A Love Affair with Southern Cooking (65 page)

BROWN SUGAR SAUCE

MAKES ABOUT
1¼
CUPS

According to James Harrison, who gave me this old Virginia recipe years ago, “When properly made, the sauce will be caramel-like and very dark.” He adds that although it was routinely served at his Grandmother Davis’s house as a topping for Old Virginia Gingerbread, which precedes, it is equally spectacular over vanilla ice cream. Harrison remembers the sauce being put on to simmer just as the family sat down to Sunday dinner. By the time dessert was served, it was ready. If the sauce is to be silky-smooth, you must keep the burner heat at the lowest possible point, using a diffuser, if necessary. The sauce should warm just enough to dissolve all the sugar crystals, not become so hot that the eggs “scramble.”

¼ cup (½ stick) butter, at room temperature

2 cups loosely packed dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons hot (but not boiling) water

2 tablespoons bourbon or brandy

• 1.
  Cream the butter and sugar in a small electric mixer bowl at moderately high speed for 1 to 2 minutes or until light and smooth. With the motor running, add the eggs one by one, then continue beating for 1 minute. Beat in the hot water.
  
• 2.
  Transfer the sauce to the top of a double boiler and set over barely simmering water. Adjust the burner heat so that the water in the bottom of the double boiler stays below a simmer, then cook, stirring briskly every 20 minutes or so, until the sugar dissolves completely and the sauce thickens and is absolutely smooth. This may take as long as 1½ hours. But be patient. If you rush things, your sauce will turn gritty and you might as well pitch it out. Only a silky sauce will do.
  
• 3.
  As soon as the sauce is just the right consistency, mix in the bourbon and cook 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.
  
• 4.
  Ladle warm over gingerbread or serve as an ice cream topper.
  

Good coffee and the Protestant religion can seldom if ever be found together.

—
OLD CREOLE SAYING

GRATED SWEET POTATO CAKE WITH COCONUT TOPPING

MAKES ONE
9 × 9 × 2-
INCH CAKE

Of all the sweet potato recipes to come out of the South, this one—similar to but better than carrot cake—may be the most delicious. I admit to having an insatiable sweet tooth, as do too many other Southerners.

Cake

2½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup corn oil or vegetable oil

4 large eggs

1½ cups coarsely grated raw sweet potato (about one 8-ounce potato)

¼ cup water

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, black walnuts, or wild hickory nuts

Topping

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

¼ teaspoon salt

One 12-ounce can evaporated milk

1 cup sweetened grated or flaked coconut

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat a 9 × 9 × 2-inch baking pan with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.
  
• 2.
  For the cake: Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt onto a large piece of wax paper and set aside.
  
• 3.
  Beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and oil in a large electric mixer bowl for 1 minute at medium speed or until well combined. Beat the eggs in one by one. By hand, mix in the sifted dry ingredients, grated sweet potatoes, water, and pecans.
  
• 4.
  Scoop the batter into the pan, spreading to the corners, then slide onto the middle oven shelf and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the cake is springy to the touch, begins to pull from the sides of the pan, and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
  
• 5.
  Remove the cake from the oven and cool right side up on a wire rack.
  
• 6.
  Meanwhile, prepare the topping: Whisk the sugar, cornstarch, and salt together in a medium-size heavy saucepan. Add the milk, set over moderate heat, and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 to 4 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick and shiny. Set off the heat and mix in the coconut and vanilla. Spread at once over the cake, then cool for 10 minutes or until the topping is firm.
  
• 7.
  To serve, cut the cake into rectangles, but make them small; the cake’s unusually rich.
  Note:
  Refrigerate any leftovers.
  

ALABAMA TEA CAKES

MAKES ABOUT
8
DOZEN COOKIES
(
INCLUDING REROLLS
)

Whenever I thumb through antiquarian southern cookbooks, I’m struck by the dearth of cookie recipes. The reason, I suspect, is that being so small and thin, cookies burned easily in unreliable ovens. Only with the arrival of thermostated ovens in the early twentieth century did cookies come into their own. There is, however, one old-fashioned cookie recipe that appears regularly in early cookbooks and that’s the tea cake. I have tea cake recipes from nearly every southern state but my favorite is this one given to me years ago by Miz Susie Rankin, a wise and witty Alabama farm woman who lived near the town of Demopolis. Miz Susie kept the dough for this 100-year-old recipe in her refrigerator, and any time she “wanted to do something nice for a child,” she’d pull out “a gob of dough” and bake some tea cakes.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in ½ cup buttermilk

5½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

• 1.
  Cream the butter, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt in a large electric mixer bowl for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the soda-buttermilk mixture. With the mixer at low speed, add the flour 1 cup at a time.
  
