Add whipped cream, butter and whiskey to regular peach cobbler.
Acowboy must have meat and bread, but he’ll never turn down a sweet at meal’s end. Chuck wagon cooks often had to guard the sugar bowl from assault from a sugar-craving cowpoke. We don’t scrimp on sugar and flour for the recipes in this section. Like the chuck wagon cooks of old, we adapt when necessary, using fresh peaches or even tomatoes in desserts. Bread pudding, which began as a way to use day-old bread, is an oft-requested dish that we never tire of preparing.
Pear - Apple Crunch
Crunch
One year there was a bounty of pears, which prompted this recipe’s development. Mixing apples and pears together is always a hit.
10 to 11 fresh-picked large very firm pears, peeled and quartered or a mixture of pears and unpeeled sliced tart apples
3 tablespoons Triple sec
¾ cup pecans, chopped
CRUNCH
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
½ teaspoon salt
Preheat oven 350º.
Core and slice each quartered pear crossways into 4 to 5 pieces. Place all slices in 12-inch round cake pan or 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Pour Triple sec over pears and stir so all pieces are coated. Let rest 30 minutes. Add walnuts and stir again.
Mix crunch of sugar, flour and butter in a round-bottomed bowl. Cut in butter with pastry cutter. Sprinkle mixture on top of pears. Bake 55 to 60 minutes.
Serve warm with feta, brie or sharp Cheddar crumbled on top.
TIP: Firm, slightly underripe pears are best for cooking flavor and texture. Use the very ripe pears for salads and eating out of hand.
Serves 8 to 10
Baked
Apples
A twist for fresh fruits, different fillings also work.
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled
6 teaspoons brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
¼ cup Red Chile Butter, recipe page 119
Preheat oven to 350º.
Core apples from top, leaving bottom solid. Place 1 teaspoon brown sugar in each apple topped with 2 teaspoons of Red Chile Butter. Break cinnamon stick in 1¼-inch pieces and place one piece in center of apple. Bake on nonstick pan for 20 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.
Serves 6
Apple Raisin
Crisp
Raisins are regularly used because of their long shelf life. They certainly complement apples.
12 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced
6 ounces golden raisins
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon dash of nutmeg
Place sliced apples and raisins in 14-inch bread pan. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. Stir.
TOPPING
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup butter
Cut flour and sugars into butter with pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle over top of apples.
Bake in 16-inch Dutch oven or large Pyrex baking dish for 40 to 45 minutes.
Serves 16
Chuck wagon cooks typically used dried or canned fruits or whatever they found along the trail.
with Pie Crust
Everyone’s favorite. The last ones in line will get only fruit because the crust goes first. A scoop of ice cream on top of warm cobbler is a good combination.
5 or 6 large firm peaches or tart apples, peeled and thinly sliced
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour, rounded
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup butter, cut into 12 pats
dough for two pie crusts
Preheat oven to 375º.
Place peaches or apples in unbaked pie shell. Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon; sprinkle over fruit. Dot with butter. Cover with remaining pie crust. Crimp upper and lower pie crusts to seal; slit top crust 8 to 10 times. For variation, cut into strips and lace strips for upper crust; sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 375º for 15 minutes; lower temperature to 350º, bake for 45 minutes or until pie bubbles and crust is browned.
Serve warm.
PIE CRUST
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter or shortening
6 tablespoons cold water
Mix salt and flour. Add butter, blend with pastry knife. Begin adding cold water to make a soft dough. Roll out on floured board.
Serves 8
Peach Pie Crust
Fruited Sourdough Rolls
Sourdough Rolls
Sourdough lends itself well to sweet breads. Chuck wagon cooks typically used dried or canned fruits or whatever they found along the trail. We use whatever’s in season or what we find in the pantry.
1 recipe Sourdough Biscuits, recipe page 40
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups dried apricots, boiled in a little water until soft
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
vegetable oil
Preheat oven to 400º.
