Miniature Pecan Tarts

My personal opinion of these bite-sized pecan pies drizzled with chocolate ganache is that they are little bites of heaven. No special story on these, they are one of the goodies that joined an impressive assortment of treats that my mom, sisters, and I would assemble on trays to deliver each year at Christmastime during my upbringing in the farmland of Northern Indiana. With 4 women in our house baking, we'd each take 2 or 3 (or 4) recipes and in the two days after school let out for winter break, we'd cover our whole dining room table with buried-cherry cookies, date balls, Mexican wedding cakes, creme de menthe bars, bags of caramel corn and crazy candy hash, and these little pecan tarts (among other treats). We arranged them on trays or in boxes lined with festive tissue paper to deliver to friends and neighbors and spread some holiday cheer. Sometimes we'd even go carolling as we dropped them off. I loved doing this. It was all very Norman Rockwell-esque.

When I made these last Friday, I added my own twist to our traditional recipe by adding a chocolate ganache drizzle. Whoa! It was an excellent addition to an already delicious treat. Thank goodness I gave away all but 3 of these little treats. There are only so many squats, lunges, and sit-ups that I can endure to compensate for my lack of self control!

To make the shell for the tarts, just cream together a stick of softened butter and 3 oz. of cream cheese.



Add a cup of flour.



Cut the butter mixture into the flour until it looks like this:



I kneaded mine in the bowl a little until it all stuck together and I could form it into a ball. Then I covered it and moved it to the fridge to chill for a bit.



Divide the dough into 24 pieces and shape into balls. Drop them into mini tart or mini muffin cups.



The next step is my favorite part! This Norpro Wood Tart Tamper 6 1/4" makes this step so easy!



Dip the tamper into some flour so that the dough doesn't stick and then press into the center of each ball of dough.



Applying slow and constant pressure, press down until the dough forms around the tamper and comes up to the top of the tart cups.



And voila! A perfect miniature pie shell!



Now sprinkle some finely chopped (nearly ground) pecans into the bottom of each shell. I've never measured, but I'd guess that I use around 1/2 teaspoon.



To make the filling, combine brown sugar, eggs, very soft or melted butter, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.



Spoon the filling into each cup, over the pecans. Leave a little room at the top for...



more pecans! Give em' a good sprinkling.



This is where my picture tutorial ends. I had pictures of these coming out of the oven, cooling, and being drizzled with the ganache. However, in my haste to make space on my camera's memory stick for my daughter's school Christmas show, I deleted them. Ooops. Here is what I did: I baked em'. I removed em' from the oven and cooled in the pan for 5 minutes or so. Then I ran a butter knife around the edges of each tart to loosen em' up and then carefully lifted them onto a cooling rack. Finally, I drizzled them with a little chocolate ganache.

At least I got a picture of the finished product before I served some to the moms that attended my daughter's cookie decorating party. I also took some to my parenting group Christmas party the next day, and then I put the remainder into a pretty little tin and delivered them to a neighbor. Like I said, I can only do so many crunches to compensate... I had to get these out of my house!

Enjoy!




Miniature Pecan Tarts

For the shells:

1 (3 oz.) pkg. cream cheese
1/4 lb. butter
1 c. flour

Cream together butter and cheese. Cut in flour. Knead in the bowl, just enough so that the dough sticks together and can be formed into a ball. Cover and chill for 30 minutes. Form into 24 balls. Place 1 ball of dough in each mini tart cup and press into shape.

1 cup finely chopped or ground pecans

Put 1/2 - 1 teaspoon pecans into the bottom of each tart shell, reserving the rest.

For the filling:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt

Combine filling ingredients. Fill shells 3/4 full of filling and sprinkle more pecans on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in pan. Loosen tarts with a knife and remove to cooling rack. Drizzle.

Chocolate Drizzle:

1/2 cup chocolate chips
2-4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Melt chocolate with whipping cream in a small bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until smooth. If additional melting is needed, heat at 10 second intervals, stirring after each. Add more cream as needed to achieve desire drizzling consistency.

Cherry Almond Fudge

Ahh, the gift of fudge. Better than a fruitcake, but not as nice as a membership to the jelly of the month club. Sorry...I'm watching Christmas Family Vacation...again. Actually, this fudge recipe ended my search for the perfect Christmas fudge. It's easy to make and delicious! In my opinion an excellent addition to an assorted box of goodies or a gift that can stand on it's own. I vividly remember Christmas fudge from my childhood. When I was in the first grade, my piano teacher, Mrs. Frankle gave me a half a pound of the most delicious homemade fudge along with a hand-painted mouse ornament, dressed as an angel and playing a horn. That ornament still hangs on my tree, I still vividly remember that velvety fudge, and Mrs. Frankle just celebrated her 90th birthday in June! It must have been good fudge if I can remember it 25+ years after the fact! Then, when I was in the second grade my family moved and I stopped taking piano lessons from Mrs. Frankle. That December, I found that a move and a new piano teacher didn't mean I'd miss out on the Christmas fudge. One frosty day, right before Christmas, our new neighbor, Lorraine showed up all rosy cheeked and smiling with a tin of fudge that was every bit as good as my piano teacher's. Each and every year, without fail, Lorraine's Christmas fudge would show up at our house in time for Christmas. I'd cut it out of the tin with a little plastic knife, sliver by sliver, and let it slowly melt on my tongue to make it last longer. I tell ya, both of those ladies knew how to make some fudge!

