Whether you want to call these mini pecan pies or giant pecan tassies, they are the perfect little pre-portioned dessert for holiday gatherings (or for keeping in your freezer for when you want a little treat). But the best part is that these Mini Dark Chocolate Pecan Pies are incredibly easy, so if you’re intimidated by pie baking, this is an excellent place to start. Pecan pie tends to be a little too sweet for me, so I added a little bitter dark chocolate to balance the extremely sweet caramel-y filling. I also experimented with adding a pinch of flakey sea salt to the top of a couple of the pecan pies, which was quite delightful!
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What Kind of Chocolate Should I Use?
I used a 70% dark chocolate made by Moser Roth (sold at Aldi). If you want to go darker you can, just be mindful that the darker you go the more bitter it gets. The chocolate I used comes in a package with five mini bars, 25 grams each, and I used three out of the five. You can use more or less as you see fit.
How to Store the Pies
You can keep these Mini Dark Chocolate Pecan Pies in the refrigerator for up to four days, or, once completely cooled, place them in a freezer bag and freeze them up to four months.
Mini Dark Chocolate Pecan Pies
Servings 12 Mini PiesIngredients
Crust
- 8 Tbsp salted butter, room temperature ($0.75)
- 4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature ($0.60)
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour ($0.13)
- 1 Tbsp sugar ($0.02)
Filling
- 75 grams dark chocolate, divided ($1.19)
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten ($0.26)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar ($0.36)
- 1 Tbsp melted butter ($0.09)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract ($0.14)
- 2/3 cup pecan pieces ($1.69)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Beat together the butter and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl. Once combined, add 1 cup flour the sugar, and beat again until combined. The mixture may look dry and crumbly, but should stick together when squeezed with your hands. Form the mixture into a ball, adding an extra tablespoon or two of flour if it becomes too sticky.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. The easiest way to do this is to first divide the dough into four equal-sized pieces, then divide each of those into three. Roll each piece into a ball, then place each one in the well of a regular-sized muffin tin (NOT a mini muffin tin). The muffin tin does not need to be greased.
- Use your fingers to press the dough balls into the bottom and up the sides of the muffin tin wells. It’s okay if the dough does not reach the very top of the well. Make sure to press it deep into the corners, to avoid rounded thick corners. Place a dime-sized piece of chocolate into each of the shaped pie crusts. I used about 50 grams of the chocolate in the bottom of the pies, and the rest was used to drizzle on top after baking.
- To make the filling, add the beaten egg, brown sugar, melted butter, vanilla, and pecans in a small mixing bowl. Stir to combine, avoiding beating the mixture too much or causing frothy air bubbles.
- Spoon the mixture evenly between each of the pie crusts. The filling will only fill each pie crust about half way, but will puff up as it bakes. Once filled, place the muffin tin in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- Once the pies are baked, melt the remaining 25 grams of chocolate. You can melt it using a microwave, heating for 15 seconds at a time and stirring well after each heating, until melted, or by placing a small bowl over a double boiler. Once melted, drizzle the chocolate over each pie.
- Allow the pies to cool completely, then use a small knife to gently lift them out of the muffin tin.
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Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Love mini pies? Check out my Mini Pumpkin Pies or my Mini Broccoli Cheddar Quiches!
How to Make Mini Pecan Pies – Step by Step Photos
Start by preheating the oven to 350ºF. Beat together 8 Tbsp (one stick) of room temperature butter and 4 oz. of room temperature cream cheese until they are evenly combined.
Add 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 Tbsp sugar, and beat again until the mixture looks loose and crumbly.
Although the dough may look dry, it should stick together when squeezed with your hand. Shape the dough into a ball, adding another tablespoon or two of flour if it becomes too sticky.
Divide the dough into 12 equal-sized pieces. The easiest way to do this is to first divide it into four equal pieces, then divide each of those into three pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then place each one in a well of a regular sized muffin tin (not a mini muffin tin). Use your fingers to press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the wells. Make sure to press it deep into the corners to avoid rounded thick corners. This will help it extend further up the sides, too. Place one small dime-sized piece of chocolate in the bottom of each pie crust.
Next make the filling. In a bowl combine one slightly beaten large egg, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 Tbsp melted butter, 2/3 cup pecan pieces, and 1 tsp vanilla.
Stir these ingredients together with a spoon, trying to avoid vigorous beating or causing it to get frothy or form too many air bubbles.
Spoon the filling into each of the shaped pie crusts. It will only fill each one about half way, but it does puff up as it bakes.
