A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (53 page)

“Edna Earle!…Have you got a few cold biscuits I could have before supper, or a little chicken bone I could gnaw on?”

—
EUDORA WELTY
,
THE PONDER HEART

KRISPY KREME BREAD PUDDING WITH JACK DANIEL’S–RAISIN SAUCE

MAKES
6
TO
8
SERVINGS

There’s a popular Krispy Kreme bread pudding down south that contains both honey-glazed doughnuts and sweetened condensed milk, but as much as I love sweets, this one sets my teeth on edge. So I’ve come up with a version that’s a tad less sinful. The only doughnuts to use are the original honey-glazed Krispy Kremes. And they should be at least two days old. Note:
This pudding puffs majestically as it bakes, hence the need for a 2
½-
quart baking dish. Rush it to the table just as you would a soufflé. If you’re not in the mood for the sauce, top the pudding with fresh berries or thinly sliced fresh peaches and a trickle of milk or cream.

2½ cups milk

3 large eggs

¹
/
₃
cup raw or granulated sugar

¼ cup Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey, dark rum, or brandy

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

6 dry honey-glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts, broken into 1-inch pieces (about 7 cups)

Jack Daniel’s–Raisin Sauce

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 350° F. Thoroughly butter a 2½-quart soufflé dish or straight-sided casserole and set aside.
  
• 2.
  Whisk the milk, eggs, sugar, whiskey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl until well combined. Add the doughnuts, toss lightly, and let stand for 10 minutes.
  
• 3.
  Scoop all into the soufflé dish, spreading to the edge and smoothing the top.
  
• 4.
  Slide the soufflé dish onto the middle oven shelf and bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes or until puffed, lightly browned, and set like custard.
  
• 5.
  Serve at once with Jack Daniel’s–Raisin Sauce.
  

These suppers—stag affairs served by the ladies—offered the same collations, with trifling differences, month after month…fried chicken or chicken pie, a baked ham, four or five vegetables, cornbread and beaten biscuit and hot rolls…and a dessert course of a homey dish like tipsy parson, ambrosia, or Cousin Pokie’s apple pudding.

—
FRANCES GRAY PATTON
,
THE FINER THINGS OF LIFE

…a cousin twice removed, Harriet Parker from Flomaton, made perfect ambrosia, transparent orange slices combined with freshly ground coconut…

—
TRUMAN CAPOTE
,
THE THANKSGIVING VISITOR

JACK DANIEL’S–RAISIN SAUCE

MAKES ABOUT
2
CUPS

Delicious over vanilla ice cream as well as Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding.

1 cup water

½ cup Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1½ tablespoons cornstarch

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¹
/
₈
teaspoon salt

½ cup seedless raisins

2 tablespoons butter

1½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 1.
  Combine the water, whiskey, brown sugar, cornstarch, nutmeg, and salt in a small saucepan, whisking until smooth.
  
• 2.
  Add the raisins and butter and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Reduce the heat so the liquid bubbles gently, then cook and stir for about 1 minute or until the mixture thickens.
  
• 3.
  Whisk in the lemon juice and serve warm with Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding.
  

He made in an old fashion hand freezer the ice cream which Uncle Willy sold over his soda fountain.

—
WILLIAM FAULKNER
,
THE TOWN

HUGUENOT TORTE

MAKES
6
SERVINGS

I’ve always associated this apple-nut pudding with Charleston, South Carolina, because I’ve enjoyed it there both in private homes and in restaurants. I’ve made it back home, too, following the recipe in
Charleston Receipts,
a Junior League fund-raiser first published in 1950 and now past its thirtieth printing. Then along comes Lowcountry insider and culinary sleuth John Martin Taylor to burst the bubble. In
Hoppin’ John’s Lowcountry Cooking
(1992), Taylor “outs” the “Charleston classic” and reveals its true identity: Ozark Pudding. In other words, it is an
Arkansas
classic. Taylor explains how he researched Huguenot Torte (named for the French Protestants who settled in and around Charleston) and tracked down Evelyn Florance, who baked it for Charleston’s Huguenot Tavern back in the 1940s. She admitted that her recipe, first printed in
Charleston Receipts
and later praised by Clementine Paddleford in
The New York Herald Tribune
,
was indeed Ozark Pudding, tweaked and adapted. Here’s another adaptation: my own.

