TWD: My Favorite Pecan Pie

I don't know if pecan pie is peculiarly Texan dessert, I suspect it's more southern than Texan, but there are three desserts that I think of as quintessential Texas dessert and pecan pie is one of them. The other two? Texas sheet cake and cobbler. When I think of pecan pie, I just hear "pee-can pah" in my head, even though my family says (and thus I say) "puh-cahn" not "pee-can." At any rate, I adore a good slice of pecan pie but it's hard to come by. In fact, some of the worst pecan pies I've ever eaten have been from my own hands. There are all sorts of variations on the filling, some with molasses, some with honey or maple syrup, and some with a hint of bourbon. My dad swears that the recipe on the back of the Karo syrup bottle is the key to making a good pecan pie; however, I'm never content to settle on one recipe, and I was eager to try Dorie's favorite pecan pie.

Now, when I was little, I would only eat pecan pie if it had chocolate chips in it, but as I've gotten older I've become something of a pecan pie purist. I like my pecan pie plain -- no cinnamon, no espresso, and no chocolate for me. I made the simple pecan pie.

And . . . it was good. I had issues with the cook time. When I checked it after 35 minutes it was still really jiggly, so I left it for 8 minutes and checked it again. Still jiggly, 4 minutes this time. Still a little jiggly. 3 minutes, and at that point I was a little concerned that maybe I'd actually been overcooking it the entire time, and I pulled it out of the oven. As it turns out, it probably could have stood to spend another 5 minutes in the oven as the center of my pie is a little runny. I'm pretty sure this happened because my pie plate was chilled from the fridge rather than at room temperature when I put it in the oven. So, is it my favorite pecan pie? No. Don't get me wrong, it's tasty, but I have some other pecan pie recipes I need to try out before I can declare a winner.  In the meantime, thanks, Beth, for choosing this recipe. If you'd like to check out this recipe for pecan pie, you can visit her blog.

And the Winner is . . .

My bad, I was supposed to announce this yesterday! I'm not done with my semester until Tuesday and my brain just is not functioning in all gears right now.

Thanks to Sue-Jean Chun and Taunton Press, Tracey, of Tracey's Culinary Adventures, is now the happy owner of DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style. Congratulations, Tracey! Let me know when you get this and we can pick a dessert to bake together! If anyone else is interested in baking along from this book, just let me know! (I don't think this will be any sort of regular bake-along, we'll probably just pick one recipe to make.)

Until then, it's snowing in D.C. today and it'd be a great day to bake, but alas, I'm stuck writing papers. I did take Lucy the wonderdog to romp in Rock Creek Park today, so I'll leave you with this!

CEiMB: Maple Mustard Chicken Breasts

I was pretty excited about this week's Ellie pick. It's a recipe I've often glanced at in the book because it looks so tasty to me. You see, I love mustard -- I even liked it when I was little. It was mustard that I would use to choke down the mushy cooked carrots that accompanied pot roast when I was little (we always had to eat half a carrot each, and all three of us hated it!). When I was little I only liked yellow mustard, but these days I'm a fan of almost any mustard. I have to admit though, English mustard makes my eyes and nose water like no other -- my nose is burning just thinking about it!

And, just to prove that you can take something good and make it better, this couldn't be easier to make. It's literally 4 ingredients on top of the chicken and baked in the oven until done. Perfect busy day dinner. The original recipe calls for bone-in chicken thighs, but I subbed these boneless, skinless chicken breasts because I already had them. This chicken more than lived up to my expectations -- it was so tasty! Thank you, Tessa, for this wonderful pick! You can visit her blog, Handle the Heat, for the recipe, or click here.

Last week the CEiMB pick was Broccoli and Cheddar-Stuffed Potato Skins with Avacado Cream. This recipe sounded really tasty to me and I was disappointed that I didn't get to make it. I had hoped to make the potato skins to have with the chicken, but I haven't had any spare time lately. I did, however, make a baked potato version of the potato skins. I stuffed the baked potato with broccoli and shreddded monterrey jack cheese and topped it with the avacado cream. I loved it! This is huge because a) potatoes are my least favorite starch b) my least favorite way to eat a potato is baked and c) I don't really care for broccoli. It was actually a really delicious combination of flavors and I know I'll make this again, too.

