, we’d like to hear from you. Send your hint to “At Home” hints, Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania, 15148-1499. Well, to get us started with our Christmas baking is my friend Patty, she is such a dear. I’m so glad you’re here.
- I’m glad to be here-
- When you start with the cookies, then I know it’s Christmas, because she cooks and bakes at her for Christmas like, from when, from what date to when? Christmas-
- No, it’s usually the first week in December till the 20th, 21st, something like that.
- I mean day and night. I have been there when we have filled, how many Lady Locks? Pans and pans, but we’re not even gonna give you her phone number, because she’s already booked full, so. But she’s gonna share some of the recipes, which is great. Your Russian Torte, we’re gonna get to in a minute. But I asked you to make, last year she made Caramel Tassies. These were so good, so delicate, so tasty. Okay, talk us through it real quick here, what we did.
- Okay. They’re very easy to make. What you do, is you take six ounces of cream cheese, and 1 1/2 cups of butter, and two cups of flour. You mix that in a mixer, and mix the dough. And then you roll it into balls, and I grease mine, you don’t have to, but I always grease-
- They come out easier.
- They come out really nice. So I grease it, and then you’re supposed to chill it.
- Well you use this little thing, and when you make the ball, then you just dip in flour, and you do this, and that comes right off instead of sitting there doing this. I used to do this when I-
- It takes four hours.
- I hated to make them for that reason.
- So then you bake them for how long?
- You bake them about 10, 15-
- 10-
- So they’re slightly brown.
- And, this is what you get. Don’t they look great? Very, they’re like pastry, they’re very fragile. Just browned, and now you’re gonna make the caramel filling.
- Right. And all you do with the caramel is, I like to blocks of caramel which is, then you don’t have the mess peeling all those little ones out.
- Yeah, but you could use like-
- You could use-
- Of caramels, right?
- Right, you can use them. It’s just easier buying the blocks.
- Sure, okay.
- And what I did was I melted the caramel down with a half a cup of the evaporated milk.
- Evaporated-
- And you have to cook it over very low heat, otherwise it will scorch on you. So it takes-
- Almost looks like gravy.
- Yeah. Yeah it does. It takes a while. But it’s better to cook it-
- Slow, yeah.
- And long, then for it to-
- It’ll burn, won’t it?
- Yeah, it’ll burn real easy.
- Okay, and then once you get it melted…
- Okay.
- You fill your little cups-
- You mean right out of that? Oh, okay.
- [Patty] And you just take teaspoons, and you fill your cups.
- [Arlene] Okay, now is that gonna fill all these, this much, one pound?
- [Patty] Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.
- You wanna start on the icing, and I’ll start filling these cups?
- Sure, sure.
- Okay. Because there’s an icing that goes on top of these.
- And then, for the icing it’s really simple. All you do is take a stick of butter. Half cup of-
- Is that room temperature butter? It’s not cold, right?
- Yeah, room temperature-
- The butter, okay.
- [Patty] Half cup of shortening. Get a spatula here. Half cup of shortening.
- Shortening and butter, okay.
- Yep. And then you use sugar. I think it’s about a cup of sugar, or two-thirds cup of sugar.
- Let me see, I have it right here. It is, sugar is two thirds-
- Two-thirds.
- You’re right.
- All right, and then you mix it really well.
- [Arlene] Now, could you let this dough chill if you had to?
- Yeah.
- Like, you can-
- You can make it ahead.
- Yeah, you could mix up a batch of dough, and if you don’t have time to bake them off, you can you know, do it later. So, put them in the fridge and let them chill for a couple of hours. Okay now, is that gonna get nice and foamy?
- [Patty] Yeah, you have to add warm evaporated milk.
- Oh, okay, warm?
- And that’s what, warm evaporated milk. And that’s what-
- Is there a little bit of vanilla you put in there?
- Yeah, little bit of vanilla.
- Okay.
- Then you put your evaporated milk in-
- Now I would think that that would melt that, and it would be nothing but goop.
- No, it doesn’t-
- Isn’t it amazing, huh.
- Yeah, it does.
- [Arlene] Okay, I nearly just got the Christmas, the annual Christmas splash. That’s all right, it’s fun to cook with somebody. I love to bake with people.
- [Patty] I do too. I have girlfriends that help me every Christmas-
- [Arlene] I know, I’ve come a couple times myself-
- Yes you have.
- Now you get down there, and you get laughing and talking, and remembering, it just, it makes time go quickly, and it’s fun.
