TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs

Pecan Powder Puffs, Mexican Wedding Cookies, Pecan Sandie... This cookie is called many different things, but regardless of the name it is delicious. Tender, melt in your mouth cookie speckled with ground pecans, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Yummmm... You can't eat just one.



Mixing these cookies was quick and easy, especially since I took Dorie' suggestion and mixed the dough in a food processor.



But I did have a little trouble with the baking. I chilled the dough for about 3 hours, but I guess my hot little hands softened the butter as I formed the balls. The cookies spread like crazy. Poor little Pecan Powder Pancakes.



For the second batch I rolled the dough into the little balls first and then chilled them for a few hours. This time they baked up perfectly round little domes of puffy pecan delights.



I baked these gems for my Mom's 77th Birthday on March 20th. She got a laugh from the 77 candles I had on her cake. She had no trouble blowing them all out, and no, the smoke alarm did not go off.

Steve's Pecan Parline Bars

This last week has been a nightmare. On Monday, March 21st my younger brother, Steve, went in for a colonoscopy and they found a mass the size of a baseball on his colon. The doctor said it have been growing there for 10 years. On Wednesday (his birthday) he had a CT scan that found spots on his liver. The whole family is numb with shock and disbelief, he is only 44 and has three kids.

On Saturday we had his birthday party, and I made him his favorite dessert: Pecan Pralines Bars. Here is the recipe I used, but I subbed half the white sugar for brown sugar.


Here is my brother, always happy, always smiling. He is having surgery on Wednesday, March 30 to remove a part of his colon. He will start chemo right after that...


If you are over the age of 40, please, please go and get a colonoscopy. Even if you don't have any symptoms. Most doctors say you don't need it until you are 50, but don't risk it. You are playing Russian Roulette with you life.

I scheduled my appointment (I'm scared to death about what they might find), now you schedule YOURS!!!!

TWD: Dorie's Favorite Pecan Pie

Things were crazy busy during December, so I didn't get a chance to bake ANY of the Tuesday with Dorie December assignments. I felt so guilt that on New Year’s Eve (afternoon) I was in the kitchen baking not ONE but THREE TWD assignments.

The first one finished was “Dorie’s Favorite Pecan Pie”. The dessert was going to a New Year’s Eve party, so I wanted the pie to be more finger-foodish.

Ta Da – mini chocolate pecan pies.

Like any pecan pie, it is a breeze to throw together. Pretty much dump all the indigents into a bowl, give it a few stirs, pour it into a pie shell, and bake. Dorie’s Favorite Pecan Pie is different from most because it contains chocolate, cinnamon, and espresso powder.


So has Dorie’s Favorite Pecan Pie become mine? Well honestly, no. I love chocolate. I love Pecan Pie. But for some reason I didn’t like the two combined.

I think I’ll stick with my go-to Maple Pecan Pie recipe. It is sweet, gooey, and the maple flavor gives it a unique taste.

Cream Cheese-Coconut-Pecan Pound Cake

I love pound cake and I adore coconut, so when I found a Southern Living recipe for Cream Cheese-Coconut-Pecan Pound Cake I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

The recipe called for bourbon in the batter, but I substituted it for an equal amount of heavy cream. I know people say that the bourbon intensifies the flavor of the cake, but I just don't care for liquor in my baked goods (no Tortuga rum cakes for me). I also baked the cake in mini loaf pans (7) instead of one large tube pan. The mini loaf pans had two advantages: 1) I could split the batter and make some with coconut and some without (weird family members who hate coconut) and 2) any loaves that remained uneaten by the end of the party could be sent home with guests and thus kept away from my greedy pound cake lovin lips and hips.

Here are the loaf pans waiting to go into the oven. I divided the batter between seven of the eight available wells. I could have used all eight, but I thought that it would make the loaves too flat.

Just out of the oven, puffy, golden brown and oh-so tempting.


Waiting for their bath in shiny glaze.


The original Southern Living article gave two glaze options. One was a plain powdered sugar glaze and the other was a brown sugar-praline glaze. I always go for the more calorie packed option, so I opted for the praline glaze. Here is the glaze cooking on the stove.


After I drizzled the praline glaze over a few of the loaves, I decided I didn't like the way it looked. The glaze looked splotchy and coarse, and it didn't flow like I wanted. Plus it hardened immediately and I didn't have time to smash the coconut into the glaze.