Bake the Mini Pecan Pies for 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
Melt the remaining 25 grams dark chocolate either by microwaving in a small bowl for 15 seconds at a time, stirring well each time until it’s melted, or by placing the bowl over a double boiler. Once melted, drizzle the chocolate over each mini pecan pie.
Allow the mini Dark Chocolate Pecan Pies to cool, then use a knife to gently lift them out of the muffin tin. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate for four days, or freeze for four months.
I made these some time ago and thought they were great. Has anyone tried this with store bought pastry dough (or did I just cross a line with that question!?!) I made the dough and it was easy enough but I like to make things with the premade products and would like to add this to the mix. BB is great!
These were a 10/10! My family loved these and has requested I make them for Christmas! I did have to double the pecan filling but I’m glad I did! Thank you for the recipe!
Just to follow up, I definitely made these again today, but doubled the recipe and they were a huge hit again! If you are thinking about making these this is your sign!!
I’ve made this several times since Beth first posted the recipe. As I mentioned way back then, I like Moser Roth chili flavored dark chocolate. Chili and chocolate, both native to Mexico, have a wonderful affinity, enhancing each other without adding heat. Aldi’s wonderful chocolate selection, although small, is reason enough to shop the store–it’s a popular feature so things come and go in a flash. Relax–your fave will be back soon. Super fresh eggs currently priced at $1.12 a dozen are another. Their holiday specials this year are spectacular! For instance, a 10 oz package of pecan halves is only 3.49 through the end of December, 2023. Butter, too, is seriously cheap in comparison to major brands and equally delicious. Prices change, but the cost of this recipe right now is significantly less than Beth’s calculation.
Thank you! Your chili flavored chocolate sounds like a great addition to this
wonderful sounding recipe and of course I am grateful to know what deals Aldi’s is having on these ingredients:).
I made these last year, and they were a huge hit. Can’t wait to make (eat) them again this year!
I added the extra flour plus a whole extra cup and My dough just kept being sticky and never was crumbly. What could have gone wrong?!
Wow, that’s highly unusual after doubling the amount of flour. The only thing I can think of is the butter or cream cheese may have been mis-measured?
I just noticed a typo in the ingredients: “1 Tbsp metled butter”.
Thanks, Mel! It’s fixed. XOXO -Monti
Would baking chocolate squares work for dark chocolate? I imagine they would be more bitter of course, could we add a little extra sugar to compensate?
You could probably do that. :)
Okay, these are amazing. I don’t even like pecan pie, or chocolate that much for that matter, but when I saw these I had to make them. I made a half batch for just me for Thanksgiving and ate them over the weekend….I have another half batch in the oven now. A lot of the recipes here are not very sweet and this one benefits greatly from it. One of the worst things about traditional pecan pie is how when you’re eating it it’s so sugary it feels like you’re choking. This is beautiful and light and perfect. I skip the drizzle because of the aforementioned aversion to chocolate and I use one whole bar for the bottoms of the half batch.
Can you make more mini pies with different fillings?! I know there’s a pumpkin pie and this one, but i love how easy these are and would love to see more types!!
Those are the only two I’ve tried so far! I’ll have to brainstorm some more ideas. :)
might i suggest mini sweet potato pies? maybe one with marshmallows and one standard version without them?
OMG, that would be so cute!! Thank you for that idea! :)
Incredible! I would leave out the chocolate drizzle or cut down on the chocolate inside next time, but that’s just for other people who don’t like so much chocolate. For me – perfectly wonderful and chocolatey!
I love these so much. Wondering if you could use this recipe and make a full sized pie…
I’m sure it could be done, although I’d need to try it before offering up any suggestions on how to do it. :)
Would this work with a pumpkin pie filling??
I haven’t tried that, so I’m not sure. :)
I gave the pumpkin filling a go and it turned out alright! The filling needs a little more time to bake than the one in this recipe so the crust got quite golden (but not burnt at all) but ultimately, turned out great! It tasted awesome with the cream cheese crust. It may benefit from a quick blind bake so there’s no “soggy bottom” from the more wet filling but all in all, my testers (aka my family) said they were great (although I think they prefer the original with the the pecans and chocolate).
That’s so funny because I was actually making the pumpkin version for the blog this week, too! The blog post for it will be posted in the beginning of November. :)
Awesome! I added an extra 1/2 more filling because… I felt like it, lol. They turned out great. Bottoms were a little raw, so once they cooled, I flipped them upside down, outside of the muffin tin and toasted the bottoms under the broiler until golden. I’m definitely making these again next year.
