Help, I puchased some 5" tart pans and the instructions are useless! It says to follow the baking directions for the recipe but all my recipes are for 9" pans. Rather than making full size pumpkin cheesecake or pecan pies I wanted to use the small tart pans but don't know what temp to bake and for how long. Your advice will be much appreciated!
You can still use the dough recipe for the 9'. you just roll out the dough to the thickness you need. Just like a pie dish lay the dough in the tart shell, press in then use a knief to get an cut trim. Reduce the minutes for baking and use your best judgement. Save remain dough or you can roll out the remaning dough- cut a circle fill one side with fruit and fold over , then bake.
My mom use to have remaning dough left and she would just roll it out spread some jam - bake it and let the kids eat it. pretty taste.
Also for the small pans, lower the temperature a bit. Pumpkin often starts at a high temp, then lowers. I would take 25-50 degrees of the high temp.
The only thing bad you can do, is burn the crust. But if you are watching, it should be fine. I start checking the little onces after about 20 minutes to see how they are doing. Just bake a couple for the first test run, then you will know how long it takes. (then write it in your cookbook 
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Thanks, all for the tips, however I am nervous about overbaking and drying out the cheesecake so I don't want to bake at too high a temp or too long. I just took the pans back to Linens 'N Things and got the 1.5" mini tart pans because I found a recipe on Cooks.com and they say to bake them for 20-25 mins @ 325 degrees. Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes. (Like the smaller bite size tarts better, people won't feel so guilty about indulging and I can make several varieties.)
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