Party Nibblers

I have a major sweet tooth. I often say that my favorite thing about being a "grown-up" is that I don't have to finish all of my dinner in order to get to dessert. In fact, if I want to, I can even skip dinner and go straight to dessert! Around this time of year though, I start to rebel against sweets. Cookies, cakes, and candy are just everywhere and I just find myself longing for fruit, or maybe an almond, anything but sweets. With this in mind, I like to give out some savory treats to go with the boxes of cookies that I give to friends and neighbors during the holidays.

The problem is, it's not always as simple as that. I have the hardest time looking for recipes for savory holiday treats. I knew that this year I would make Ellie's Spiced Nuts because they're so very tasty, but I also wanted to make something else. Well, inspiration came in the form of a nice giftcard from Hilary at Domino Sugar. My grandmother used to say that she was going to Costco to eat lunch because she'd try every.single.sample in the warehouse!!! I'm not that bad, but I do like some extra help in the grocery department and I'm a big fan of Domino sugar, so I was happy to say yes to this offer.

Domino has lots of really great recipes on their site, I literally spent hours browsing and trying to decide which recipe to choose. Originally I wanted to make these peanut butter sand dollar cookies but, as I mentioned, I'm so tired of sweets right now. I was also short on time, so the sand dollars have been bookmarked for the time being. In an effort to find something savory that could be gifted, I started looking under the appetizers and I found the recipe for these party nibblers. Who doesn't love Chex mix in one form or another? In Texas, when I was growing up, we called it Texas Trash and, man, my brother and sister and I luh-luh-loved Texas Trash! We only had it at my grandmother's house; I remember she used to make huge batches in a roasting pan. These party nibblers couldn't be easier to make, and I made quite a few batches. Warning:  this is VERY addictive. I forgot that there's a reason why I never, ever buy or make Chex mix:  I can't stop eating it. I bagged all of it up, tied it with ribbon, and it's set to go out with the cookie boxes. I have a feeling that this is going to make another appearance around our national day of gluttony:  the Super Bowl. In the meantime, if you're feeling pressed about Christmas gifts or hostess gifts for festive holiday functions, be sure and check out Domino's page dedicated to fabulous homemade gift ideas.

TWD: Cafe Volcano Cookies

Like many of us that made the Cafe Volcano Cookies this week, I was a little nervous. The recipe didn't make me nervous, but when I looked at those sad little mounds of egg white, sugar, and nuts on my cookie sheet, I had doubts. In fact, I was certain there was (as Dudley so kindly puts it when he thinks it's my fault that the GPS isn't pointing us in the right direction) a user error somewhere along the way. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, though, and I plopped the cookie sheets in the oven to see what a difference 20 minutes makes. When I pulled the cookies out of the oven, this phrase popped into my mind:  "a face only a mother could love." They're not the most attractive little cookies, are they?

But really, aside from the fact that these cookies are responsible for me humming a certain Jimmy Buffet song even 24 hours later, these little drops of nut sweetness and yummy deliciousness are wonderful. True, they're not that attractive, but what they lack in looks, they more than make up for in ease and taste. I switched out cocoa powder for espresso powder and pecans for walnuts, and I was delighted to see that the recipe is really very adaptable. I absolutely adore MacDuff's blog, Lonely Sidecar. To say she has a way with words is an incredible understatement. So, go visit her blog for the recipe, read the blog for her stories -- always hilarious and insightful -- and along the way you'll learn about TLFS and her oh-so-sweet dog, Dixie.

Also, if any of you are looking to add to your cookbook collection this holiday season, don't miss this post, the winner will be drawn on Friday morning and announced on Friday afternoon!

Pepper Jelly and Buttermilk Biscuits -- They're DamGoodSweet (and a giveaway, too!)

I crave many different things on different days -- strawberries, pink grapefruit, mojitos and warm weather, a burger and fries, simple roast chicken. It just depends on my mood. That said, there are two things that I seem to crave more often than anything else:  queso (as in chile con queso) and cream cheese and pepper jelly. Ninfa's on Navigation in Houston makes the best.queso.ever. I love it, I crave it, and when I'm home I make a beeline to Navigation to get my fix. I did, however, find a Mexican restaurant up by the Cathedral that makes some very acceptable queso so I can get my queso fix when the situation is dire. The cream cheese and pepper jelly is a craving that's a little harder to assuage. In Texas (and Louisiana, I'm sure, and probably throughout the South) pepper jelly is a fixture on grocery store shelves. I've been known to spend a good 5-10 minutes standing in front of the pepper jelly selection at Central Market pondering which kind to purchase that day. When the Social Safeway was open they had one brand of pepper jelly -- but one brand is all you need when you're really craving some cream cheese and pepper jelly. Now the Social Safeway is closed for renovations and pepper jelly is really hard to find up here. I had my mom bring me two jars of pepper jelly when she came to visit in October -- but it's one of those things you tend to eat in social situations (read:  many people eat a lot of pepper jelly in a short amount of time!) -- and now it's all gone.