I have no idea what sparked the memory, but last year as I was planning my holiday baking, I remembered the tins of Christmas fudge consumed throughout my childhood and decided that I needed a version of my own. I searched until I found this recipe in Taste of Home. Since chocolate-covered cherries are another of my Christmas favorites, this recipe grabbed my attention. Now it's been tested on my family and we all agree, this fudge is awesome!

I began by lining my tins with aluminum foil. This way you can pull the foil straight out of the tin and easily cut the fudge before serving. If you prefer to give your fudge in the form of little squares or you're just making it for yourself, then line a 8 X 8 inch baking pan with foil. Grease the foil. Butter, shortening, or cooking spray will work.



Measure out 2 cups of chocolate chips and combine with a can of sweetened condensed milk. You can do this in a sauce pan or in a microwave safe dish. I used the microwave last year. This year I doubled the recipe and did it on the stove top.



Melt the chocolate and condensed milk over low heat on the stove or in the microwave according to the recipe directions.



Now chop 1/2 cup of maraschino cherries.



Stir the cherries and almond extract into the chocolate mixture. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of chopped almonds too. I happened to be out, so I didn't add them this year.



Pour the fudge into your prepared pan or tins. I double this recipe, so it filled 4 small tins and 1 medium-sized.



Before serving or gifting, I cover the tins and let the fudge set up in the fridge for a couple of hours. You should probably let the recipient know that it needs to be stored in the fridge as well. This is going into the teacher gift bags next to the Peppermint Stick Cocoa Mix, bags of caramel corn and gingerbread cookies. I hope that my daughter's teachers love this as much as I do!




Cherry Almond Fudge from Taste of Home

Ingredients

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup red candied cherries, chopped
1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions
Line an 8-in. square pan with foil and grease the foil; set aside. In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and milk on high for about 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, stirring until smooth. Stir in the almonds, cherries and extract. Spread into prepared pan. Cover and chill for 2 hours or until set. Using foil, lift fudge out of pan. Discard foil; cut fudge into 1-in. squares. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: about 1 pound.


Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 each) equals 55 calories, 3 g fat (1 g saturated fat), 2 mg cholesterol, 9 mg sodium, 8 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 1 g protein.

A Princess Cookie Decorating Party and A Twist on My Traditional Gingerbread Men

A couple of weeks ago...as I spent a day trying to unpack from our Thanksgiving trip and return to life as usual...my daughter kept running up to me and hopping around me, shouting out ideas for "her party". Declarations of "At my party we'll do ballet and pretend we're in The Nutcracker"..."At my party we'll dress like princesses."..."At my party we'll..." well, you probably get the idea. My daughter has quite an imagination and I guessed that she was just pretending that she was the hostess of a party, so I answered each of her party planning announcements with phrases like, "That's nice." and "Oh, that will be fun!" as I went about my daily tasks. I didn't realize that she was really planning a party. That is, until that night after we'd said her prayers and I tucked her in. As I turned to leave her room, she started crying. "What's wrong?" I asked (truly trying to keep the edge out of my voice) I wanted to be patient and understanding. I really did. But honestly, I was tired and ready to be "off-duty". I mean, as a mom, you're always on-call, but there is something wonderful about that hour after the kids are in bed and the house is quiet (or you're alone with the sound of your favorite t.v. show) and you're sort of off-duty. I was one step out of her door and on my way to this magical quiet time when she replied, "Mom, I've been trying to talk to you all day about my Christmas party and I can tell that you're ignoring me." She called me out, and she was totally right. I thought back over the day and realized that she had been pretty focused on this "party" all day long. Her little tears melted my heart. I apologized and promised to discuss the party over breakfast. I kind of thought that she'd forget about it. I should've known better...this kid doesn't forget a thing!

Over Coco Wheats (for her) and coffee (for me) we came up with the idea of a cookie decorating party. We'd serve hot chocolate and the guests could dress up in princess dresses (from my daughter's collection)...if they wanted to. My daughter wanted to set a strict dress code, but I explained that 1. it's kind of rude to tell your friends what to wear to such a casual party 2. Her friends might not own a princess dress and 3. Princess dresses are NOT practical cookie decorating apparel. I explained to my daughter that she could invite 4 friends and then we set about making the invitations.

