Cream cheese tart shells

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cream cheese, softened

1 cup all-purpose flour

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add flour, beat just until soft dough forms. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap. Chill one hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (380-400 if using convection oven). Shape dough into one-inch balls. Plax each ball into cups of a mini-muffin pan. Use a shot glass or mini-tart shaper (I bought mine through Pampered Chef; I couldn't find one anywhere else) to press dough to form tart shells. Piece shells with a fork.

Bake 10-12 minutes (a few minutes less if using convection) or until light golden brown. Cool in pan five minutes; carefully remove tart shells from pan. Cool on a rack. Fill as desired. Joy of Cooking has many good suggestions for filling-- diced cheese and ham, sun-dried tomatoes with pesto and goat cheese and simple quiche filling:

Quiche filling for mini-tarts:

Finely chop some ham, cooked peppers, broccoli, whatever you like. Combine in a medium bowl and whisk thoroughly 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan, 2 teaspoons grated onion, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon black or white pepper. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place baked tart shells on the paper. Place 1/2 teaspoon of your chopped ingredients in the bottom of each tart shell. Fill to brim with egg mixture. Bake at 425 (or 375 if using convection) until filling is set and puffed, about 12-15 minutes (10 or so if using convection)