Sunday, December 22, 2013

Pecan Pies and Christmas Treats


I have been a bad blogger. It is 3 sleeps until Christmas and I haven't posted ANYTHING in a month let alone anything Christmas related. For this I apologise. In my defence though, we are currently packing up our house for the big move back to Sarina and I have been working some extra shifts at the bakery. Also I spent the last couple of weeks studying my workbooks for my final assessment, which I passed, HOORAY!


So sadly Christmas blogging has been put to the back of my mind until now. I have made a few tasty christmas treats and boxed them up for some little christmas gifts. I made chocolate balls, rum balls, marshmallow, coconut ice and the crowning glory Pecan Pies. I used recipes from Taste.com for the marshmallow and coconut ice and just kind of made up the recipe for chocolate and rum balls (sorry will post them if I have time). 


I bought the cute little boxes from BIG W for $5 for a pack of six. I lined them with some baking paper and just filled them with Christmassy goodness. This will be my last chance to post before Christmas so from my kitchen to yours, I'd like to thank you for visiting my blog throughout the year, may you all have a very merry Christmas and a Food-tastic New Years!!


Christmas Pecan Pies

Adapted from Taste.com

What you will need


For the pastry
2 cups plain flour
240g chilled butter, cubed
2 tbs caster sugar
1 egg yolk
3 tsp iced water

For the filling
3 eggs, lightly whisked
3/4 cup golden syrup
100g  brown sugar
50g butter, melted
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped

What you will need to do


To make the pastry, place the flour, butter and sugar in the bowl of a food processor, and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and iced water and process until the mixture just begins to come together. Turn the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until smooth. Shape into a disc, cover with plastic and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Preheat oven to 200°C and prepare a nonstick muffin tray or lightly oil a normal muffin tray. Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll 1 portion out to about 3mm-thick. Use a cutter just bigger than the muffin tray holes to cut discs ( I got about 15). Use the discs to line the muffin tray and place back in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

Bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven. Reduce oven temperature to 160°C. Meanwhile, to make the pecan filling, whisk the eggs, golden syrup, sugar and butter in a medium bowl. Stir in pecans. Pour mixture evenly into warm pastry cases. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until just set in centre. Place pies on a wire rack to cool.