Truffle-Filled Cookie Tarts

December. Christmas is coming and the apartment is decorated and Terrence is in our lives now — not officially, not with a title, but in the way that matters: he's here. He came to dinner on Wednesday. He FaceTimed Jayden on Friday because Jayden asked Mama, "Where's Teh-rence?" and Mama called me and I called Terrence and Terrence FaceTimed a three-year-old and they talked about trucks for twelve minutes. Twelve minutes. A man I've been dating for two months FaceTimed my son to talk about trucks. That's not a boyfriend. That's a person who cares about a child who isn't his because the child belongs to a woman he cares about. That's how it should work. That's how it never worked before.

The second community screening happened — December event at the same East Nashville Community Center. Sixty-two people came. SIXTY-TWO. Up from forty-seven in September. Word is spreading. The little girl with the braids came back. She sat in my chair and opened her mouth and I checked her teeth and they were perfect — healthy, clean, she's been brushing. She said, "I told my mom you said to come back." She told her mom. She remembered. I remembered. We kept our promises to each other.

Chloe made her Christmas list: books (obviously), a microscope (the scientist costume has evolved into an actual interest), and "for Mama to be happy." FOR MAMA TO BE HAPPY. That's on her Christmas list. She wrote it in crayon on a piece of notebook paper and I found it on the kitchen counter and I sat down and held it and cried because my six-year-old thinks my happiness is something she needs to wish for, which means she's been watching me, all these years, and seeing the tired and the lonely and the strong-because-I-have-to-be, and she wants to fix it. She can't fix it. She IS it. She and Jayden are my happiness. They've always been my happiness. But I understand what she means. She means: I want Mama to smile more. And the truth is, since Terrence, I do.

I made gingerbread cookies with the kids. Not from scratch — from a box, because gingerbread from scratch requires molasses and patience and I have the molasses but not the patience. We cut them into shapes and decorated them with icing and sprinkles and Jayden ate more raw dough than he decorated cookies, which is a health concern I'm choosing to ignore because it's December and raw dough is the tax you pay for baking with a three-year-old.

After I found Chloe’s Christmas list on the counter — after I sat with it and cried and pulled myself back together — I needed to do something with my hands. Something warm and sweet and present-tense. The gingerbread was already done, but the kids wanted more, and honestly, so did I. These Truffle-Filled Cookie Tarts became our follow-up act: a little fancier than a decorated cutout, still completely kid-friendly, and the kind of thing that makes a December evening feel like exactly what Chloe was wishing for when she wrote “for Mama to be happy.”

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 32 min | Servings: 24 tarts

Ingredients

1 package (16.5 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
24 chocolate truffle candies, unwrapped
1/2 cup powdered sugar, for dusting
Holiday sprinkles or colored sugar, for decorating (optional)
1 tablespoon softened butter (for greasing pan)

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 24-cup mini muffin tin with softened butter.
Mix the dough. In a large bowl, combine refrigerated sugar cookie dough with flour. Knead together until smooth and the dough is no longer sticky. The flour keeps it from spreading too thin in the cups.
Shape the tart shells. Divide dough into 24 equal balls, roughly 1 inch each. Press one ball into the bottom and up the sides of each greased mini muffin cup, forming a small shell.
Bake. Bake for 10—12 minutes, or until the edges are just golden. The centers will puff up — that’s okay.
Press in the truffles. Remove pan from oven. Immediately press one unwrapped truffle into the center of each hot cookie cup. The heat will soften the truffle slightly so it nestles right in. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
Cool completely. Carefully remove tarts from the muffin tin and transfer to a wire rack. Allow to cool fully, about 15 minutes, so the truffle sets back up.
Decorate. Dust lightly with powdered sugar and finish with holiday sprinkles if using. Let the kids go wild with the sprinkles — that’s half the point.

Nutrition (per serving)

Truffle-Filled Cookie Tarts — The December We Baked Our Way Into Something Good