Traditional vs Keto: Pecan Tassies

 

The family holiday kitchen traditions continue, with more cookies and more trying to avoid misbehaving.

For the better part of my existence, The Bat had been baking pecan tassies for Christmas, mostly using this recipe (see photos immediately below, click to embiggen), from Charlotte Erickson's The Freezer Cookbook. 

 But this year, a number of my family members – myself included – have headed into the murky world of low-carb eating. Considering my food allergies and intolerances, you'd imagine that finding foods I can enjoy eating might be… um… challenging.

It is.

And I'm up for that challenge, this season. 

So, here we are, looking through a few websites for instruction on how to make a reasonable facsimile of real, good eats with fake sugar. And here's my current variation on a theme: 

 

Simple Pecan Tassies, made keto friendly

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 3/4 cups extra-fine blanched almond flour
3/4 cup coconut flour
3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
6 Tablespoons powdered erythritol sweetener (I used Swerve)
6 Tablespoons cream cheese (straight from the refrigerator, no need to warm to room temp
9 Tablespoons cold butter (unsalted)
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt

Filling:
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon sugar-free vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter
4 Tablespoons whipping cream
1 cup erythritol brown sugar substitute (again, I used Swerve)
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans, toasted

Directions:
Assemble all the ingredients for the crust in a food processor, and give it a whirl until it forms a sticky dough and starts to ball up. Remove from food processor, divide & form into two fat sticks, 12 inches long, wrap in plastic or non-stick parchment, and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Line mini-muffin tray with silicone cups, spray with oil (keto cookies tend to stick badly, so this is a necessity).

For the filling, in a small mixing bowl, combine 2 eggs and vanilla, whisk well. Set aside.

In a small saucepan on medium heat, mix 4 Tbs butter, 4 Tbs whipping cream, and brown sugar substitute. Stir constantly as it boils, until brown sugar dissolves (about 5-8 minutes). 

To add the syrup to the egg, temper the egg by briskly stirring with whisk while pouring about 1/4 cup of sugar/cream mixture in a very thin stream, whisking constantly. Once you're sure you haven't curdled the egg, whisk in the rest of the sugar mixture, then add pecans.

Preheat oven to 325º F. 

Take one of the tubes of dough out of refrigerator, slice into 1/2 inch thick disks. Roll each disk into a ball, press into mini-muffin cup, then, with a greased melon baller, small shot glass, tart tamper, or fingertips, form a deep indentation in the dough to make a cup.*

Using a couple of tea spoons or a 1-teaspoon cookie scoop, fill each with the pecan-sugar mix.

Bake first batch about 15-18 minutes. 

Cool completely before trying to extract from pans & cup liners.


Repeat assembly and baking process with second dough stick and remaining filler. 



*I do this – the baking in two batches part – because I have only 24 little muffin cup liners. If you have more, or you want to gamble they won't stick in non-lined gem pans, feel free to do the whole batch at once, but I still recommend leaving the second tube of dough in the fridge until the first portion shaped, filled, and ready to bake. You ought to be able to get the whole 32 tassies done at once, under those circumstances.

As you can see, they aren't as gooey in the middle as those made with regular sugar and flour, but they're tender and pecan-y and not overly-sweet like the originals. Personally, I could nosh on these all day, but more than anything, I'm looking forward to seeing how the family feels about them.



NOTE: I realize some people don't have huge families who will help eat four dozen of these babies, so here are workable proportions for a "singles batch". You'll have more filling than you probably need, so you want to form really deep reservoirs in the dough, and be wildly generous. They can hold up just fine, once baked and cooled. 

for the crust:
3/4 c almond flour
1/4 c coconut flour
1/4 tsp xanthan gum
2 Tbs powdered sugar substitute
2 Tbs cream cheese, chilled
3 Tbs unsalted butter, chilled
1 large egg
pinch salt

for the filling:
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs cream
1/2 c brown sugar substitute
3/4 c chopped pecans

Keto Christmas treats: Benne Seed Cookies revisited

I was afraid I'd have to do without my one of my very favorite Christmas traditions, this year, since I'm on a fairly stringent plan, at least for the next year or more.  Benne seed cookies are probably my greatest weakness, since the frosting is made with rich browned butter, powdered sugar, and toasted sesame (benne) seeds.  And this year, I had a surplus of those seeds – including some black sesames, just crying out to be played with.  

And then I learned the virtue of Swerve.  No funky aftertaste, no digestive caveats, and no calories. 

