Pecan Tartlets

My Mom gave me this recipe. They are like eating a miniature pecan pie.  Makes 24 but I  doubled the batch so I could share these with friends.  I did keep a few for my husband as these are one of his favorites. 

INGREDIENTS:
3 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 cup all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter (melted)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. To Make Crust: In a medium mixing bowl blend softened cream cheese and 1/2 cup butter or margarine until thoroughly combined. Add flour and mix well. Place in refrigerator to chill. (1 hour is enough)

3. In a medium mixing bowl combine brown sugar and 1 tablespoon butter. Add egg and vanilla, and blend well. Stir in pecans.

4. Shape dough into 24-1 inch balls. Press into bottom and up sides of ungreased nonstick miniature muffin tins. Pour in filling, distributing evenly between all cups. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Hint: You should use nonstick miniature muffin pans for these to come out perfect.

I have this neat tool that I got from Pampered Chef.  Makes this step a lot easier but you can do this by hand because they are worth the effort.

Fill cups with filling almost to the top.  Not too much so they don't overflow when baked.

Using a  non-stick pan they will pop right out. 

Cookies Across America

In 2011, Allrecipes.com partnered with one of the largest baking brands, Nestlé, to take the Cookies Across America campaign to the next level with it's own Facebook page at www.facebook.com/cookiesacrossamerica and pledge encouraging both brands' massive communities to "Bake a Difference" by sharing cookies throughout the month of December.

Together, the Allrecipes and Nestlé USA community of over 25 million home cooks will bake more than 1 billion cookies this holiday season, and the Cookies Across America program encourages them to share this home baked joy with those in need. 

Community members of Allrecipes and Nestlé USA have pledged to bake more than 5,500 cookies so far this holiday season (as of Dec. 1). Visit the Facebook page to view the current number.

I going to be one of those 25 million home cooks who will bake cookies and share them.  Yesterday I made Big Soft Ginger cookies  from Allrecipe.com and gave them to our local homeless shelter.  In this small way I hope that I will make someone's holiday a little better.

For more information about Cookies Across America, visit http://cookiesacrossamerica.blogspot.com or their Facebook page.

Caramel Corn

It's December so I have to repost my favorite Christmas treat, caramel corn.  I found this perfect caramel corn recipe here - Amateur Gourmet.  It's crispy and once you start eating it, it's hard to stop.   I did make one change that puts this caramel corn over the top,  I use vanilla and maple extract.   Makes a big batch so I have plenty to share.   I love the holidays!

6 quarts of Popped corn (place popped corn in a large roasting pan)

1 cup butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
2 cups brown sugar (use only C & H brand *see important note)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla (I used 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp maple extract)
1/2 tsp baking soda

Heat your oven to 250F.  Melt the butter, stir in the corn syrup,  brown sugar and salt.  Bring the mixture to a boil (medium high heat) stirring constantly. Boil (medium high heat) without stirring for 5 minutes (making sure to use a timer because you don't want to go longer as it will burn).  Remove from the heat, stir in the soda maple and vanilla (Careful! it foams!). Pour over the popped corn and mix well in roasting pan.  (Don't be too concerned about coating all the popcorn as it will coat evenly when you are stirring every ten minutes that it's in the oven.)   Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes to evenly coat (making sure to mix all the caramel that forms on the bottom of the pan.   Let it cool and eat! 

*Important note:  Use only C & H Pure Cane Sugar.  Cheap grocery store brand brown sugar just doesn't have the same flavor and quality.  The caramel comes out velvety smooth, whereas the other types of brown sugar produces a grainy texture. 


It's also interesting to note that when you add the baking soda and vanilla the consistency becomes very strange--it almost looks like caramel shaving cream.  I have to admit the first time I made this never fail caramel corn I failed!   The problem I had is that I boiled the caramel on high heat and it burned.  I corrected that to medium high heat and it turns out amazing every time.

I use this 2 qt. bowl to measure out popped corn.

 

Use a large roasting pan to mix and bake caramel corn.  As it bakes you will stir every 10 minutes, this helps to coat all the popped corn into caramel goodness!