While I was on a vacation to Washington DC, I had an amazing chocolate pecan pie that has stuck with me for the past week. the richness and sweetness of the pie was fantastic. For my Mini Chocolate Pecan Pie Cookies, I added the richness of the shortbread cookie in place of the pie crust and they are packed with a rich chocolate flavor that mixes with the nutty flavor of the pecans makes these an amazing addition to your normal holiday cookies, or anytime of the year. Check out the recipe below.

As we are in the holiday season, deserts are a big part of the season. Poach pear tarts are quite simple to make and is a real wow factor with the colors of the red wine leaching into the light color of the pears and the whole how would be filled with a great smell from the cinnamon and orange. The Light and flaky tart with the rich and creamy mascarpone cheese topped with the soft, tender poached pears do make a great tasting tart that will please any group.

Cranberries tend to be a great staple for the fall season especially around thanksgiving. The great tart flavor and the vibrate red color makes it very appealing to the eyes. This Cranberry Streusel Cake is a great addition to your thanksgiving table for a dessert option, it even makes a great breakfast cake option too. It has a great combination of sweet and tart from the cranberries and orange in the cake.

The first thing is you make the base cake, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder and soda and salt. Cut in the butter to the flour mixture until a course meal like texture. Using a hand held mixer on low speed is an easy easy of doing this, you can also use a pastry blender or two knives.

In honor of the National Apple which is today, October 21th I made these Apple-Walnut Cream Cheese walnuts. For me, the best art of apple pie is the last bite with all the crust and the last of the apple pie filling.  These tartlets have that bit in each of the 2-3 bites these tartlets take to eat and they are quite easy to make, taking about 30-40minutes for start to finish.

Using a 2-1/2" to 3" biscuit cutter or a cup with same size, cut out 12 rounds for each of the tartlets. If you are going to use homemade dough, try to get the thicken to about an 1/8" thick for the crust. Place each of the rounds in the bottom of a greased muffin pan pressing them tight against the bottom.

Make the apple filling by cooking the apples, sugar, walnuts and spices until almost tender and the liquid has mostly evaporated into a thick syrup. Make the cream cheese filling with a spoon or a mixer if needed. Add a teaspoon of each of the filling to the pie crust rounds, I just got each portions of the apples in each of the rounds and added the cream cheese on top.

Bake the tartlets for 15-20 minutes until the crust around the edges begins to brown and the cream cheese mixture is set into the apples. let them cool for about 5mins in the pan before removing gently.