This is not to say that the traditional cookie recipe is entirely guilt-free. It is not. There is almost an entire pound of butter going into the making of this six-dozen cookie recipe. But therein lies all one needs to consider. The rest is lean, mean, cookie machine stuff. And it's fairly uncomplicated. The cookie is an understated cross between shortbread and sugar cookie, and the frosting is an overwhelmingly rich, sweet, nutty, browned-butter fat bomb (with a hint of vanilla). What's not to love?

Keto-Friendly Benne Seed Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2/3 cup toasted benne (sesame) seeds

3 cups finely-ground blanched almond flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch salt

2/3 cup butter or ghee, softened only to room temperature

2/3 cup Swerve granulated sugar substitute

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons sugar-free vanilla extract


6 cups Swerve confectioner's sugar substitute
6 Tablespoons almond milk

2 teaspoons sugar-free vanilla extract

Directions:

cookies:

In a small /medium pan, melt butter over medium heat, cooking until particles begin to brown, then add in benne seeds. Allow to come to simmer, then set aside temporarily.

 Sift together almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle (not the dough hook), cream 2/3 cup of butter or ghee and granulated sweetener, until light and fluffy. Add 1 egg, beat in well, then add second egg, beating well. 

Mix in 2 teaspoons vanilla.

Add about 1 cup of flour mixture, mixing well.

Carefully scoop up 4 Tablespoons of the sesame seeds, draining away as much of the butter as you can, and mix in well. Set aside the rest of the butter and sesame seed mixture.

Continue to gradually add the remaining dry ingredients to the mixing bowl, mixing completely. 

Using plastic wrap or nonstick parchment, form dough into two cylinders, about 1 1/2 inches (3 or 4 cm) in diameter. You should get a couple of footlong "sausages".

Refrigerate at least 4 hours to overnight, to allow the flours to absorb moisture so the cookies will hold together and not "taste dry", the way some foods using coconut flour tend to do. 

Make the frosting any time between now and the moment the cookies come out of the oven. You won't be able to frost these cookies until they're completely cooled & firm.

After the dough has chilled sufficiently, slice the cookie dough off the "tubes", about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick (1 cm is ideal).  Arrange them on a parchment-covered cookie sheet, about 1/2 inch apart (they will not spread out and stick together, but give them enough room for the heat to circulate between them & brown the edges). Pop those sheets of cookie dough slices in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 350º F. 

Bake until edges become golden brown (about 11-15 minutes). 

Allow to cool completely before trying to remove them from the cookie sheets.

Trowel on the frosting with enthusiasm. 



frosting:

In medium bowl (or in cleaned-out stand mixer bowl) combine remaining benne-seed-butter mixture, confectioner's sweetener, almond milk, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Stir until completely mixed, or beat until somewhat fluffy (my personal preference), for a more "rustic" finish. 

Store at room temperature. 

There will be enough of this to frost a double batch of cookies, or to load them up so that you can scarcely see cookie for the sweet, so pile the stuff on, as heavily as you want.

I am likely going to make a second batch of the cookies, since the frosting recipe is more than generous... and because why not? It's Christmas! 

Insist on genuine…

Raiding the collection of cooking booklets, again. This one is certainly from auction, rather than a family piece (neither of my parents is even remotely fond of gelatin desserts). Still, I'm more than a bit fond of these pages, if only for the illustrations.

As usual, click any image to enlarge.

 

Cashew Brittle that'll shatter your diet

 

Gesundheit!

With the holiday season upon me, I'm back in the kitchen with the traditional recipes. Not surprisingly, I've already made my first batch of English Toffee, and a heap of cookies from the family files. Today, though, I had to go online for a lab-tested recipe to deal with my temporary surplus of cashews... and there it was, from Betty Crocker: the baseline brittle candy, designed just for my needs.  I gave it a stab, and it's a keeper. Not only is this cashew brittle tasty, the instructions are straightforward, sufficiently detailed, and clear. 

The process, as I followed it, yielded – as promised – two large cookie sheets' worth of candy. 

Due to my own kitchen idiosyncrasies and my having forgotten that the glass cooktop is ornery, I ended up with one half of the batch slightly darker brown than the other, but managed to move quickly enough to avoid burning the bottom of that half. And now I'm not sure which I like better, for flavor or texture. 

Whichever way, there is one true thing in all of it: at the end of a day making this stuff, you'll walk away coated with the most delightful perfume.