These Lemon Tassies have a buttery cream cheese crust and a delicious creamy lemon curd filling. They are bite-sized treats that melt in your mouth and are a perfect Easter and spring dessert ideal for baby and bridal showers, brunches, dessert platters, or afternoon tea.
What we love about these Lemon Curd Tassies
These are so good. They are soooo good. The crust is amazing. It just melts in your mouth. The buttery cream cheese pastry is soft and pliable for shaping and makes a delicious, flaky pastry that perfectly complements the lemon curd filling. The dough is super easy to work with. It is easily shaped with your fingers, or you can use a tart tamper if you have one. They bake perfectly and are easily removed from the pan intact.
I absolutely love our lemon curd filling. You can buy lemon curd for a faster preparation, or you can make our lemon curd recipe. The homemade lemon curd is creamy, lemony, sweet, and incredibly delicious, like lick it from a spoon yummy.
You can top the tassies with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or a dollop of whipped cream, or both. I love them best with whipped cream, and again, you can use store-bought or homemade. These are easy to make in advance. You can store them in the fridge or freezer.
Looking for other tassie or spring-and-summer dessert recipes? Try our Pecan Tassies with Honey, our Strawberry Glazed Pie, our Cream Cheese and Strawberry Pie, our Cherry and Cream Cheese Pie, our Coconut Cream Pie with Coconut Milk, our Old Fashioned Blueberry Cobbler, or our Fruit Pizza Cookies.
What you need to make this Tassie Recipe
You will need the following ingredients:
- All-purpose flour
- Butter
- Cream Cheese
- Salt
- Lemon curd
- Optional: powdered sugar or sweetened whipped cream
Lemon Tassies Substitutions
I know what it’s like when you don’t have everything on hand, and the last thing you want to do is run to the store and pick something up. Here are a few ideas to substitute items on the ingredients list if needed:
- You can buy already-made lemon curd or make your own. We love using our homemade recipe.
- You can top these with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or a dollop of whipped cream, either store-bought or homemade.
- You can try different fillings for tassies. Lemon pie filling, or other pie fillings like cherry or apple, could be used. We also really love tassies with a pecan filling; you can see our pecan tassie recipe here.
Step-by-step Instructions
Step 1. Place the flour, softened butter, softened cream cheese, and salt for the tassies shells in a food processor Pulse the ingredients together a few times until the mixture forms a ball. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour.
Lightly coat a 24-cup mini-muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside. To make the pastry shells, roll one tablespoon of dough into a small ball and place it in the prepared mini-muffin pan.
Step 2. Use your fingers to press into the bottom and up the sides of the dough to make the tassie shell. If the dough sticks to your fingers, you can wet your fingers with a little water. You can also use a tart tamper. To use the tamper, dip it in flour and then into the dough in the pan, and press and slightly swirl to shape the dough.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and freeze the shells for 10-15 minutes while the oven preheats
Step 3. Bake the shells for 20 minutes until the tassies are lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes. Use an offset spatula or thin butter knife to remove the tassies from the pan and place them on a cooling rack to cool. Once cool, fill each tassie with 2 teaspoons lemon curd. Use an offset spatula to smooth and mound the filling.
Step 4. To finish, sprinkle the tassies with powdered sugar and/or dollop with whipped cream. To make your own whipped cream, beat the whipping cream and powdered sugar for several minutes with an electric mixer until soft to medium-stiff peaks form. Serve immediately or chilled.
Tips
- These tassies are easy to make. The dough is very moldable and easy to press just by using your fingers or by using a wooden tart tamper. Tassies usually have cream cheese in the dough, which helps to make a more moldable shell and gives the shells a little bit of a cookie texture instead of a traditional flaky pastry shell.
- Using a small 1-tablespoon cookie scoop really helps to portion the dough in equal sizes for rolling.
- I love my USA Bakeware 24-well Mini Muffin Pan. Everything cooks evenly, and the pan cleans easily. It is high-quality and long-lasting.