What's a Singleton to do? Well, first she tries the fancy garlic jalapeno pepper jelly or the lime pepper jelly from Dean and Deluca and finds them not to her liking. There was just something missing. Then, as luck would have it, I got invited to the launch of DamGoodSweet at Acadiana restaurant. David Guas is a D.C. pastry chef with Louisiana roots, and this book is all about Cajun sweets. I had a great time at the launch party, and I wish I'd remembered my camera so I could've taken a picture of me with powdered sugar all over me from the fantabulous beignet bites that were being passed around. Ohmygosh -- they're so very tasty! I left with a cookbook and a lovely goody bag of caramel peanut popcorn, and I went home to take a good look at this cookbook. All of the big players are in this book:  beignets, king cake, doberge cake, and even Roman Chewing Candy (I was SO excited when I saw that!), but there are lots of recipes that I wasn't familiar with, too. In fact some of the simpler, less iconic desserts are highest on my list to make:  Calas Fried Rice Fritters, Gauteau de Sirop, and Sweet Corn Cake with Root Beer Syrup. But the recipe that got bookmarked first was Red Pepper Jelly and the accompanying buttermilk biscuits. Oh boy, howdy, now I can have pepper jelly whenever I want it!

I've made jam and jelly before, but it's usually a very small quantity so that I don't have to mess with boiling water, jars, and attempt to burn myself in the process. I'm accident prone, and while I love the idea of canning, I'm very wary of it. I couldn't pass up the chance to have extra pepper jelly in my pantry (and maybe even give some away if I'm feeling generous) so I procured some small mason jars and went to town. Now, first of all, the recipe suggests that because jalapenos vary so much in heat intensity it's best to taste a tiny bit before you start so you know what you're dealing with. I can tolerate a fair amount of spice, but biting into a fresh hot pepper isn't my idea of a good time, and I was really reluctant to do this. In the name of delicious pepper jelly, though, I took the tiniest bite of the tiniest piece of pepper. It was hot -- it was so hot it sent me running to the fridge for milk. My lips tingled for a good 30 minutes. With that knowledge, I put gloves on to seed and devein the peppers. The rest of the process is pretty easy:  you chop up hot peppers, sweet red peppers, and sweet onion. The pepper-onion mixture is combined with cider vinegar, sugar, and pectin on the stove. A little time and, voila!, you have pepper jelly. The pepper jelly was everything that I wanted it to be, and now I don't have to worry about hoarding pepper jelly anymore! It's nice to know that I can make it whenever I want to -- just so long as I can get my hands on hot peppers.

Now, normally I eat pepper jelly with crackers -- Triscuits or Wheat Thins to be precise. This is not a fancy schmancy appetizer. In fact, I really associate it with very low-key gatherings, and I've been known to spend entire crawfish boils camped out in front of the cream cheese and pepper jelly (this could have something to do with the fact that I don't like a mudbug). The recipe for biscuits accompanies this red pepper jelly, though, and I was bringing this to a more formal cocktail gathering, so I thought the biscuits might be a better option. I don't have a really great track record with biscuits. For one thing, they're usually flatter than I'd like. I have a hard time getting my desired result. These biscuits, though, are not only a cinch to make, but they turned out perfectly every time I made them! And I made them three times over the course of the weekend -- three for three is pretty good. They're a very simple recipe:  butter, buttermilk, White Lily Flour, baking powder, and salt are the only ingredients. I'm so happy that I finally found a go-to biscuit recipe. While the biscuits are, indeed tasty, I think that I'm going to stick with crackers for my pepper jelly in the future. These biscuits would be lovely with gravy or ham -- that's how I'll serve them in the future.

