Waverley Root, the food historian, speculated that pecans developed originally in Texas and spread from there to other areas of the United States, which has a virtual worldwide monopoly on the nut even today.
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Gingered Banana Bread
Tropical fruits arrived early in Texas because the state's ports were closer to many of the growing areas than were other shipping points in the United States. This combination of bananas and ginger preserves makes an especially moist bread.
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup sugar
⅓ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1½ cups mashed ripe bananas
⅓ cup ginger preserves
¼ cup sour cream
¾ teaspoon lemon zest
¾ cup chopped pecans, toasted, optional
Makes 1 loaf
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 5-by-9½-inch loaf pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. Set the bowl aside.
With a mixer, cream the sugar and butter together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the bananas, preserves, sour cream, lemon zest, and, if you wish, pecans. Spoon in the flour about a third at a time, mixing until the batter is well combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake 60 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Serve the bread warm. Folks with a sweet tooth will like to spread more ginger preserves on each slice.
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Native to tropical Asia, ginger was so popular in the thirteen original colonies in the New World that it was included among the rations for soldiers during the American Revolution.
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Rice Fritters
Early Texas cookbooks often featured fritters, but this variation is a more recent dish from the southeastern part of the state. It is perhaps influenced by calas, a better-known deep-fried rice pastry from New Orleans. We prefer these fritters with Texmati or another variety of naturally nutty basmati rice.
2 cups cooked rice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon lemon or orange zest
¼ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon ground canela (Mexican cinnamon) or cinnamon
Oil for deep frying, preferably canola or corn
Powdered sugar, optional, for garnish
Serves 4
Combine all the ingredients except the oil and the powdered sugar in a medium bowl.
Heat at least 4 inches of oil to 375° F in a heavy saucepan. If the oil smokes before reaching the correct temperature, it cannot be used for deep frying. Use only fresh, unused oil.
Drop the batter by heaping tablespoons into the oil. As the fritters rise to the surface, turn them in the oil so they cook evenly. Fry until the fritters are puffed and golden, 4 to 5 minutes. Remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon, fishing out any renegade pieces of fritter and rice. Drain.
Serve the fritters immediately, with powdered sugar if you like.
Canary Island Doughnuts
This San Antonio specialty is called a doughnut, but it's closer to an empanada. The anise flavor in our recipe comes from seeds of the spice and from Pernod, a widely available liqueur.
FILLING
1 pound (about 1 large) boiled or baked sweet potato, mashed
1½ cups chopped toasted almonds
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup milk
2 tablespoons Pernod
1 teaspoon anise seeds, toasted and ground
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Pinch of cinnamon
PASTRY
8 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon zest
¾ cup vegetable shortening, preferably Crisco, chilled
¼ cup unsalted butter, chilled
Ice water
Canola oil or vegetable shortening, preferably Crisco, for deep frying
Powdered sugar
Makes 2 dozen "doughnuts"
In a medium bowl, combine all the filling ingredients. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, or overnight. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Sprinkle in the lemon zest. Cut in the shortening and butter with a pastry blender or fork. Add ice water a tablespoon at a time, adding only the minimum needed to barely hold the dough together. Wrap the dough in plastic, and refrigerate it for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Roll the dough out ¼ inch thick on a floured pastiy board or counter. With a biscuit cutter, cut out 4-inch rounds. Top each round with about 2 tablespoons of filling. Fold the round in half, pinch the edges to seal them, and crimp them with a fork.
Add the oil or shortening to a heavy saucepan to a depth of at least 4 inches, and heat to 350° F. If the oil smokes before reaching the correct temperature, it cannot be used for deep frying. Use only fresh, unused oil.
Fry the doughnuts until they Eire lightly browned, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain them, and sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Serve them immediately.
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In 1731, King Philip V of Spain sent a group of Canary Islanders to help settle and build San Antonio. Some people claim these pioneers invented chili, and it's certain they gave us these doughnuts.
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Creamy Peach, Prune, or Poppyseed Kolaches
Airy breads with sweet or savory fillings, kolaches are the Czechs' best-known contribution to Texas cooking. We show how to make them with three different fillings.