• 2.
  Divide the dough into four equal parts, flatten each into a large round disk on a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, then wrap and refrigerate for several hours or until stiff enough to roll. Or, if you prefer, label, date, and freeze the dough to use later. In a 0° F. freezer, it will keep well for about 3 months.
  
• 3.
  When ready to proceed, preheat the oven to 375° F. Spritz several baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
  
• 4.
  Working with one fourth of the dough at a time, roll as thin as pie crust on a lightly floured surface. Using a floured 2¾-to 3-inch biscuit or cookie cutter, cut into rounds. Gather the scraps, reroll, and cut.
  
• 5.
  Space the tea cakes about 2 inches apart on the baking sheets and bake on the middle oven shelf for 8 to 10 minutes or until pale tan.
  
• 6.
  Transfer at once to wire racks to cool. Store the tea cakes in airtight canisters, layering them between sheets of wax paper.
  

GEORGIA PECAN BALLS

MAKES ABOUT
3
DOZEN

Adapted from a recipe sent to me by the Georgia Pecan Commission, these cookies remind me of Mexican Wedding Cakes or what Virginia friends call “moldy mice.” Why, I have no idea. Nor could they enlighten me. Not too sweet and easy to make, pecan balls are perfect for the holiday season. Tip:
To get a jump on things, bake them weeks ahead. Layered into airtight containers between sheets of wax paper and stored in the freezer, they’ll taste oven-fresh when thawed.

½ cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour

1 cup finely chopped pecans

One 1-pound box confectioners’ (10X) sugar

• 1.
  Preheat the oven to 375° F.
  
• 2.
  By hand, combine the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt, beating until light. Work in the flour and pecans, taking care not to overmix.
  
• 3.
  Roll the dough into 1-to 1½-inch balls and space about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
  Note:
  If the dough is too soft to shape, chill well, then shape.
  
• 4.
  Bake the pecan balls on the middle oven shelf for 18 to 20 minutes or until pale tan and irresistible smelling. Roll at once in the confectioners’ sugar until nicely coated.
  
• 5.
  Cool the cookies before serving. Or, if desired, freeze and serve later (see Tip at left).
  

OLD SALEM SUGAR COOKIES

MAKES ABOUT
5
DOZEN

Whenever I visit Old Salem, an eighteenth-century Moravian village come to life in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, I zip over to the 200-year-old Winkler Bakery and load up on thin-as-onion-skin ginger cookies and these old-fashioned sugar cookies—my all-time favorites. This recipe is my updated, downsized version of the old institutional one. Note:
Because the cookie dough must season overnight before it’s rolled, begin this recipe the day before you bake the cookies.

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons sifted all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, at room temperature

1¼ cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon lemon extract

¼ teaspoon almond extract

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

• 1.
  Sift the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and nutmeg together onto a piece of wax paper and set aside.
  
• 2.
  Cream the butter in a large electric mixer bowl at moderately high speed for about 1 minute until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar and continue beating until again light. With the motor running, add the vanilla, lemon and almond extracts, then the eggs and egg yolk. Sift in the combined dry ingredients and beat at low speed just enough to form a soft, sticky dough.
  
• 3.
  Shape the dough into a ball, flatten slightly, then wrap in aluminum foil and allow to season overnight in the refrigerator.
  
• 4.
  Next day when ready to proceed, preheat the oven to 325° F. Also grease several baking sheets and set aside.
  
• 5.
  Working with about one fourth of the dough at a time, roll on a well-floured pastry cloth with a well-floured stockinette-covered rolling pin to a thickness of
  ¹
  /
  ₈
  inch or about as thin as pie crust.
  
• 6.
  Cut into rounds with a well-floured 2¾-to 3-inch biscuit or cookie cutter and space the cookies about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Or, if you prefer, cut into fancy shapes but note that you may end up with fewer cookies.
  
• 7.
  Bake the cookies in the lower third of the oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edge.
  
• 8.
  Transfer at once to wire racks and cool to room temperature. Layer the cooled cookies between sheets of wax paper in a large, airtight container and store in a cool, dry spot.