These were the star of the show at Thanksgiving…so pretty and delicious and chocolatey. The size was perfect for our small sized holiday, and the extras have frozen and thawed beautifully throughout the week. Another excellent Budget Bytes recipe. :)
If you like pecan pie and you like chocolate these are for you. Come together super easy and taste great. I think I found my new favorite
Hi, I was wondering if the base recipe for the pie crust could be used for mini pumpkin pies? Most of the recipes I’ve seen for mini (muffin sized) pumpkin pies cook at 400* for ~20 mins. Would that bake temperature and length of time work for the piecrust in your recipe?
Thank you in advance for the help! I love all of of your recipes and your website has been my main cooking resource for many years. :)
Hmm, that one is a bit too hard for me to predict without actually testing it. But if you decide to give it a try, please let me know how it turns out!
Hi there! Planning on making the bite size version of these for Thanksgiving. It says they can be frozen, how do you recommend doing that and thawing them? Thanks!
To thaw, just leave them out at room temperature until they’re thawed. It shouldn’t take long because they’re so small, maybe 30-60 minutes. :) To freeze, I just waited until they were completely cooled to room temperature, then placed them in a gallon-sized freezer bag.
This looks awesome! I was wondering if I could convert this to make in mini muffin tins instead of full sized muffins. I am guessing it would work, just needs shorter cooking time. What do you think? Also, have you ever added bourbon? If so, how much to keep the consistency right? THANKS!
Yes you could definitely make them in mini’s just watch the bake time. And you could add bourbon too!
These were so fun to make and they are delicious! I was worried that the dough was too sticky, even with the additional 2 tbs flour, but everything came together perfectly in the end. Will be making lots of these this holiday season!
Hooray! They are so fun to make and to share!
I would like to try the recipe (it looks really good), but am cooking for a friend who is allergic to nuts. Is it possible to substitute oats for the pecans? Do you have any advice? Thanks!
Oooh, that’s a really tough call. Oats and pecans are very different and unfortunately I have no idea how the oats would perform in this recipe. I’ve never used oats in anything like this before.
I think this would be good with peanuts. Is the allergy to tree nuts only?
These are delicious. will definitely make this mouth-watering dark chocolate pecan cakes on my kitty party. Thanks for sharing dear
This is amazing! I made these twice during the holiday and couldn’t get enough. Everyone raved that these were the best dessert! There is so much flavor in these little pies.
Thank you for providing such amazing and easy recipes. I mainly cook from your site and always feel like you have such a nice variety to choose from. I’ve never made something from your site that wasn’t a hit. Keep these great options coming!
These were a big hit! So delicious.
These were incredible! They were a hit at Thanksgiving this year! :) Already been requested for Christmas!
Beth! You’ve seriously outdone yourself with this recipe! I’ve been following you for many years, and this is seriously one of the best desserts I have ever had. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips that I chopped up, because I didn’t have some dark chocolate around. They were amazing! And the crust was so buttery and flakey! I made them on Thanksgiving where they were polished off, and then made another batch the next day lol. Love them!
I needed to make a gluten-free dessert for our Thanksgiving meal, so I decided to try converting this recipe- it turned out SO GOOD!! For the crust, the only changes I made were to use Bob’s Red Mill One-to-One flour in the same amounts as the recipe calls for, and I also used Daiya dairy-free cream cheese because I already had some in the fridge. The filling I kept the same. My husband and I tested them out last night, they are fantastic! (and so cute!) The crust has a really delicious, almost shortbread-like texture and taste, and the filling is awesome too- you can’t go wrong with pecans, brown sugar and chocolate! So if anyone wants to make them gluten-free, you totally can! I believe you could also successfully make them completely dairy-free by using dairy-free cream cheese and butter (like Earth Balance buttery baking sticks), and something like Enjoy Life chocolate bars or chips for the filling and topping.
Thank you, Beth, for such an awesome and easy recipe- I can’t wait for my family to try these! :)
Thank you for sharing the GF feedback! I know a lot of people will find that helpful! :)
So i thought these were good but just a bit heavy on the brown sugar taste. Thanks for the recipe! I made your mexican red lentil soup a few days ago and its AMAZING
Just tried this recipe this past weekend as a test because I’m a terrible baker and they came out EXTREMELY DELICIOUS!
I can’t wait to impress my family this year with this recipe!
Any advice for reheating? I like my pies warm but want to make these ahead of time. Bbnbbn
I’ve never tried to reheat something like this in the oven, but if I did I’d probably wrap them in foil to make sure they don’t dry out.
These were delicious! I baked them until just barely brown and then reheated in the oven for 15 min covered in foil and they were perfect and melty. I also added 2 tablespoons of bourbon to the filling which added some nice flavor. Thanks for the recipe!
Curious if the the amount of ingredients would convert to make a full pie rather than the personal size?! Looks so good!
