Aunt Clarissa Young's Pecan Gems

My Great Aunt Clarissa (I used to call her Tissie because I couldn't say Clarissa when I was little and the name always stuck with me) used to make these yummy Pecan Gem cookies. They are actually like mini (really really little) pecan pies, but they have a whole lotta yumminess to them! :) My mom and I decided to make them tonight.

You start out by making your own crust from scratch. Yep, you heard me right, from scratch! It is actually really easy, you just take 1 stick of butter, 3 tablespoons of cream cheese and 1 cup of flour. Mix that together with a fork and then pinch it into little balls.

You take the little balls and put them into mini muffin pans and spread them out and up the sides of the muffins cups so it looks like a crust.

Next you mix together one tablespoon of melted butter with 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 1 egg. Bring this to a boil and then remove and let cool a little. Add in 1 cup of chopped pecans.

My mom has this antique nut chopper and I love it. You put the nuts in and move the handle up and down to chop the nuts. Hey, who needs a food processor when you've got this great gadget???

Anywho, add the chopped pecans into the mixture and then place a spoonful into each muffin pan. put into a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 250 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes.

Take them out and let cool and then walluh....OMG!! yumminess!

You should really make these because they are so good and really simple to make. Seriously, it only took us about a 20 minutes total to make 24 of them. And oh my gosh they are so worth it. The problem is that they are so tiny that you just keep popping them into your mouth and it's hard to stop. But if you like pecan pies or someone you know does then you've got to make these. They are fab-u-lous!!! My brother, Todd, in Alaska is going to be so jealous that we made these. Ha! Ha! But my mom just said she is going to mail him some.

Let me know how they turn out! :)