2 packages dry yeast
½ cup lukewarm water
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup vegetable shortening, preferably Crisco
¼ cup plus 1 or 2 tablespoons sugar
2 egg yolks
⅔ cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
Melted butter, for topping
1 recipe Creamy Peach, Prune, or Poppyseed Filling (see below)
Makes 3 dozen kolaches
In a small bowl, combine the yeast with the lukewarm water. Set the bowl aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and ¼ cup sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks, milk, and salt, combining well. Stir in the dissolved yeast and the flour, and mix until the ingredients are thoroughly blended into a soft dough. Cover the dough with a towel, and set the dough aside to rise to about double in size, approximately 1 to 1½ hours.
While the dough rises, choose and prepare one of the three fillings. The recipes for the fillings follow these instructions.
Grease a baking sheet. Pinch off pieces of dough about one-and-a-half times the size of a golf ball, flatten the balls slightly, and transfer them to the baking sheet. Place the balls at least 1 inch apart, and brush them liberally with the melted butter. Set them aside to double in size again, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
With your thumb, gently indent the top of the dough. Make the holes especially deep if you plan to use the poppyseed or creamy peach filling. Spoon in a couple of teaspoons of filling, and, with the poppyseed or creamy peach versions, coax the dough over the filling. Let the kolaches rest again for 15 to 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 425° F.
Bake the kolaches for 10 to 12 minutes, until they aire golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven, immediately brush the kolaches with more butter, and sprinkle them with the remaining sugar. Transfer them to a rack, and let them cool.
The kolaches should be tender, somewhat like a light buttery Danish. They're best eaten the day they're made.
CREAMY PEACH FILLING
2 cups small-curd cottage cheese, drained in a sie
ve or cheesecloth for 30 to 45 minutes
½ cup peach butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon nutmeg
To make the creamy peach filling, squeeze any accumulated liquid from the cheese. Mix the cheese with the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
PRUNE FILLING
1 pound dried prunes
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
To make the prune filling, put the prunes into a saucepan, and cover them with water. Add the vanilla, and simmer until the prunes have softened, about 15 minutes. Drain and pit the prunes, and chop them in a food processor with the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Or chop the prunes by hand, and then add the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
POPPYSEED FILLING
¾ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1½ cups poppyseeds
¾ cup whole milk
¾ teaspoon almond extract
To make the poppyseed filling, stir together the sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Set the bowl aside.
Grind the poppyseeds in a blender with about half the milk. Place the poppyseed mixture and the remaining milk in a large, heavy saucepan, and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and stir in the reserved sugar-and-cornstarch mixture and the almond extract. Simmer, stirring often, until very thick—a matter of a few minutes.
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Commenting on Texas tall tales, Artemus Ward once said, "The trouble with Texans is that they know so many things which ain't so."
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Technique Tip
Some kolache recipes call for "proofing" the yeast in milk, but the fat in milk can actually hinder the yeast's development. It's best to "proof" the yeast in water first and then to add milk later for tenderness.
You can make kolaches with sausage or almost any type of cooked fruit filling. Don't use jelly, though, because it's too runny. The fruit needs to be cooked to fruit-butter consistency.
Make the center depressions carefully so the bread doesn't go flat.
Enclose cheese-based fillings, like the creamy peach, and poppyseed fillings totally with dough. Stiffer fillings like prune can peer out the top.
Don't skimp on the amount of butter brushed on the dough.
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* * *
When Bum Phillips, the former Houston Oilers coach, judged a kolache competition once, he was so impressed with the sausage-stuffed entry that he offered to trade two draft choices for an extra pastry to go.
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* * *
Many Texas towns stage Czech heritage celebrations. Two of the best occasions to get your fill of kolaches, sausage, strudel, and dancing are the West Fest on Labor Day weekend in West and, in the spring, the National Polka Festival in Ennis, which features four halls of rousing polka bands.
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The term Texan, worn so proudly in the state today, used to be controversial. Early residents referred to themselves as "Texians," and many of them didn't cotton to a change. An editorial in the Texas Monument in 1851 called Texan a "wretched barbarism." When someone uses the word, the editor wrote, "we involuntarily look to see if he has the lock-jaw, or if he has ice in his mouth."
