Baking Time!

Since the writing world has been depressing me so much, I decided to start baking again. The weather is cooler and it just feels right. Plus, I wanted to do mini-desserts for Thanksgiving and I'm not about to experiment this year.

So I baked two pecan things yesterday. Neither one of them was very good. They were okay, but not holiday worthy.

1) mini pecan pies--I actually had to roll out the crust for this one. I didn't over work it and it was nice and buttery, but in my mini cupcake pan it was simply too much crust for the filling. And the filling was NOT good. I followed the recipe, but it simply didn't get caramelly enough. I knew this before I filled the little crusts, but I followed the recipe anyway. I should have gone with my gut and started over.
--Sampled one, er, two, but the rest went to work with hubby. I'll rethink how I deal with this.

2) Chocolate pecan tart--Chocolate crumb crust does NOT work well in mini tart pans. Next time, I'll press it out and bake it for about 5 minutes and then CUT little round bottoms to fit in the mini muffin holes. Opted to bake it in a 9-in square tart pan. The filling was more caramelly, but when I added the chocolate it became too chocolatey. Ate a piece. It was okay, too. I need to think out my approach prior to baking next time.
--the rest of the tart is at work with hubby.

Both recipes failed. But I have time to 'fix' them.

Today, I'll try a couple of non-bake things. One is a pumpkin cheesecake with eggs in it. I'll experiment with 1) microwaving the filling, and 2) cooking it on the stovetop, instead of baking.

I'll let you know how it works.

Later, Peeps!