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Shortly before his death, Texas's first native-born governor, James Stephen Hogg, said, "I want no monument of stone or marble, but plant at my head a pecan tree." His daughter Ima became the grand dame of the state in the mid-twentieth century, but, contrary to legend, Governor Hogg never had another daughter named Ura.
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Molasses Spice Cookies
According to Vera Flach in A Yankee in German-America, her family made so many molasses cookies for Christmas that they frequently showed up for birthdays in April. Texas cookbooks abound with different versions, but these may be the tastiest, inspired by Dan M. Woods's winning recipe from a Sanger-Harris department store cookie contest in the late 1970s, Generations of kids have called molasses cookies "earthquake" cookies because of their crackled surfaces.
1 cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup unsalted butter
1 egg
¼ cup unsulphured dark molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg
¾ teaspoon salt
Sugar
Makes 3 to 3½ dozen cookies
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
Cream together the brown sugar and butter with a mixer or in a food processor. Add the egg and molasses, and mix until everything is thoroughly combined. Sprinkle in the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt, and mix again. The dough will be soft.
Pour a few tablespoons of sugar onto a saucer. Roll the dough into small balls, about ¾ inch in diameter. Roll each ball in the sugar, and place the balls 1½ inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes. Do not overbake: they should stay soft and chewy. Cool the cookies for about 5 minutes, and then transfer them to absorbent paper to finish cooling. They keep for five to seven days, covered.
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Sanger-Harris opened its doors in Dallas in 1872 as Sanger Brothers, predating Neiman Marcus by a quarter of a century. The department store gained some national recognition on the televison show "Dallas," as the place where Pam Ewing worked.
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Heather's Triple Chocolate Toffee Brownies
These brownies helped get our daughter Heather through college in Denton, Texas. They pack enough energy for any final exam you'll ever take.
2 ounces (2 squares) unsweetened chocolate
½ cup unsalted butter
1¼ cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
2 1.4-ounce Heath bars, chopped
½ cup chopped pecans, toasted, optional
Makes 8 to 16 brownies (depending on how big you like them)
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan.
In a heavy saucepan, melt the unsweetened chocolate with the butter over low heat. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the sugar and vanilla to cool the chocolate slightly. Add the eggs, beating well by hand. Sprinkle in the flour, cocoa, salt, chopped Heath bars, and, if you like, the pecans. Stir to combine everything, but do not overmix.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 23 to 25 minutes. The brownies should remain a little "smooshy" in the center. Let them cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving.
* * *
San Antonio, Fort Worth, San Angelo, Abilene, Waco, Austin, and Wichita Falls all have over five hundred acres of pecan trees within their city limits.
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Watermelon Su-perb
Good watermelons are so naturally sweet that the fruit was once considered a source for refined sugar. One company even built an experimental processing plant about a hundred years ago. For a much smaller investment, this dessert draws out the sweetness just as well.
FRUIT
1 watermelon
1 cantaloupe, Ogan melon, or other orange-fleshed melon
1 honeydew melon, canary melon, or other green-fleshed melon
SAUCE
1 cup ginger ale
½
to
¾ cup apricot jam or preserves
Juice of 2 limes
Fresh mint, for garnish
Serves 10 to 15
So that the watermelon will sit steadily, cut a very thin slice off its least attractive side. Lay the watermelon on this cut side, then slice about ¼ to ½ of the melon off the top. Set the piece aside.
With a melon bailer, scoop out as much of the watermelon meat as possible. (If you don't have a melon bailer, cut the meat into uniform bite-size chunks.) Discard as many seeds as is practical. Spoon the balls into a large bowl. Scrape out the remaining watermelon meat, and reserve it for another use. Pour all the accumulated juice into the bowl with the watermelon balls.
Cut the other melons in half, scrape out their seeds, and scoop out balls of their meat as well. Add these to the watermelon in the bowl, and lightly toss everything together.
In a small bowl, stir together the ginger ale, jam or preserves, and lime juice. If the melons are not especially sweet, add the greater amount of jam to the sauce. Pour the sauce over the melon balls, mixing gently.
Trim the top cut edge of the watermelon shell to a smooth finish. Or you might zigzag it or otherwise shape it decoratively. Refrigerate the melon balls and shell as long as several hours, until you are ready to serve the dessert.
