A sneak preview of my latest loves: the miniature pecan pie, or as my southern mother refers to them, Pecan Tassies. These pack the pecan pie crunch and gooey sweetness but won't have the same jittery, sugar-high effect because they're portion-controlled. To be fair, I don't really know anything about dieting and self-control myself, but I imagine these won't throw off your entire day like a whole big slice of pecan pie would (with heavy whipping cream on top, and maybe some buttermilk baked into the pie mix, and possibly even a stick of butter and cream cheese in the crust).
My recipe is simple and only contains the following ingredients: White Lily flour from Tennessee (only the best for my babies), a bit of shortening, a bit of butter, an egg, raw pecans, not too much brown sugar, and some salt. That's it.
Of course, I tried more than one recipe to get this adorable end result. Also, I fully intend to make a whole wheat version that may not work out so well. Though, most notably, I tried a recipe with a cream cheese crust, a la Paula Deen. I almost suffocated while eating them. So good, but so so wrong. Gotta balance the sweetness of the middle with the saltiness of the crust, my friend. Life - and baking - are all about equilibrium. They also just looked funny. Too much fat in the dough made them too flaky.
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| Epic Fail... I gave these away at work. Hey, they still tasted good! |
