November 2024
Texas Treats from Texas Kitchens
The holidays are full of many memories, smells, and flavors.
They are also brimming with family traditions and recipes that have been
carefully crafted and passed on for generations.
Texas trees generate a $41.6
billion economic impact and many essential ingredients for some of our
favorite foods, including syrup, flavoring extracts and spices, pecans, nuts, citrus
fruits, and much more.
Trees also provide structure and texture enhancements in
foods through their cellulose—a compound that provides trees and plants with
cell wall structure and strength. Food products made with cellulose include
grated cheeses, ice cream, breads, diet foods, frozen dinners, sauces, and
salad dressings.
While not replacing your traditional recipes, we have compiled
a few of our favorites that include tree product ingredients. Many of our
favorite recipes include ingredients that can even be gathered in the yards of many,
including pecans. They can also be used in the whole form to provide sweet to
peppery smoke-flavored meats when smoking.
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Ingredients:
- 1
1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 stick (4 ounces)
cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1/4 cup ice
water
Filling:
- 2 cups pecans (about 7 ounces)
- 3 large
eggs
- 3/4 cup dark
brown sugar
- 2/3 cup light
corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure
vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons unsalted
butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons bourbon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher
salt
- 3/4 cup semisweet
or bittersweet chocolate chips
Directions:
- Make the pie crust.
- Pulse together the flour, sugar and salt in a
food processor.
- Add the butter and pulse until the mixture
resembles coarse meal.
- Transfer to a bowl and stir in the ice water.
- Knead the dough two or three times on a lightly
floured surface and pat into a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at
least 30 minutes.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough
to a 12-inch round.
- Fit the dough into a 9-inch glass pie plate.
Trim the overhang to 1/2 inch, fold the edge under itself, and crimp
decoratively. Refrigerate until firm.
Make the filling:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. On a rimmed baking
sheet, toast the pecans for about 8 minutes or until fragrant; coarsely chop.
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with the brown
sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, melted butter, bourbon, and salt until blended.
- Stir in the pecans and chocolate chips until
evenly distributed.
Bake:
- Pour the filling into the pie shell. Bake on the
bottom shelf of the oven for about 55 minutes, or until the center of the pie
is set. If the edge is browning too quickly, tent the crust with foil halfway
through the baking time.
- Transfer the pie to a rack and let cool for at
least 1 hour before serving.
Smoked Brisket
When selecting the wood
or wood pellets to use when smoking meats like brisket, it is important to
consider what type of flavor and heat intensity you want. Woods like hickory
will provide a lower, constant heat with a sweeter flavor while mesquite will
provide a larger volume of smoke with an earthy flavor.
Ingredients:
- 12-18 pound full packer brisket
- Kosher salt
- Coarse ground black pepper
- Garlic powder
- Yellow mustard
Directions:
Heat your smoker to 250-275°F.
Add a thin layer of mustard as a binder, and
then season it with coarse salt and pepper along with garlic powder.
- Insert the brisket into the smoker for four hours
untouched.
- After four hours, spritz the edges of the
brisket with a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar.
- After the brisket has developed a dark outer
bark, usually around 170-180°F internally, wrap it tightly in butcher paper and
return it to the smoker.
- After the brisket reaches 195-210°F, remove it
from the smoker and let it rest on the counter for a minimum of 45 minutes to
an hour.
- When serving the brisket, remember to slice
against the grain.
Sweet potato casserole with pecan crumble
Ingredients:
- 4 large sweet potatoes, peeled
- ¼ cup melted butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- Pinch of salt
- 2 large eggs
Pecan crumble ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup flower
- ¼ cup melted butter
Instructions
- Peel and cube sweet potatoes, then boil until tender—about
15 minutes
- Drain potatoes and mash until smooth.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Mix mashed sweet potatoes with melted butter, brown
sugar, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, then eggs.
- Spread the mixture into a greased 9x13-inch
baking dish.
- Combine pecans, brown sugar and melted butter in
a bowl and mix.
- Sprinkle the crumble topping over the sweet
potato mixture.
- Bake uncovered for 40 minutes, or until the
topping is golden.