Roll Sourdough out on well-floured surface until it is about 18 to 20 inches long and 8 to 10 inches wide. Quarter butter lengthwise. Place quarter cuts of butter end to end the length of dough, about 1 inch from edge nearest to you. Repeat placing the butter quarters just past the middle of the dough. Spread apricots on each side of both rows of butter. Sprinkle sugar over entire roll. Roll entire roll away from you using first row of quartered butter as guide. (This gets easier after doing several times.) Cut with sharp knife into 1½-inch rolls. Carefully oil both sides or cut rolls and place in nonstick, large, deep baking pan or 16-inch Dutch oven. Pat down as you would sourdough rolls. Cook 20 to 25 minutes.
Mix confectioner’s sugar with 1 tablespoon water until smooth. Pour over rolls when removed from oven. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.
Makes 12 to 14 rolls
TIP: Apricot preserves may be used in place of dried apricots. Or use two thinly sliced Granny Smith apples with 1 cup of golden raisins and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. The rolls cut more easily if the apples lie parallel with the butter.
Bourbon
Peach Cobbler
This was developed for a chuck wagon competition at Fort Concho in San Angelo, Texas. It took first place. As others learned about adding whipped cream, butter and whiskey to regular peach cobbler, the recipe has become a mainstay at chuck wagon cookoffs.
1 Cobbler Crust, recipe page 173
1 cup sugar
6 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup Jack Daniel’s Black Label Tennessee Whiskey
1½ cups whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350º.
Melt butter in saucepan. Add peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon, sugar and cream. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Add whiskey and stir tenderly. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes.
Line the 9 x13-inch Pyrex dish with Cobbler Crust. Pour in fruit mixture. Cover top with either whole crust or strips of crust in latticework pattern. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes.
Serves 8
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons shortening
¼ cup cold water
Mix dry ingredients, add shortening and cut in with two knives or pastry blender. Mixture should resemble coarse corn meal. Add cold water gradually to make a ball. Divide into two balls for top and bottom 9 x 13-inch cobbler crust. Roll out on floured surface with rolling pin. Place one crust in bottom of pan, add filling. Top with remaining crust or strips of crust in latticework pattern.
Lemon - Lime Sauce
Bread Pudding with Lemon - Lime Sauce
with Lemon-Lime Sauce
This decadent favorite is a great way to use up day-old stale bread—which is probably why it originated. It has many variations, according to your whims and what’s on hand. If you don’t have nuts and raisins, use fresh berries or dark chocolate.
6 cups white bread, cubed
4 cups milk
6 eggs 1½ cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup golden raisins
½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar
Preheat oven to 350º.
Place cubed white bread in 9 x 13-inch baking dish or pan. Sprinkle the golden raisins and chopped nuts on top. Mix remaining ingredients in saucepan and heat on low heat until butter melts. Pour mixture over the bread, mashing the bread into the fluid. Let stand 15 minutes or until fluid is absorbed. Bake 30 minutes. Thoroughly mix together 1 tablespoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons sugar and sprinkle on top of pudding. Bake an additional 15 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Spoon warm Lemon-Lime Sauce on top and serve warm or cold.
Serves 10 to 12
Lemon-Lime Sauce
The tartness of the lemons and the sugary sweetness make this a solid standard. The zest heightens the flavor and fragrance.
4 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup butter
6 lemons or limes
In saucepan, pour juice of 6 lemons and zest of 4 lemons over sugar. Over low heat, add butter and eggs, slightly beating and stirring until it thickens. When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and serve over ice cream or bread pudding. Sprinkle the zest of remaining lemons or limes over the top.
White Chocolate Sauce
White chocolate is distinctly different from dark chocolate because it contains no cocoa solids. For best quality, choose a creamy white chocolate as opposed to a stark white chocolate.
3 ounces white chocolate
¼ cup butter
2 tablespoons milk
Melt butter and milk in saucepan. Add white chocolate. Stir often. When chocolate melts, serve hot over pudding.