So I whipped up a batch of shiny butter cream icing, and used it instead of the praline glaze. The butter cream stayed soft for a while so I was able to coat the entire thing with coconut flakes. Perfect.


And here are the few slices.


While stuffing my face with pound cake I did noticed that the loaves with coconut in the batter were moister than the loaves without the coconut. Did the coconut help to hold moisture during baking? The loaves were all baked at the same time and the pans were rotated halfway through the baking period, so the only thing different was the coconut.

So don't omit the coconut, without it the finished cake is slightly dry.

If you want a deliciously moist pound cake without coconut and pecans try Elvis Presley's Favorite Whipping Cream Pound Cake. It is one of the best pounds cakes I have ever tried.

---

Cream Cheese-Coconut-Pecan Pound Cake
from Southern Living - December 2004, 2008

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
* 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 3 cups sugar
* 6 large eggs
* 3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup bourbon (I used heavy whipping cream)
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
* 1/2 cup shredded coconut

Preparation

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a baking sheet, spread pecans in a single layer and bake for 5-7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant. Cool completely.
* Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.
* Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
* Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy.
* Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until the yellow yolk disappears.
* Sift together flour and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with bourbon (or milk), beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat batter at low speed just until blended after each addition.
* Stir in vanilla, pecans, and coconut. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch/12-cup tube pan. (I used 7 mini loaf pans.)

* Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 35 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack. (I baked my mini loaf pans for 35 minutes.)

---

Brown Sugar-Praline Glaze
from Southern Living - December 2004, 2008

Ingredients

* 1/4 cup butter
* 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
* 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
* 2 Tablespoons milk
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

* Melt butter in a 1-quart saucepan over medium heat.
* Whisk in brown sugar and corn syrup; cook 1 minute.
* Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla; whisk until creamy (about 2 minutes).
* Remove from heat and use immediately.

---

Shiny Butter Cream Icing
from Tongue-N-Cheeky

Ingredients

* 2 cups powdered sugar
* 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 Tablespoon corn syrup
* 1 teaspoon heavy cream

Preparation

* In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. With an electric mixer, at medium speed, beat until mixed well.
* If thinner consistency is desired, add corn syrup by the teaspoon.

Pecan Pie Cookies

Awesome, that is the one word that came to mind when I bit into this cookie the first time. Totally awesome. The cookie part is tender and buttery and the filling is a cross between pecan pralines and pecan pie filling. Delicious.

Here is the pecan pie filling ready to be spooned into the cookie "pie shell".


And the cookie dough ready to receive said filling. I used the round end of a lemon zester to make the cavity in the cookie dough, but the hole didn't look big enough so I used my fingers to widen and deepen the depression.


Then I heaped the cavities with the pecan mixture. Don't be scared to overfill. The filling is well behaved and didn't over flow the cookie shells (too much).


Yummm.... What a flavor combination. But as a true connoisseur of all things pecan, I think the filling taste more like pecan pralines than pecan pie. But regardless of the name you use, they are fantastic.



The original recipe came from Land O’ Lakes, and I made just a few tweaks.


Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted Butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt


Filling Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla


Heat oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl whisk flour, baking power and salt.
In another blow combine butter and brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add egg and vanilla to butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined.
Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture. Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls (approximately 1 generous Tablespoon of dough). Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make indentation in each cookie, and then hollow and widen the indentation with your thumb.

Combine all filling ingredients in small bowl.
Fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon of filling.
Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned (I baked mine for 12 minutes and they were perfect.)
Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.

Maple Pecan Tarts

Pecan pie is one of the easiest desserts you can bake. Just whisk together all the ingredients, pour into purchased shells and bake. No fuss, no mess, no complicated instructions or time consuming prep. This is my kind of pie. And as an added bonus, it tastes divine.

Yield: 8 mini pies

Ingredients

1 package of 8 frozen mini pie shells
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 large eggs, lightly whisked
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped, plus 8 perfect pecan halves for garnish.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Remove frozen/unbaked mini pie shells from wrapping and place on a foil lines cookie sheet.
Distribute the chopped pecans between the 8 pie shells.
Whisk together remaining ingredients.
Pour filling into shells and over nuts. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of filling mix.
Place a pecan half in the center of each pie and drizzle the reserved filling over the pecan half.
Bake for 40-45 minutes until the tops are puffy and the crust is golden brown.


Heaven in a butter shell.