Day 105: Mini Pecan Cups

First of all, let me apologize for missing yesterday's post. I had to work later than usual and then had to hurry off to a late night lock-in with our middle school church kids. There was no kitchen time for me yesterday. I will say that I made up for it today. I started out in the kitchen at 8:15 this morning and just finished up around 9:00 this evening. Other than an hour run this afternoon, I never left the kitchen.

The kitchen is my most favorite room in my house! There are times that it can get tiring and overwhelming, but I love baking and creating food masterpieces. I have also come to love sharing it with you in this blog as well as sharing the actual food itself. Running is when I come up with most of my ideas. During today's run, I came up with a design for some cupcakes and a cake that I am making this week for a baby shower and a birthday. I also thought up a new parenting idea for some issues that we are struggling with. How productive - exercise, stress relief, and organization all at one time!!!

I made 2 cakes today for a going away party for our youth minister. One is a vanilla flavored multi colored layer cake covered in fondant that I am going to have the kids sign with edible paint markers. The other is a chocolate layered cake decorated so that he will realize how much he will miss Arkansas. I have several cake pictures that I have done in the past few weeks that I would love to share with you, so hopefully I will get those posted this week. 

My dessert for today is Mini Pecan Cups to celebrate National Pecan Day. I love pecans and this recipe came from my mom. I have always loved it - the crust is flaky and the sweet pecan goodness oozes out when you bite into it. And there's nothing better than bite size goodies. I love anything that is mini. The only negative is that it usually takes longer to bake individual things as opposed to something in a big pan, but I don't mind.

Mini Pecan cups

Recipe from: My mom

Yields: 5 dozen (115 calories each)

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 8 oz light cream cheese, softened
• 3 sticks butter, at room temp.

Filling:

• 1-1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1-1/2 cups chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Pre heat oven to 325 deg. Lightly spray mini muffin pans with cooking spray
2. In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese, butter and flour together; chill for 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile in another medium bowl, combine brown sugar, egg, and butter; whisk together. Stir in vanilla and pecans.
4. Using a tablespoon, roll dough into 60 balls and press each into prepared pans using mini tart shaper. Fill with 1 tsp of pecan mixture.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until crust begins to brown. Cool slightly and remove from pans.