It’s really hard to say without testing it, unfortunately. Baking isn’t quite as forgiving as other cooking methods, so you might be better off finding a recipe specifically written for a whole pecan pie.
These are delicious! Had to sample the first batch ;) and will definitely be making more to bring to holiday parties!!
I made these for a friends giving, and they were a huge hit! Mine didn’t look quite as nice as yours , but they were delicious. I actually completely forgot the sugar in the crust, and they were still very tasty lol!
Hi–In the oven but I noticed there is no step to add the sugar to crust but it’s in list of ingredients. Which is correct?
Thanks for catching that! I’ll fix it now. It is correct to add sugar to the crust.
Hey Beth! These look delicious. Planning to veganize them for my family’s Thanksgiving. What is the function of the cream cheese in the crust? Would you recommend using a vegan cream cheese in replacement or just omitting it and increasing my vegan butter by 4 oz? I plan to use a Flax Egg instead of the large egg in the filling. Thanks in advance for your insight!
I’m not very familiar with vegan cream cheese, so I’m not sure how that would perform in this case. The cream cheese just gives it a slightly different flavor and texture than regular pie crust. You can do all butter instead, but it will be more like a traditional pie crust, where as this crust is a bit less flakey and a bit more tender.
Ok these are SO good…I made them for dessert tonight, but I just can’t stop sampling them ;)
This is my first BudgetBytes dessert, and wow is it a keeper. Thanks Beth!!
Wow this recipe is so good. Made this with the suggestion of adding bourbon to them in the comment above, and they tasted great. Love your blog. The pictures you take are such good quality. Keep up the good work.
Do you freeze them with the chocolate on top?
Yes, I did. :)
These look great! Do you have a go to filling for other pies that I’m missing on the site? I might make 12 mini pies, but 3 or 4 different fillings including this one )I just want to make sure they all go with the crust – is the cream cheese in it a strong flavor?). Thanks!
No, unfortunately I don’t have a pie filling recipe. I actually very rarely cook desserts! :P I can’t taste the cream cheese at all once it’s baked. When I sneaked bits of the dough when it was raw (#guilty) I could taste it, but not once baked. :)
Can I use Crisco instead of butter?
I don’t suggest it. Crisco is all fat, whereas butter has other elements in addition to fat, which affect both flavor and texture.
I have an egg allergy. Is there an egg substitute?
I don’t have a substitute for the egg in this one, unfortunately. The egg is vital to getting the correct consistency of the pie filling. There may be ways around it, but it would definitely take some testing to see what would work.
I believe a flax egg (1 TB ground flaxseed + 2.5 TB water) would do the trick in this instance. I will be testing it out next week, I’ll try to remember to report back :)
Yumm 😋😋😋😋
Made this recipe at Thanksgiving and they were such a hit, I made them again at Christmas!
I did have success making these in a mini muffin tin and baked them for a shorter amount of time. The tiny size was quite popular with friends and family. Can’t wait to make them again this year!
Made these yesterday – overall quite easy and delicious! I would argue you can leave the chocolate out on top (it was a little too chocolatey for me) but they delicious warm and cold! The crust was also delicious, who know cream cheese would be a winner! It’s a great alternative for thanksgiving.
I love that you are using Aldis chocolate here. These look so decadent and delicious! Love the single serving size here.
I use silicone muffin cups on a baking sheet when making muffins (got rid of the muffin pan a while back). Do you think these would work with free-standing silicone muffin cups?
Hmm, I’m not sure. I’ve never baked with silicone so I’m not sure if or how it changes things.
a family member is allergic to tree nuts but not peanuts. Beth, how would this taste with unsalted peanuts instead of pecans?
Interesting, I bet that would be almost like peanut brittle in flavor, but soft instead of hard. Ha! I really can’t say if it would be “good” though, that would be a personal call.
Your recommendation for the Moser Roth chocolate is right on–budget price, luxury taste. And those little bars are only 90 calories each. We like the variety with chili, and that’s what I’m going to use for these–no one will notice the tiny touch of heat, but it should enhance the chocolate taste. I love the idea of freezing single serving pies as a 9 incher usually feeds the garbage disposal before we finish it up. And no corn syrup! Hooray!
CORRECTION–those little bars have between 140 and 150 calories each–don’t know how I remembered 90. It must have been wishful thinking
Will it change too much if I leave the chocolate out from the bottom of the pie? My boyfriend is going to go mad over these!!
You can definitely leave out the chocolate if you prefer. :) It will work just as well.
Pecan pies with chocolate are Derby Pies, a Kentucky favorite. Try adding some bourbon to them.