Nut Pies for Blake!

These are little Pecan Tassies, or in my house knows as nut pies. Blake has always called pecan pie this, I am not really sure why though. He loves this pie and every Thanksgiving and Christmas my parents always buy 2 frozen pecan pies and gives 1 to him. So, it really was no surprise that this week when I asked him what he would like to bake, it was nut pie. Then he asked if he could make mini nut pies so that he could take them in his lunch to school.

These little tassies are really easy to make and quick to throw together. They are perfect if you need a finger food to take somewhere.

Pecan Tassies:

Tart Shells:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup all purpose flour

Filling:
2 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pecan halves, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For tart shells, beat butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add flour, mix until a soft dough forms. (Blake did this in the KA with the paddle attachment.)

Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place into ungreased cups of mini muffin pan. Press dough into the bottom and up the sides of the muffin cups.

For filling, mix melted butter with the brown sugar, egg and vanilla until combined. Add the pecans and mix.

Fill each tart shell with filling, do not overfill. Bake 20-25 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from oven, cool in pan for 3 minutes. Transfer tassies from muffin tin to cooling rack. Cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen.

Doughnut making with Blake

This is my son Blake, and he is 10 years old. For this week of baking with my kids, Blake chose doughnuts. This recipe came from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman. The description in the book said that these were almost exactly like Krispy Kreme. She was completely right. They taste just like them. The only problem that Blake and I ran into was that this dough was really, really sticky. I used the 5 cups of flour and then needed more. So, alot of our doughnuts looked like fritters and not round. Actually, only 2 or 3 ended up round! But that was ok, they still tasted great and we will try them again.

Mixing the ingredients, before putting on the dough hook...

Oh, and how could I forget this part. Our dough did not rise! I am not sure if my yeast was old or what..but no rising action here with the dough. Oh well, we deep fried them anyways..

After frying them, drain them and then dip them in the butter glaze and you have this...

The verdict? Very good! They didn't last long!

Homemade Franchise-Style Doughnuts

Dough:

1/4 cup warm water (100-110 degrees F)

2 Tbsp rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup shortening

5 cups, approximately, all-purpose flour

Vegetable oil or shortening, for frying

In a mixer bowl, hand-whisk warm water and yeast together and let stand 2-3 minutes to dissolve yeast. Briskly whisk in milk, sugar, salt, and eggs and blend. Add shortening and most of flour and blend. Then knead with a dough hook on low speed only until smooth (it is not necessary to knead this dough a long time.)

Remove dough hook and spray dough lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Cover entire mixer and bowl with a large clear plastic bag. Let dough rise 50-60 minutes or until almost doubled. Turn dough onto a lightly floured work surface and gently deflate. Roll to 1/2 inch thickness and , using a doughnut cutter,cut into doughnuts. Cover doughnuts loosely with plastic wrap and let rise 20-40 minutes.

Heat vegetable oil or shortening in a fryer (or wok) to 350 degrees F. Slide in doughnuts, a few at a time, and fry about 1 minute per side. Remove from oil onto a wire rack set over parchment paper.

Creamy Butter Glaze:

1/2 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

4-6 Tbsp hot water

1 ounce semisweet chocolate, melted, optional

For Creamy Butter Glaze:

Melt butter and then whisk it in a medium bowl with powdered sugar,vanilla, and hot water. Smear doughnuts in glaze.

For Chocolate Glaze, if desired, add 1 ounce melted chocolate to one entire recipe of Butter Glaze. Smear doughnuts in chocolate glaze.