- And what’s nice is, my kids enjoy it and-
- Yeah! They get into it.
- [Patty] They bring their kids. And they all really have a great time doing this.
- [Arlene] And Brittany, she’s in her first year at college, I only remember when she was like five, six years old, down here helping, trying to-
- Yeah. Well, Jenna’s down there helping, and Brittany’s gotten bigger and better jobs down there, and…
- And she’s in college.
- Right.
- And Andrew, what’s he doing?
- [Patty] Andrew’s also in college, and…
- [Arlene] Does he help out?
- Yes he does, he actually likes to bake the most.
- Really.
- He enjoys it more than the girls-
- Get out.
- He loves it.
- Wow. Now this is gonna make a good many, isn’t it? Like, how many?
- Makes about five dozen.
- Five dozen. You have to keep these in the fridge?
- Yeah, I do.
- Keep them cold, okay.
- [Patty] I think they’re better when they’re cold.
- [Arlene] Okay. So you have to just keep stirring that until it-
- Yeah, until it gets thick and creamy.
- Okay. And this, I mean, this is a lot-
- I’m afraid to do it too high because-
- That’s all right, no go ahead. I’ll stand back, it’ll be okay, I’m not too worried.
- [Patty] All covered in icing.
- And what’s nice about these, this is a great idea for a gift, because this is not something you normally see as a normal cookie, like the chocolate chips and that, these, even a half a dozen, or a dozen of these in a really pretty gift box or a nice tin, make a wonderful gift for somebody that’s like, a shut-in, or I mean, somebody that isn’t shut-in that just likes cookies really well. It’s a great, great idea, and I think it’s different. You know, and I think about this kind of a dough, you really can fill this with almost anything, couldn’t you?
- Yeah, you can. I’ve tried it with raspberry filling-
- Yeah!
- Oh, is it good. Mixed with-
- How about apricot?
- Oh yeah, I don’t see why not.
- Apricot and a little drizzle on the top, like a light glaze or something.
- Yep, it’s really, really, really good-
- It really would, uh-huh.
- It’s starting to, this needs to really go high.
- Okay. You know what, this is gonna, it gets fluffy though, right?
- [Patty] Yeah, it gets fluffy, and then you ice ’em up.
- Okay, You know what-
- This is gonna need to be on a different-
- Bigger, okay. You know what, why don’t we start the Russian Torte. Let’s just push all this aside. And I’ll work on that, while you start the Russian Torte, because I really want you to see this. This is awesome. Okay, we’ll just put this to the side. We’ll show you those at the end of the program. You also wanna save…
- Nuts.
- Some of the nuts too, because then we’re gonna sprinkle them on top of the icing, once it comes on the top of the little Tassies.
- For the Russian Tortes-
- Okay. Tell me about the Russian Torte.
- Russian Tortes, first thing you wanna do, is you take about a quarter cup of hot water.
- Okay. A quarter cup.
- Get your yeast.
- Dissolve the yeast.
- Dissolve your yeast. And that’s done right out of the way.
- [Arlene] Okay. Just mix that around.
- [Patty] Okay, and then that sets while you’re messing with the rest of it.
- [Arlene] Okay.
- Okay, and then you take your butter.
- Now this is the dough you’re making, right?
- Right, that’s the dough. Three sticks of butter. Four cups of flour.
- What else?
- Quarter cup of milk.
- Quarter cup of milk. That’s just room temperature milk?
- Room temperature milk. Four egg yolks.
- Just the yolks, but you’re saving the whites, right?
- [Patty] Saving the whites, because they make the meringue for the top-
- [Arlene] Oh, okay.
- Okay.
- Okay.
- And you start mixing this.
- And this is gonna mix into a batter?
- Yeah, this’ll make into a dough.
- Oh, a dough. Okay.
- Okay.
- [Arlene] Now you wanna put this-
- [Patty] And then we’re adding… And then you start getting your yeast in.
- And you wanna make sure all the yeast is in there, too. So scrape the bottom of your container. You know what, while this is mixing into a dough, we’re gonna take a break, when we come back, we’ll show you the rest of the torte, and something else really good, we’ll be right back. We come back at the end of the program, you’re gonna see those Caramel Tassies and the icing on it, but we wanted to get at the Torte, and I really wanted you to see how she did it. She just mixed all of the things on the recipe that you’re gonna get, which was, she dissolved the yeast in the water, which you did, and the butter and the flour, and the four egg yolks only, keep the whites, this is all on your, this is a little bit involved, so then she made the batter, and now she’s separating it and making three balls, because this has three layers, this Torte. And, you’re gonna start rolling out, and I’m gonna spray, now what size is this pan, Patty?