Frequently Asked Questions
| Can lemon tassies be made in advance? |
| a. You can prepare the dough and store it in the fridge up to 3 days in advance, well covered. Just remove it from the fridge for about 30 minutes before rolling it into balls for easier use. b. According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, lemon curd can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. Other sources say 1-2 weeks; either way, it is very easy to make lemon curd in advance. It keeps its quality taste and texture. b. The tassies freeze very well, and are a perfect make-ahead treat. Assemble, freeze, and thaw in the fridge before serving, or freeze the shells and curd separately, thaw in the fridge, and assemble before serving. They freeze very well already assembled. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says lemon curd will last for up to a year frozen in an airtight container. The tassie shells last up to 2-3 months frozen. |
| How do I store Lemon Tassies? |
| a. Store cookies in an air-tight container. I use a Tupperware container and use parchment paper to separate the layers when stacking, so they don’t stick together. For best quality, store tassies in the fridge for up to 3 days for best texture, and in the freezer for up to 3 months. b. I recommend adding the powdered sugar/whipped cream just before serving. |
Lemon Tassies
These Lemon Tassies have a buttery cream cheese crust and a delicious creamy lemon curd filling. They are bite-sized treats that melt in your mouth and are a perfect Easter and spring dessert ideal for baby and bridal showers, brunches, dessert platters, or afternoon tea.
25
minutes20
minutes1
hour24
tassiesIngredients
Tassie Shells
1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup butter (one stick), softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
Pinch salt
Filling and Topping
1 cup lemon curd, we love using our homemade lemon curd recipe
1/3 cup powdered sugar for sprinkling
Optional: 1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Directions
- Place the flour, softened butter, softened cream cheese, and salt for the tassies shells in a food processor (a stand mixer can also be used or an electric mixer if needed). Pulse the ingredients together a few times until the mixture forms a ball. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour.
- Lightly coat a 24-cup mini-muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- To make the pastry shells, roll one tablespoon of dough into a small ball and place it in the prepared mini-muffin pan. A small cookie scoop is great for scooping the dough into a uniform size. Repeat with the remaining dough. Use your fingers to press into the bottom and up the sides of the dough to make the tassie shell. If the dough sticks to your fingers, you can wet your fingers with a little water. You can also use a tart tamper. To use the tamper, dip it in flour and then into the dough in the pan, and press and slightly swirl to shape the dough. Make sure to redip the tamper in flour before forming each tassie shell.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and freeze the shells for 10-15 minutes while the oven preheats.
- Bake the shells for 20 minutes until the tassies are lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes. Use an offset spatula or thin butter knife to remove the tassies from the pan and place them on a cooling rack to cool. Once cool, fill each tassie with 2 teaspoons lemon curd. Use an offset spatula to smooth and mound the filling.
- To finish, sprinkle the tassies with powdered sugar and/or dollop with whipped cream. To make your own whipped cream, beat the whipping cream and powdered sugar for several minutes with an electric mixer until soft to medium-stiff peaks form. Serve immediately or chilled.
Notes
- The tassie dough is easy to work with. Tassies usually have cream cheese in the dough, which helps to make a more moldable shell and gives the shells a little bit of a cookie texture instead of a traditional flaky pastry shell. It is very moldable and easy to press just by using your fingers or a tart tamper.
- While you can use your fingers to press the dough into the mini muffin pan to make the tassies, using a wooden tart tamper makes shaping the tassie shells so much easier. Just make sure to dip the tamper in flour before pushing down each tassie shell, or the tamper will stick to the dough. Press down and slightly swirl the tamper to shape the shell.
- If you like, you can dollop the tassies with whipped cream/and or sprinkle them with powdered sugar before serving. I like them best with whipped cream, which can be store-bought, or you can use the optional instructions in the recipe
These look so easy to make, I am going to do it! I will make your homemade curd too. Thanks for the easy recipe.
You are so welcome! I hope you get to make them. The lemon curd is to die for and these tassies are the perfect little bites, we love them!
Whenever I see these I always think they would be a little complicated to make but your instructions made it super easy! I ended up using store-bought lemon curd this time because I had some in the pantry but I’m looking forward to trying yours next time!
I am so happy to hear that they were easy to make, and the store bought lemon curd is a great substitute! The tassies really come together quickly, and I’m glad to hear you enjoyed them.
These lemon tassies are absolutely delicious! The buttery crust paired with that bright, tangy lemon filling is such a perfect combination. Thanks for the recipe!
I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed them! They are a personal favorite of mine, I love these!