[Ads-l] tassie (pastry, 1965)

[Barretts Mail]

Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tassie) has “tassie” meaning “a small tart or miniature pie” but no citations. 

I looked at several tassie recipes, and they all have a crust that starts out with shortening (butter) and cream cheese (one including marscapone as an alternative). 

The OED, Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tassie) and Dictionary.com (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tassie) all have “tassie" as a Scottish word for a small tass, or cup, but miss the tart meaning.

Golden tassies have been a part of my Christmas for as long as I can remember and I began making them this year for the holidays.

Google has a number of hits from the 1950s and 1960s but nearly all have no preview available. 

In February 1965, the Maple Syrup Digest (p 12) published a recipe for maple tassies. Surely this dessert must have been around before 1965 if it made it to an industry publication. 
http://www.maplesyrupdigest.org/?m=196502

###
Pastry
1 cup butter or margarine
Two 3 oz. packages cream cheese
2 ½ cups flour
½ tea. salt
Filling
1½ cups chopped pecans
1½ cups maple syrup
2 tbsp. melted butter
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
###
###

Interestingly, this recipe has the same call for two 3-oz packages of cream cheese as in my family recipe. Maybe it is/was a common size. 

Simply picking off Google hits, some of the variations include maple tassie, (London/maple) pecan tassie, almond tassie, (maple) walnut tassie, golden tassie, raspberry tassie, tea time tassie, caramel tassie, chocolate brownie tassie and bourbon pecan tassie.

Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org