¾ cup unsifted all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

1 large egg

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ cup finely chopped peeled and cored apple (about 1 large Golden Delicious or Rome Beauty)

¾ cup finely chopped pecans, black walnuts, or walnuts

1 cup heavy cream, softly whipped with 2 tablespoons confectioners’ (10 X) sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (topping)

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat an 8 × 8 × 2-inch baking pan with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.
  
• 2.
  Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt onto a piece of wax paper and set aside also.
  
• 3.
  Beat the egg, two sugars, and vanilla at high speed for about 2 minutes in a small electric mixer bowl or until very thick. By hand mix in the sifted dry ingredients, apples, and pecans.
  
• 4.
  Scoop the batter into the pan, spreading to the corners, and bake on the middle oven shelf for about 30 minutes or until crusty brown on top.
  
• 5.
  Remove the torte from the oven and cool in the upright pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.
  
• 6.
  To serve, cut into large squares and drift each portion with some of the whipped cream topping.
  

It’s as good as a pig eating slop.

—
OLD NORTH CAROLINA SAYING

EAST TENNESSEE STACK CAKE

MAKES A
6-
LAYER
, 9-
INCH CAKE, ABOUT
16
SERVINGS

This old family recipe comes from my good friend Florence Gray Soltys, who grew up on a dairy farm just where the Tennessee foothills rise toward the Smokies. “The recipe was a favorite of my Aunt Rhoda Gray,” Florence says. “I often add bourbon to the apple mixture and serve with whipped cream.” Note:
Some dried apples need to be washed, usually those bought at roadside stands or farmer’s markets.

Dried Apple Filling

1 pound dried apples, washed well if necessary (see Note above)

10 cups water

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup bourbon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground ginger (optional)

Pastry

6 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or vegetable shortening

2½ cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

½ cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

1 cup heavy cream, whipped until stiff with 2 tablespoons confectioners’ (10 X) sugar

• 1.
  For the filling: Place the dried apples in a large nonreactive saucepan, add the water, and cook uncovered for 55 to 60 minutes or until the apples are soft enough to mash and most of the liquid has been absorbed. Using a slotted spoon, scoop the apples into a large heatproof bowl and mash thoroughly. Mix in all remaining filling ingredients and cool to room temperature.
  Note:
  You can make the filling several days ahead of time and refrigerate until ready to use.
  
• 2.
  When ready to proceed, arrange two racks about 4 inches apart as near the middle of the oven as possible. If yours is a small oven, place one rack in the middle. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
  
• 3.
  For the pastry: Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt onto a piece of wax paper and set aside.
  
• 4.
  Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer briefly at low speed and then at high speed for about 2 minutes or until fluffy. Beat the eggs in one by one.
  
• 5.
  Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry and beating after each addition only enough to combine.
  
• 6.
  Divide the dough into six equal parts, shape into balls, then place each on a sheet of parchment paper or aluminum foil and cover with a sheet of floured wax paper. Roll two balls of dough into rounds about 9 inches across. Peel off the wax paper, then flour the rim of a 9-inch round layer cake pan and using it as a “cookie cutter,” cut each circle of dough into a perfect 9-inch round. Gently pat any scraps of dough into the center of the rounds; these won’t show after they’re baked.
  
• 7.
  Ease each pastry circle, parchment and all, onto a baking sheet, slide into the oven, and bake for 7 to 8 minutes or until delicately browned. Lift the baked pastry circles (still on the parchment) at once to wire racks to cool. Shape, bake, and cool four more pastry rounds the same way.
  Note:
  If your oven is large enough to accommodate two baking sheets on each rack, so much the better. Otherwise, you will have to bake the pastry circles one or two at a time.
  
• 8.
  To assemble the stack cake: Working on a large round cake plate, sandwich the six pastry rounds together with the apple filling, dividing the total amount evenly. Do not spread filling on the top layer.
  
• 9.
  Cover the stack cake with a domed “cake keeper” or large turned-upside-down bowl and let stand in a cool spot (not the refrigerator) for at least 12 hours before cutting.
  
• 10.
  To serve the stack cake, cut into wedges and top each portion with the sweetened whipped cream.