Yields 1 cup
White Chocolate Almond
Bread Pudding
Use an electric food chopper to chop almonds, and add white chocolate slowly so that it does not clump.
6 cups white bread, crusts removed
4 cups milk
6 eggs 1½ cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
½ cup butter
2 cups almonds, chopped
3 ounces white chocolate
Preheat oven to 350º.
Use thin-sliced white bread cut into ¾ to 1-inch cubes. Place cubes in 12-inch round cake pan or 11 x 14-inch baking dish. Chop almonds and 3 ounces of white chocolate in food processor. Sprinkle almond and white chocolate mixture on bread.
Beat eggs with electric mixer in medium pan (2-quart pan or larger). Add sugar, vanilla, milk and butter. Heat on low. Butter will float, so stir often. When butter melts, remove from heat and pour over bread. Mash bread down with large spoon to absorb fluid. Let stand 15 minutes. Stir mixture lightly to distribute almonds and white chocolate. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until firm. Remove from oven and let rest 5 to 10 minutes.
Serve hot or cold with White Chocolate Sauce.
Serves 10 to 12
Sand Tarts
Called Mexican Wedding Cookies by some, these are very light and tasty, whether hot from the oven or straight from the freezer.
1 cup butter
½ cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
2 cups cake flour, sifted
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 325º.
Cream butter; add sugar. Stir thoroughly and add flour, salt, nuts and vanilla. Shape into balls or crescents and bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 20 minutes or until light brown.
Roll in confectioner’s sugar while warm.
Yields 4 dozen
Mary’s Sand Tarts
Cold - Oven Pound Cake
Pound Cake
This is very easy to make. Good anytime— breakfast, dinner or supper!
1½ cups butter
2½ cups sugar
5 eggs
3¾ cups flour
⅛ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix dry ingredients together, divide. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs individually, mixing after each addition. Add half the dry ingredients. Add milk and vanilla. Add remaining half the dry ingredients and beat for 1 minute. Pour into a well-greased tube pan. Put cake into cold oven and turn to 325º. Bake for 1½ hours or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
Turn out after 10 minutes and pour hot icing over hot cake.
ICING
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
¼ cup water
¼ cup rum
¼ cup lemon or lime juice lemon or lime zest
Combine all ingredients in saucepan. Boil 2 to 3 minutes. Pour over hot cake. Sprinkle with zest.
Serves 12
Texas
Cheesecake
This is truly a cheesecake with origins in Germany. You’ll like this one.
½ recipe Dutch Oven Delight Dough, recipe page 180
4 cups cottage cheese, drained
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons (scant) cornstarch
juice of 1 lemon
½ cup sugar (or more to taste)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon almond or lemon extract
1 cup raisins
Prepare Dutch Oven Delight Dough. After dough has doubled in bowl, roll it out to ½-inch thickness; place into 16-inch Dutch oven or on a 12 x 18-inch baking sheet. Set aside to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
In large mixing bowl, combine cottage cheese with sour cream, then stir in remaining ingredients. Spread cheese mixture on top of risen dough. Bake 40 minutes at 325 to 350°. When done, brush with browned butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Serves 12
Dutch Oven
Delight
This is a typical cowboy dessert—heavy on flour and sugar. Oldtimers tell the story of a cowboy who’d been riding fencelines away from headquarters all winter. He rode in one day—probably hadn’t had anything sweet in months-and proceeded to make Bear Sign. It was such a hit that he became the cook. We offer three sweet variations that are great for a Sunday brunch.
DUTCH OVEN DELIGHT DOUGH
2 cups milk, scalded
2 2-ounce packages yeast or 6 1/4-ounce packets dry yeast
¾ cup shortening
¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 cups flour melted butter
1 tablespoon cinnamon mixed with 2 cups sugar
Preheat oven to 350º.
