Reprising the Mini...

Hello there, how are you?  I hope everyone's been well.

Yesterday, I started playing around with the 'mini' SweetPotatoMayas again.  It's the bite sized SweetPotatoMaya that I came up with in the very beginning, when I started this whole thing.  It's a good size, it's darling visually, and it's the perfect combination of nutty and sweet flavor, all in one bite.  But because of the inconsistency of the sweet potatoes, the little pies held together sometimes, and just fell apart in a mushy mess, all other times.  So I stopped making the mini's.

And ever since, I've been tossing around the idea of a mini pie crust.  This way the sweet potato can be held in a flaky, buttery, cozy little shell!  But that's adding a whole new element in the 'system' .  

How will it effect the nutrition fact label?  I'll need to print new ones out.  Can I figure out an efficient way to make high quantities of mini pie crusts?  While keeping them fresh?  It will take longer to produce them.  What about the cost of ingredients?  I will need to find new packaging with new dementions...oh my god, the world is crashing down on me, aaaahhhhhhh!!!!  

 Yeah, you know the drill.  And I've just let those thoughts hang around for the last few months because, quite frankly, I hadn't had the time to deal with it.

But something happened yesterday - maybe after a week of hard honest work at this new job did me some good, or maybe it was that little bit of sunshine gracing us with it's presence -  I finally dove in to give it a go :)

Last Thanksgiving with my sweet helper

In an attempt to stay with the whole Gluten-free thing, I used Brown Rice Flour for the crust.  It was my first time ever making a crust out of  brown rice flour, and I gotta say, like anything else, change can be tricky!  I tried three batches, each time half laughing and muttering to myself - 'this is not going to work...it's not going to come together'.  That's just my coping mechanism when I'm trying new recipes.  But I kept marchin' on, and it wasn't that bad.  The first batch, the crust was a little too thick, and it showed me that I needed to make more room for the sweet potato goodness for a better balance in flavor.  The second batch turned out better, with less crust and more sweet potato goo.  By the third batch I felt confident, and was enjoying this new adventure.

So today I'm going to an Oscar Party my wonderful friend hosts each year.  I get to join these lovely moms and  none of us have seen any of the movies, but it's an event I look forward to all year because we just get to share food and wine and laughter, hang out, oogle at and critique all the glitz and glam - and do all this while sitting on a comfortable sofa in our slippers :)  Aaaaannd you guessed it, they don't know it yet, but they are going to be my victims to try these new Mini's...  

Below is another shot of the Mini SweetPotatoMayas, shot beautifully by the Mr., in a rare moment of sunlight in the Pacific Northwest :)  Well...as always, thank you for visiting, and happy food tidings!