Mini Pecan Pies

A slice of Pecan Pie is a wonderful treat! Pecan nuts are crunchy, tasty, nutty and look beautiful too! But a whole pie might be too much, so I decided to make single portions using silicon muffin forms and used less filling as it tends to be too sweet for me.

Now that they are almost bite-size, I can also add them to my Christmas cookies plate.

Don’t they look lovely? Believe me, they taste even better!

I was inspired by a recipe that I found in one of my favorite cookbooks, as it is a collection of recipes from all over the world, written by many of my culinary sisters (as I love to call them) from International Cooking Club Singapore. The book is called “The red dot melting pot” and can be ordered online (no affiliation, this is a non-profit organization).

I adapted the recipe slightly to my needs and taste, as I always do. This one will make about 30 mini pies, depending on the size of your muffin tins. If you wish to do just 12-15 mini pies, cut the quantities in half.

Do you love the idea of mini portions? Then go ahead and check out also my buttermilk mini cakes here!

Ingredients for the pie crust:

• 280g of flour
• 20g of sugar
• 4g of salt
• 175g of cold butter
• 1 egg
• cold water

Ingredients for the filling:

• 2 eggs
• 100g of sugar
• a splash of vanilla extract
• 120g of light corn syrup
• 70g of melted butter
• 120-150g of pecan nuts

Instructions:

1. In a bowl mix together flour (280g), sugar (20g) and salt (4g).
2. Add the cold butter (175g) cut in small pieces and mix.
3. Now add the egg and one tablespoon of cold water. You might need to mix by hand now to form the dough, stop as soon as it sticks altogether.
4. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
5. Grease the muffin forms (or any other mold of your choice) with non-stick spray or melted butter.
6. Preheat the oven at 170° on ventilation mode.
7. Take a piece of dough and press it in the muffin tin with your fingertips and make a small cup in it.
8. Blind bake the crust for 5 minutes, in the meantime, prepare the filling as follows:
9. Whisk well the eggs (2) and sugar (100g) in a bowl.
10. Add a splash of vanilla extract, the corn syrup (120g), and the melted butter (70g, room temperature) and mix well.
11. Now use a tablespoon to pour the filling in your half-baked mini pie crusts and top them with pecan nuts (I like to use one or two whole ones and then some broken ones to fill the gaps).
12. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
13. Let them cool down 5 minutes, remove from the tins (I suggest silicon as it makes this step really easy) and let cool completely on a rack.
14. Enjoy!