By the Batch – Mini Pecan Pies

I watched an episode of Street Eats recently that featured a food cart called The Pie Spot. Their menu consists of  mini pies that you eat with your hands – sounds delicious, right? So delicious that I wanted one, really wanted one. But since The Pie Spot is in Portland I had to make my own. So I adapted this crust recipe and this filling recipe and whipped up a batch of mini pecan pies.

 

Ingredients

For Crust

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons milk

For Filling

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup pecan halves

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F. To make the crust, combine all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Mix with a fork until pea sized balls form. Loosely fill the holes of a muffin tin with the dough mixture. You’ll have dough left over as this recipe yields 18 mini pies. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of each hole. 

For the filling begin by beating the eggs lightly in a medium bowl. Add corn syrup, sugar, butter, vanilla and salt; stir until well blended. Pour your mixture into the dough filled muffin pan holes, about 3/4 full. Again, you’ll have leftover filling enough to make 6 additional pies.

Arrange two pecan halves on top of each pie and then place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking for 25-30 minutes. Because muffin tin sizes vary so will your cooking time so check frequently – the pies are done when they are browned and puffed up on top.

Let cool completely before removing pies from tin. If they stick you  can gently run a knife around the edges to loosen them.  I recommend warming them slightly and serving with whipped cream!