Shortly before serving, spoon the melon balls into the watermelon shell, piling them attractively above the melon's rim. Garnish with mint.
Save the leftover watermelon shell to turn into Watermelon Pickles ([>]).
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Technique Tip
Although the only sure way to get a ripe watermelon is to buy it cut, the exterior of a whole melon yields some clues: for example, the melon's pale side—which was its underside in the field—should have a creamy rather than a greenish hue. Uncut melons can be kept in a cool, dark place for about a week. Covered and refrigerated, cut slices stay good for several days.
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* * *
"When one has tasted watermelons one knows what angels eat."—Mark Twain
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* * *
Texas usually leads all other states in watermelon production and maybe in consumption as well. Before refrigeration was common, entrepreneurs opened watermelon parlors during the season in empty storefronts around the state, selling iced slices to go. Sure beats a Slurpee.
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Poached Apricots
This is a honey of a way to serve summer apricots.
3 cups water
½ cup honey
1 tablespoon minced fresh mint
1 teaspoon anise seeds, ground
½ teaspoon vanilla
1½ pounds firm but ripe apricots (about 14 to 16 apricots), halved and pitted
Serves 6
Combine the water, honey, mint, anise, and vanilla in a heavy saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, stirring if needed to dissolve the honey. Add the apricots, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the apricots until they are tender, 5 to 10 minutes.
Increase the heat to high, and reduce the poaching liquid to 1 cup, which will take about 20 minutes. Refrigerate the apricots, covered, for at least 2 hours and as long as 24 hours.
Serve the apricots chilled, with plenty of the tasty syrup.
Figs with Goat Cheese
An easy but elegant way to finish a special meal, these figs take only a few minutes to prepare.
6 ounces fresh goat cheese
8 plump whole figs
Mint sprigs, for garnish
Serves 4
Take the goat cheese out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you plan to serve the dessert.
Slice each fig vertically as if to quarter it,
but stop short of slicing all the way through the bottom. Pull the quarters back slightly to reveal each fig's center.
Divide the goat cheese into eight equal portions, and place one in the center of each fig.
Serve the figs on small plates garnished with mint sprigs.
* * *
Honey sweetens plenty of Texas desserts, and its production is a popular cottage industry in the state. Ann Richards even installed a gubernatorial beehive among the asparagus and asters in the Governor's Mansion garden. One wag claimed that she gargled the honey before sweet-talking legislators.
* * *
* * *
Paula Lambert's Mozzarella Company makes some of the country's best goat cheeses. The pint-size factory in downtown Dallas produces additive- and preservative-free cheeses with tastes as big as the Lone Star state. If you lack a local source for Mozzarella Company cheese, you can order directly (see "Mail-Order Sources," [>]).
* * *
Mission Oranges with Zest
This recipe originated in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which produces oranges with skins mottled by spring winds. These oranges taste better than they look, but any kind of oranges work in this light, refreshing dessert.
4 medium oranges, preferably seedless
Zest of 2 oranges
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup water
1 tablespoon triple sec or other orange-flavored liqueur
Juice of 1 lime
Chopped pecans, for garnish
Serves 4 to 6
Peel the oranges, and slice each into about four rounds. Arrange the oranges in a shallow serving dish.
Place the orange zest in a small, heavy pan with the sugar and water, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer the zest in the sugar syrup for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the triple sec and the lime juice.
Pour the syrup and zest over the oranges. Refrigerate the oranges for at least 1 hour. Just before serving, sprinkle the oranges with the chopped pecans.
* * *
The town of Mission now hosts a Tourist Fest in the early winter, when the "snowbirds" (visitors from the North) descend on the Rio Grande Valley, but the Citrus Fiesta a couple of months later is much more fun. Begun in 1932, the event features a costume show where the clothes have to be completely covered with local agricultural products, anything from orange skins to onion skins.
* * *
Red-Hot Apples
Nothing reminds us of childhood as much as red-hot apples, still a first-class comfort food. This version is based on one in a 1969 San Angelo cookbook, Lucille Hopkins's Texas Cookbook: Finger Lickin' Fixins.
4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith
2 cups water
1¼ cups cinnamon red-hot candies
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Serves 4 to 6
Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Combine them with the remaining ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the liquid is thickened and the apples are tender when pierced with a fork. Cool the apples in the syrup for at least 30 minutes.
Serve the apples at room temperature or chilled.