I found some printable coloring pages and then typed the party information in the center, dictated by my daughter, of course. Then I gave her some water color paints and a glitter stick and we painted them while my youngest napped away the afternoon.





The day before the party, we baked the cookies, my favorite White Velvet Cutouts recipe found here, and mixed up the Buttercream frosting. Before our guests arrived I hung an apron on the back of every chair, put down a piece of waxed paper where each child would sit, put a variety of cut out cookies on each piece of waxed paper, placed sprinkles and a roll of paper towel in the center of the table, made a batch of hot cocoa on my stovetop (recipe on the cocoa container), tuned into the holiday music channel (which the girls did spend some time dancing to...although I'm not sure it was at all like The Nutcracker), and set out a couple of snacks for the grown-ups that chose to stay for the party. That's it! This party came together quickly and easily.

Once the girls had changed into princess attire and danced a few numbers to the holiday tunes playing from our television, the decorating began!



The class monkey joined in the fun (he goes home with a different student each weekend and the kids write about where the monkey travelled in a journal, shared on Mondays). One of my daughter's friends had "Monkey" this weekend.



My toddler ate her weight in frosting.



She also decorated her first cookie ever. Hey, not too shabby for a not-quite-2-year-old. Restraint with the sprinkles will come in time....



As the afternoon wore on, the girls shared the frosting, and decorating tips, and little girl conversation....




And they got those cookies frosted.



Okay, so maybe the moms helped a little...pictured here is the cookie decorating culmination of dynamic mother-daughter duo, our good friends Staycie and Anna.



Each guest took home a big box of cookies. I was going to purchase cookie boxes from our local cake decorating shop, but my local grocery store was nice enough to give my husband 4 doughnut boxes. They worked perfectly.



This cookie decorating party is definitely a tradition that I'd like to continue. It's just fun! Fun to see the what the girls come up with...fun to catch up with the other moms...fun to eat the cookies! I felt so festive after the guests left that I had to go Christmas shopping!

Later in the weekend, we made gingerbread cookies. I have been making these gingerbread cookies since my oldest daughter was just 3 months old. It's "our" tradition. Every year she get older and takes on a new responsibility in the "gingerbread process". I love rememembering back to previous years and realizing how much she has learned and grown. That first year she slept through most of the cookie making in her bouncy seat. Now she helps to measure, mix, cut out, put on the "buttons, sprinkle the sugar, and tie the ribbons. This year, her little sister scooted a chair over the the kitchen counter and joined in the fun. Someday I'll be old and gray and these sisters may be teaching their little ones how to make gingerbread cookies....

You can read all about our gingerbread cookies and get the recipe right here.



Well, after 5 years of making gingerbread cookies, I welcome a change. I'm not ready to give up the gingerbread tradition, but I was happy to find a new way to decorate our gingerbread cookies. A friend called me last week, "Did you see how Cheryl's Cookies had the gingerbread decorated in their catalogue? It was SO cute!" I checked it out. She was right, gingerbread reindeer are super cute and a nice break from the usual! I put my own twist on them and came up with these Rudolph gingerbread cookies....



The second that I turned that cookie upside down, I could totally see a reindeer!


I also baked pecan tarts, caramel corn, and made a big batch o' fudge this weekend too! Recipes coming soon....

Peppermint Stick Cocoa Mix

Today, my daughter and I put together this peppermint stick cocoa mix for her teachers. The minute that I saw this gift idea on myrecipes.com I knew that I wanted to make it for the teacher goody bags this year.

As a former (or maybe I should say temporarily-retired-while-I-raise-my-young- children) teacher, I have to say that I loved the gifts that would show up on my desk the week before Christmas vacation. Seriously. I cherished and appreciated each and every one...from the Starbuck's gift cards to the homemade goodies...I was touched that some of my students thought enough of me to choose or make a gift or write a card, bring it to school, and place it on my desk. They might not always remember their homework, but they remembered me while studying for finals, planning for the holiday formal or choir show, and letting their thoughts wander to a whole two weeks off of sleeping in and socializing. One of my favorite gifts from my time as a teacher is this toy soldier ornament.



I received this gift from a beautiful, intelligent, young lady in one of the Fashion and Textile classes that I taught back in 2001. It was my second year of teaching, my first year in a new school, and I had an amazing group of young women in my classes. Inside the ornament, my student wrote in paint marker, "Thank you for everything - Merry Christmas 2001". Then she signed her name. Each year when I set this little guy on my mantle, a smile comes across my face as I think about her, those classes, and the students that I taught that year.