- It’s a half sheet, I believe it’s a 12 by 18.
- 12 by 18, okay. And it just with, try not to use the garlic flavored butter, because it doesn’t go good with Russian Torte. So let’s just get the plain butter flavored, wanna get in the corners really well so nothing sticks.
- Right. And then what you do with your doughs, you divide it into three equal balls.
- Okay.
- And then you roll them out.
- Roll ’em out on a lightly floured-
- [Arlene] Wow, that’s a nice dough to work with, isn’t it?
- [Patty] Yeah it is. It works very nice.
- [Arlene] You don’t even have to let that raise or anything from the time you mix it up. Isn’t that wonderful?
- It is. It’s very nice, it works real well. And what’s nice is, if you use it in the mixer, it kneads it, instead of you-
- Yeah, you don’t have to do the work, that’s right.
- It saves your hands, and-
- That’s why a big mixer, really, if you’re a baker, that’s an investment you need to do.
- Yes it is.
- You just need to do it.
- It’s the best thing you could get.
- So now, and that’s really easy to work with-
- Very easy.
- Is it stretchability?
- Yes.
- I can tell. She’s already-
- What you do, is you put it, line the bottom of your pan.
- So you don’t bring it up the edge, or nothing.
- No. And-
- Just push it in?
- [Patty] Yeah.
- Okay.
- And the trick with this stuff, you can-
- You can tell she’s in business, like I would be rerolling, redoing, she just patches, because who’s gonna see the bottom layer anyway, right?
- Right, you don’t see the bottom. You just spread it about.
- Okay, I’ll do that, I’ll do that while you’re-
- [Patty] Yeah, spread that.
- I’ll do it.
- Okay, and then, next thing you do is, the easiest thing to do when you make this is to have your fillings all ready to go. First thing I did was I ground my nuts, which was three cups of nuts, and I put a cup of sugar in it, and a couple teaspoons of cinnamon. And that’s all ready to go, so when I get that rolled out-
- [Arlene] No moisture in that, right?
- No.
- No moisture, okay.
- No, you don’t need it.
- Yeah, really you don’t.
- You don’t need it, and then-
- Okay, so there we go. Now what do I put in here?
- And then you put all the nuts, except for, you save like, a quarter cup.
- Okay-
- And that goes on the top.
- Okay.
- And you spread your nuts.
- [Arlene] Spread the nuts evenly all over the pan.
- [Patty] All over the top.
- Wow, that’s so easy.
- Yep.
- [Arlene] Try to get them evenly distributed.
- Yeah, the worst part about this recipe is getting everything together. Once you have-
- To assemble it, yeah.
- Set and ready to go, then it’s a breeze.
- Yeah, okay. Well, we got that. All right.
- Okay, and then you do your next layer.
- Okay.
- You roll that one out.
- Okay. Now this is interesting, because after she builds the three layers, then we bake it for 30 minutes?
- About 20, 30 minutes-
- 20, 30 minutes at 350, right?
- Right.
- Then she brings it out, and there’s four reserved egg whites that we didn’t put into the batter. She beats those up with what? Sugar?
- Yeah, you beat them till they get stiff, and then you add your sugar. And then you pour it over top of your top layer-
- [Arlene] You put the meringue over top of the last-
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Put the meringue over the top layer. Sprinkle with nuts, and you pop it back in the oven.
- [Arlene] You pop it back in the oven for how long?
- [Patty] Couple minutes, so it just starts to get lightly, just a little bit of color to it. You don’t really want it to get brown-
- [Arlene] I’ll do this. Okay, now tell me what goes on next.
- Apricot.
- Apricot-
- And what I like to use, you can make your own apricot filling, but I like to use these handy packs.
I watched the December 7,2022 show with the Caramel Tassies. I try to write the recipes down as Patti made them but don’t always get all ingredients. I went on line to get the recipe but flour is not on the list. Was it left off? Can’t make without flour.
Hi Lynn, we’re so sorry! We must have made a mistake when typing the recipe. The flour has been added. It calls for 1 1/2 cups. Thanks for noticing!
1 1/2 cup flour. Look under recipes. They put new recipes on everyday.
I am so excited to see Arlene’s At Home website. I have been trying to find her Cookbook but have been unsuccessful. Thank you for this, I can’t wait to get started making cookie’s.