I'm not posting the recipes because I don't have permission to post them. I am, however, so excited about my newfound biscuit prowess and mad pepper jelly skills, that I'm going to share the love with you! If you'd like a chance to have your very own copy of DamGoodSweet:  Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style, just leave a comment on this post. If you have a favorite New Orleans food or experience, I'd love to hear about it, but any comment will enter you in this giveaway. You have until 8 am (eastern time) on Friday to enter, and the winner will be announced on Friday afternoon!

Willa Cather's Kolaches

I'm baaack! I should've been back days ago. I took my orals on Monday . . . but then I had classes and I had to clean my very messy house and it's been quite the social butterfly type of week around here, and, oh yes, I had to sleep. This is the first week in over a month when I haven't had to wake up at 5:30 am everyday to start reading. Sleeping has been wonderful! During my final push to prepare for my orals I didn't bake or cook at all. I reverted to my former take-out, pick-up, order-in self. Would you believe that although I've always loved cooking, I never, ever used to cook? When I graduated from college and I lived with my sister, the two of us were the take-out queens. We lived off of the prepared foods from Central Market and Whole Foods, and when we didn't, we went out! I didn't realize how easy it is to fall back into the habit of not cooking, and I've had a hard time motivating myself to cook dinner lately. Well, in my defense, Dudley and I have had one function or another to go to every night this week, so cooking dinner hasn't really been an issue.

I did bake these kolaches for my orals presentation on Monday, though. Often when I'm researching I'll come across really interesting, completely useless-for-my-purposes articles. I came across an article by Ann Romines called "Kolache Controversies" that centers around the Kolache controversy in Nebraska: the proper shape, proper filling, even the propper plural of the pastry is all up for debate in this article. I love Willa Cather's novels, and I immediately requested this article through my library. Now, full disclosure, the recipe isn't Willa Cather's recipe, it's her goddaughter's recipe. If you're interested in the article, I highly recommend you enlist a local librarian's help to track it down. It's short, and it includes this recipe for kolaches at the end of it. (Side Note: There may be kolache controversies in Nebraska, but I'll add my own to the mix. In Texas, Kolaches are very popular breakfast food, but the sort of kolache that I'm most familiar with is a roll stuffed with sausage and cheese in the center. Who knew how many variations existed? Certainly not me!)

I read through this recipe several times before I made it, and it didn't seem that complicated. What I neglected to do, however, was use my noggin to read between the lines. This is supposedly an old family recipe, and it certainly seemed that way while I was making these kolaches. For example, the recipe calls for 6 cups of flour; after I added 6 cups of flour I was still stuck with an incredibly soupy mess. But then, the recipe doesn't call for kneading the dough, just stirring the dough (I've never seen a stirred yeast dough before, but I don't have a great deal of experience). Also, I noticed that you have to grease your hands to work with the dough when shaping the kolaches, so I think it's supposed to be sticky, even though the recipe just describes it as a "soft" dough. Well, after 7 or 8 cups of flour, I still had a very sticky dough! The only dough I can compare it to is Dorie Greenspan's kugelhopf dough, but it's still much stickier than that. It was sturdy enough to shape (just barely) and sturdy enough to hold the fillings, so I think that I got close -- though I don't have any experience with the real thing to go by.

According to the article, kolaches can be made in a square shape or a round shape, and there are any number of fillings that you can use for the kolaches including peach, prune, apricot, cherry, pineapple, poppyseed, and cottage cheese (which I assume is similar to the filling in a cream cheese danish). I used apricot, strawberry, and sour cherry jams to fill my kolaches, and then to mix it up a bit, I also filled some with lemon curd. The pastries are supposed to be topped with shredded coconut . . . I love coconut but it just didn't seem right here, so I left it off.

The perils of working with such soft and sticky dough really pay off in the finished product. These pastries are lovely and soft -- perfect with a cup of coffee in the morning or as an afternoon snack. The professors on my orals committee couldn't get enough of them! The dough is slightly sweet, yeasty, and pillowy soft. I don't have permission to reprint the recipe, but if you'd like to have it, there are two options: a) contact a librarian at your local library and have her track down the article for you or b) email me or leave me a comment with your email and I will share the recipe with you that way.

Note:  In the comments section, a reader graciously allowed that the Willa Cather Pioneer Newsletter that contains this article is available online through this link. If you scroll to the bottom lefthand corner of the page you can hit download and access the entire newsletter and "Kolache Controversies" -- how exciting!