SWEET POTATO PECAN PIE TARTS

I'm posting this at midnight and it is FIFTEEN BELOW ZERO HERE!!
This last weekend was our 39th wedding anniversary; we were high school sweethearts. To celebrate, I made a big roast beef dinner and these heavenly little tarts that I found on Shelby's The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honybunch. They are absolutely delicious tiny bites (about the size of a tassie) of cinnamon spiced sweet potato and pecans all baked in a pre-prepared mini-phyllo cup. They are impressive looking, great tasting, ultra-easy and (believe it or not) the recipe says they are only about 45 calories each!! It doesn't get much better than that!!!

1 cup cooked & mashed sweet potato
3 tablespoons white sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chopped toasted pecans
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon dark corn syrup (I used light)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg white
2 (2.1 ounce) packages mini-phyllo shells

Poke sweet potatoes a few times with a knife and place them in a pie plate with 2 tablespoons of water; cover loosely with waxed paper and microwave on high for five minutes (mine took 7 minutes) or until tender.

Mash and measure out 1 cup of sweet potato. Add sugar, cinnamon and salt and stir well (I used my electric mixer to really mash the potatoes). Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine toasted pecans, brown sugar, syrup, vanilla and egg white. Stir well and set aside.

Set mini phyllo shells on a baking sheet and put about 1 teaspoon of the sweet potato mixture into the bottom of each shell (gently push down-in a little). Spoon ½ teaspoon of pecan mixture over the sweet potato mixture. Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

NOTE: Our super-store sells these little pre-made phyllo shells in the ATHENS brand.

FUDGE FOR CHRISTMAS

We are all snowed in today (big storm yesterday) and the temperature didn't get above +20F today (tonight it is zero), so it was a great day to play in the kitchen.

This fudge recipe comes from Tried and True Yummy Recipes and it is excellent. I made a full batch and poured it into these neat little foil stars made by Reynolds foil. If you wrapped them in a clear cellophane bag and tied them with bright Christmas ribbon, I think they would be a perfect little "Merry Christmas" gift for the mail man, school teacher, newspaper boy and even stocking stuffers.


The little foil pans (24 in a box) come in a variety of shapes. The foil is rigid enough to contain the hot fudge, but also soft enough (when the fudge has cooled and set) that it can be peeled back like a candy bar wrapper.
4 cups white sugar
1 twelve ounce can of evaporated milk
2 sticks of good quality butter (not margarine)
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
12 ounces milk chocolate chips
1 tablespoon vanilla
chopped nuts if desired

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, mix the white sugar and evaporated milk; boil for six minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir until melted and pour into a foil lined 9 x 13 pan. Cool in the fridge to set.
NOTE: I used one package of semi-sweet chocolate chips and one package of peanut butter chips and a cup of dry roasted peanuts, it was delicious.


NOTE: Any kind of chocolate chip would work in this recipe I'm sure. Two packages of peanut butter chips would make a nice peanut butter fudge.

ALMOND BUTTERSCOTCH BARS

Not long ago, Mary at One Perfect Bite, posted a recipe that had my name on it!! By that, I mean it sounded perfect for ME. It was called Maple Chocolate Walnut Bars and I set out to make them right away. As luck would have it, by the time I got the crust into the oven, I realized I was out of walnuts (so I used sliced almonds) AND I was out of chocolate chips (so I used butterscotch chips). Don't you hate it when you are knee deep into a recipe before you realize your out of something? While I still want to try Mary's recipe, Hubby is totally convinced that the resulting almond-butterscotch version is the ultimate treat (he ate 95% of the pan himself in two days!!).

Here is Mary's original recipe, with my tweaks in red.
1½ cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup cold butter
2 large eggs
(1) 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1½ teaspoons maple extract
2 cups chopped walnuts (I used sliced almonds)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used butterscotch)

Combine flour, sugar and salt in large bowl and cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (I did this in the food processor). Stir in one egg (add egg while food processor is running). Press crumbs evenly into an ungreased 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes (you will bake it more later).

Beat sweetened condensed milk, one remaining egg and maple extract in a medium bowl, stir in nuts. After crust has baked for 25 minutes, remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips. (Recipe calls for ONE cup of chocolate chips, I used TWO cups of butterscotch chips). Top with nut mixture, spreading evenly to the edges of pan. Bake another 20 to 25 minutes (my oven took 20 minutes). Cool in the pan and cut into bars.

The bars are dense, rich, sweet and moist...totally addicting.
NOTE: Mary's recipe called for one cup of chocolate chips. I mis-read it and put in TWO cups of butterscotch chips. This is an adjustement I will definitely do again. I don't think one cup is enough.