If you've got the time and the talents, homemade gifts are a fun way to share that holiday joy with a special teacher. My daughter loves helping to make these presents every year. She delivers them with pride, and an "I made that for you!"

This one is easy. It would make a great gift for a teacher or neighbor, and honestly I'd like to make a batch just to have around the house. You only need 5 ingredients: powdered milk, cocoa, sugar, peppermint candy, and miniature chocolate chips.



Both of my children had a wonderful time crushing the candy canes for the peppermint element that this recipe is named for. It wasn't nearly as fun for me, playing peace keeper as they fought over the meat mallet. "Stop it! It's my turn!" "No! I do it! I do it!". Meat mallets are very scary in the hands of a willful toddler...



After carefully layering ingredients into the two pint-sized jars, we tied a pretty ribbon on each and a gift tag (cut from construction paper and tied on with a piece of thread) with mixing instructions. I wish that I could have found a better pen than a Sharpie marker to write these. A fine-tipped pen would have made for a more legible result. Next time....



These cocoa mixes will accompany bags of homemade caramel corn, gingerbread cookies, and tins of cherry almond fudge (these recipes coming soon to Krista's Kitchen) in the holiday goody bags for my daughter's wonderful teachers this year.



You can find the recipe for Peppermint Stick Cocoa Mix here at myrecipes.com.

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm!

Cranberry Orange Scones

Hello everyone! I've been away from Krista's Kitchen for a few days. My mom and my husband's mom are visiting. We've had a lovely time together. Monday night we attended my daughter's school Christmas program and last night I took "the moms" to see Wicked. We also hit the stores for some shopping, got pictures with Santa, train rides, and in the very few quiet moments of down time we thoroughly enjoyed these scones over cups of coffee and tea.

While this scone recipe is one of my tried-and-true favorites, the first time that I set out to make scones, I was a bit intimidated. Scones. They sounded a bit intimidating. Fancy, even. The name conjured images of formal teas with crumpets and fine ladies in white gloves. I'd only had them at Panera and it was love at first bite. Even as a young woman, fresh out of college, I knew that I wanted to make them in my very own kitchen. And so I did...right there in my tiny studio apartment kitchen.

After baking scones for the first time, I realized that they're really no more difficult to make than biscuits. A few more ingredients, but really, no more effort. I'm not sure where I came across this recipe, but I love the marriage of the orange flavor with the tart cranberries. These really capture the flavors of the holidays, they look so festive, and best of all, they are oh-so-tasty with my morning coffee.(Chugged in my pj's in a desperate attempt to wake up, rather than sipped in white gloves and tea length dresses.)

Here's what you need: Flour, sugar, butter, baking powder and soda, salt, orange peel, an egg, orange juice, cream, and cranberries.



Begin by stirring the dry ingredients together and then cutting in 1/3 cup of butter.



In a small bowl, combine the cranberries, orange juice, cream, and egg.



Pour the liquid ingredients into the flour mixture and stir to make a soft dough.



This recipe, which I copied down by hand some time ago (before I began blogging about my kitchen adventures and therefore did not feel the need to cite the source) recommends that I knead the dough 6-8 times on a floured surface. I must have adapted it since I first began making these scones, because now I flour my hands and I knead the dough in a bowl until I can form it into a neat little ball. Hey, no mess on my countertops!



Now pat the dough into an 8-inch circle. You can "eye-ball" it like I usually do or use a ruler. If you're really lucky, you have one of those pastry mats with the measurements already on them. I like to do this on a floured piece of waxed paper, so that I don't have to scrub flour off of my countertops.



Now cut the circle into 8-10 wedges.



Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet and then brush with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar. Decorative white sugar crystals would be ideal here...unfortunately, I didn't have any. I just sprinkled granulated sugar on top. Maybe next time...



I bake mine at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Cool em' on a rack.



Then glaze em'. I mixed OJ and powdered sugar to make a glaze. An eggnog glaze might be fun here too...



These make an excellent gift for your friends and neighbors. Just line a box or tin with a holiday tea towel and fill it up with these yummy, festive, fragrant scones. For an extra special touch, add a tub of orange marmalade butter (recipe below).



Or just keep em' for yourself...maybe invite a friend over for coffee. Take a break from the hustle and bustle.




Cranberry Orange Scones

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon dried or 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange peel
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup cold unsalted butter
1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon milk
sugar

In a bowl combine flour, sugar, orange peel, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, combine cranberries, orange juice, cream, and egg. Add to flour mixture. Stir to make a soft dough. Knead 6-8 times on a floured surface (or in the bowl). Pat into an 8-inch circle. Cut into 8-10 wedges. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Brush with milk. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes until golden brown. Glaze and serve with orange butter.

Orange glaze

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon orange juice

Orange butter

1/2 cup softened butter
2-3 tablespoons orange marmalade