* * *
Maury Maverick, the San Antonio mayor who started the city's famed Riverwalk, failed to be reelected shortly before World War II because he provided public meeting space to a group of poorly paid pecan pickers. His political enemies made it an issue because the meeting organizer was a leader of the state Communist Party.
* * *
Butter Pecan Ice Cream
A food authority once claimed that Texans consume almost all the butter pecan ice cream made in the country. If you try this recipe, you'll understand why.
¼ cup unsalted butter
1 cup chopped pecans
5 egg yolks
1 pint half-and-half
1 cup whipping cream
¾ cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
Makes about 1 quart
Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the pecans, and cook until the nuts are coated with the butter and lightly crisped.
Strain the excess butter into the top of a double boiler. Add the egg yolks, half-and-half, whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla. Set the pan over its water bath. Warm the custard mixture over medium-low heat, whisking until the mixture is well blended. Continue heating, frequently stirring up from the bottom, until the mixture thickens. (Make sure it does not come to a boil; the egg yolks should poach, not scramble.) This process takes about 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the custard through a strainer into a bowl. Chill it thoroughly.
Transfer the custard to an ice-cream maker, and process it according to the manufacturer's directions. After churning, stir in the pecans, and place the ice cream in the freezer until serving time.
This ice cream is best eaten within several days.
* * *
Texas ranks third among states in the production of commercial ice cream. Blue Bell, a creamery in Brenham, has led the way since 1911, winning accolades from Time and Sports Illustrated as the best in the business anywhere.
* * *
* * *
If there's no time to make your own ice cream, you can still get some real Texas flavor. Start with store-bought vanilla ice cream and top it with Life-Enriching Fig Preserves ([>]), Calico Jalapeño Jam ([>]), or Candied Pecans ([>]).
* * *
Iced Sunshine
This makes a bright but cooling finish to a spicy meal. Fruit and liquor ices, or sorbets, became trendy in restaurants during the 1980s. Exactly the same thing happened a century earlier in Texas home kitchens.
4 cups pink grapefruit juice (from about 5 large grapefruit, preferably Ruby Red)
¾ cup tequila, preferably silver
½
to
¾ cup sugar
Splash of grenadine, optional
Makes about 1 quart sorbet
In a medium bowl, stir together all the ingredients, mixing until the sugar dissolves.
Transfer the mixture to an ice-cream maker, and freeze it according to the manufacturer's directions.
* * *
Grapefruit got its name because the fruit grows in clusters like grapes. Grapefruit wasn't well known in the United States until the Depression, when citrus fruits came free with food stamps. Even then, welfare agencies reported, many people remained suspicious, saying they had boiled their grapefruit for hours and it was still too tough to eat.
* * *
Peanut Patties
Homemade candies, like pecan pie, got a big boost from the development of corn syrup early in this century. Cane sugar tends to crystallize, especially in heat and humidity, which makes it difficult to use for candies. Corn syrup alleviated the problem and, as a bonus, provided the proper texture for peanut patties, Texas's favorite roadside snack.
3 cups sugar
3 cups raw peanuts
1 cup light corn syrup
½ cup water
½ cup unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
A few drops red food coloring
Makes a bunch
Lay a large piece of waxed paper on a dishtowel on a counter.
In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, peanuts, corn syrup, and water. Stirring constantly over medium heat, cook the mixture to the high end of the soft-ball stage, 240° F.
Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the remaining ingredients, adding enough food coloring to get a vibrant red shade. Stir the mixture frequently for approximately 20 minutes, or until it cools to about 125° F. The mixture will become very thick and creamy opaque, and the peanuts will be suspended.
Immediately spoon out the mixture in patties, the larger the better. Let the patties sit for at
least 1 hour before eating them. Their texture should be chewy like nougat rather than creamy like praline. Wrap them individually for storage. They'll keep a week.
* * *
Goodart makes the original peanut patty, which is sold in gas stations, convenience stores, and cafes throughout Texas. Lammes, in Austin, created another popular snack, "Texas Chewie" Pecan Pralines, which D. T. Lamme used to make to order in 25-pound batches at the Red Front Candy Shop. Newer, but destined for distinction, is the jalapeño pecan brittle from Windmill Candy. Both Lammes and Windmill will ship to your door (see "Mail-Order Sources," [>
Texas Home Cooking Page 52