Mini Walnut Cupcakes

Years ago Eva's mother got the recipe for Walnut Cupcakes from an elderly Egyptian woman​ and always made them for her family. Eva still has the recipe and loves making these delicious sweets around the holidays to add to her cookie platters. They are not exactly cupcakes, they just have a cupcake shape! These are made of a sweet walnut filling baked inside a cream cheese dough... Yum! Since they are mini, it's super easy to eat a bunch at once!

Depending on your dough, Eva's recipe makes approximately 60 mini cupcakes. Feel free to cut the amounts of each ingredients in half or however you choose to make less. Eva likes to make cookie platters for her family and friends so she is used to making a lot. Preparing these walnut cupcakes before baking takes about an hour, and each pan takes about 20 minutes to bake. So be sure to try these on a day when you have time to rest (and snack) afterwards!

​Ingredients:
For Dough:

• 2 sticks of sweet/unsalted butter (left out before baking to soften)
• 8 ounces of cream cheese (also should be left out before baking)
• 2 cups of flour

For Walnut Filling:

• 1/2 a stick of butter
• 2 and a 1/2 cups of walnuts grinded in food processor
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1 and a 1/2 cup of light brown sugar
• 2 eggs

Items needed:

• Mini cupcake pans (Eva has 4 pans but you can easily use one pan at a time by removing the cooked walnut cupcakes and reusing the pan)

Instructions:
1. Mix cream cheese, butter, and flour in a large bowl to form into a large ball of dough
2. Once dough ball is made, put it in your fridge to thicken it and to make it easier to work with for about 15-20 minutes (can be prepared the night before to save time)

3. Mix walnuts, butter, vanilla, brown sugar, and 2 eggs in a bowl (4 eggs were used in this picture because Eva made 2 batches)

4. Once mixing is done, preheat oven to 350 degrees
5. Mold your dough mix into small balls, then flatten, and place in each cupcake holder, covering the whole space

6. Add a teaspoon into each cupcake holder (we use 2 spoons to add in the filling - one spoon to scoop and one to scrape) you can add more or less 

7. Bake on your bottom rack for 20-25 minutes until golden brown, and on the top rack for 5 minutes
8. Let rest for a minute and with a sharp knife gently remove the cupcakes to a cooling rack

Enjoy!