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Mazarine Coffee Cake
Early German settlers in Texas commonly ate three regular meals plus two minimeals. The midmorning snack, called a second breakfast, usually featured coffee cake washed down with coffee or milk. There are many local versions, but we like the almond and raspberry flavors in this one.
CAKE
1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
⅓ cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons sour cream
¼ cup raspberry jam
FILLING
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅓ cup sugar
1 cup almonds, toasted and ground
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 eggs
TOPPING
¼ cup raspberry jam
¼ cup powdered sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons lemon juice, optional
Makes an 8- or 9-inch coffee cake
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease an 8- or 9-inch round or square baking dish. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. Set the bowl aside.
With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add in the egg, sour cream, and jam, beating well. Mix in the dry ingredients, about a third at a time, until they are well combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, pressing it along the sides as well as the bottom.
Using the same bowl and beaters (it isn't necessary to wash them first), prepare the filling: Cream the butter and sugar together, and then add the almonds, almond extract, and eggs, mixing until the ingredients are well combined. Pour the filling over the cake batter.
Bake the cake for 40 minutes, remove it from the oven, and spoon dollops of raspberry jam over it. Return the cake to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the filling is set and the cake is golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven.
If you like, top the cake with the powdered sugar-lemon juice mixture. Slice the cake, and serve it warm.
Football Food
If he was married to Racquel Welch, he'd expect her to cook.
Dallas Cowboys' quarterback Don Meredith,
on the perfectionism of his coach, Tom Landry
(quoted by Wallace O. Chariton in This Dog'll Hunt)
At the very least, Don, Raequel ought to be able to throw together some munchies for a Monday night football game. These snacks are simple enough on the whole, and they will satisfy someone as demanding as Landry and even someone with as many moves as Meredith. They are versatile tidbits adaptable for anything from TV treats to party fare. In a land where hors d'oeuvres could get confused with horse burrs, they make a good substitute for a predinner course, and enough of them can cover for a full meal on Super Bowl Sunday.
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Even Helen Corbitt, the mother of cultured cooking in Texas, wouldn't call her first courses "hors d'oeuvres." The famed Neiman Marcus chef referred to such goodies as "finger food," perhaps a better way of saying "football food" if you're catering to the ladies' luncheon crowd.
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Higginbotham Cheese Wafers
Cheese wafers, also called cheese straws, pop up as a snack in Texas as often as you used to see Bob Lilly in the other team's backfield. Our recipe is a variation on one found in two delightful cookbooks, This Little Higgy Went to Market and This Little Higgy Stayed Home, collections of family recipes published by Dallas's Higginbotham family and distributed as gifts to lucky friends.
2 cups (8 ounces) grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon grated onion
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon coarse-ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne
Makes 9 to 10 dozen wafers
In a food processor, combine the cheese, butter, and onion. Stir the dry ingredients together in a small bowl, and add them by batches to the cheese mixture. Process thoroughly.
Remove the dough from the processor, and shape it into several rolls of manageable lengths. The Higginbothams make their rolls about the diameter of a quarter; we roll ours closer to a fifty-cent piece (if you can remember what one of those looks like). Wrap each roll tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate the rolls for at least 1 hour before slicing them into rounds ¼ inch thick. You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for a week or in the freezer for several months, slicing off the quanti
ty desired.
Preheat the oven to 425° F. Place the wafers ½ inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the edges of the wafers are lightly colored.
Serve the wafers warm or at room temperature. They keep for a week if they are tightly covered.
Variation: For some extra crunch, and another flavor, add ½ to 1 cup of minced pecans to the dough.
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Big-Foot Wallace had his own version of athletic padding. J. Frank Dobie tells how the frontiersman, surrounded by Indians, protected himself by stuffing his clothes with hard-shelled hickory nuts. The attackers fired a volley of arrows at Big-Foot and then fled in terror when the arrows just bounced off.
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"Deaf" Smith Jalapeños
These unlikely jalapeños, stuffed with peanut butter, are always a popular snack in Texas, but don't serve them to any inexperienced chile eaters.
Texas Home Cooking Page 43