To scalded milk, add 1 tablespoon sugar; sprinkle yeast on top and let stand to soften. In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and butter, add remaining sugar and salt. Cream all until light and fluffy. Add beaten eggs, mix. Add yeast mixture, vanilla and enough flour to yield soft dough. Work with a spoon until smooth and elastic. Knead lightly on floured surface. Place dough in greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Pinch off balls as you would for sourdough biscuits. Dip each ball in melted butter, then cinnamon-sugar. Crowd into well-greased 14-inch Dutch oven. Let rise until doubled, 30 to 45 minutes. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
Serves 12
FILLING
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
⅓cup pecans, chopped
GLAZE
1½ cups confectioner’s sugar
¼ teaspoon maple flavoring
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
Pinch off three 3-inch balls. On floured surface, roll each ball to ⅛-inch thickness. Place one piece on 12-inch nonstick pizza pan. Brush dough with 2 tablespoons melted butter and sprinkle with one-third of the filling. Repeat, ending with filling on top. With a glass, mark a 2-inch circle in dough’s center; do not cut through. Cut from outside edge just to center circle, forming 16 pie-shaped wedges. Twist each of the three-layered wedges five times. Let rise in warm place 45 minutes. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. Drizzle with glaze.
Makes two twists
OR for Bear Sign
Pinch off dough in egg-sized balls, then roll into ¾- to 1-inch logs. Let rise 15 minutes. Deep fry as you would doughnuts; coat with sugar-cinnamon mixture. Serve hot.
Yields 35 to 40 rolls
Bear Sign
Side - Saddle Pecan Addiction
Pecan Addiction
You are going to hate us for giving you this recipe because you can’t quit eating it.
CRUST
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350°.
Melt butter and place in large mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients and mix. Spray 9 x 13-inch pan, or 10-inch round, deep cake pan with nonstick spray. Spread crust in pan and bake for 20 minutes until crust is puffy and light brown. Remove from oven and press down fluffy spots and corners.
FILLING
12 eggs, beaten
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup Karo light syrup
1 cup sorghum molasses or maple syrup
½ cup + 1 tablespoon flour
4½ cups pecan pieces
1 tablespoon vanilla
Combine eggs, brown sugar, syrup and molasses. Stir until smooth. Add flour and stir until well blended and smooth. Stir in pecans and vanilla. Pour filling in crust and bake 45 minutes at 360º.
Serves 12
Using Liners
One of the tricks Bill Cauble has learned while cooking with Dutch ovens is to use heavy cake pans as liners for the Dutch oven. Sugar will burn and stick to the cast iron pans, so the liners allow you to use the Dutch oven for cakes and pies. Too, you can pour water into the Dutch oven, then place the liner in and add ingredients for casseroles or other main dishes.
Vanilla Ice Cream
No matter what, nothing compares to homemade ice cream. Though not many hand-cranked ice cream freezers remain, many have fond memories of sitting atop the freezer as it was being cranked or cranking it yourself. The harder it was to turn, the nearer you were to a sweet treat.
1½ quarts milk
6 eggs, beaten 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1 pint half-and-half
1½ tablespoons vanilla
Heat 1 quart of milk to scalding while combining salt, sugar and flour. Add dry mixture to eggs and mix. Add to milk, stirring constantly until it thickens. Remove from heat; add sweetened condensed milk. Cool. Pour into ice cream freezer can and add remaining milk, half-and-half and vanilla. Freeze.
TIP: If you have fresh fruit or nuts, add them before freezing.
Yields 3 to 4 quarts
Overnight
Apricot Cake
This is another cookoff-winning dessert. When preparing this and other desserts in Dutch ovens, we always use aluminum pans to line the insides of the ovens.
4 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup shortening
1 2-ounce cake yeast or 3 ¼-ounce packets dry yeast
1 cup cold milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
12 ounces dried apricots
½ cup sugar
FILLING
3 egg whites, beaten stiff
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 325°.
Sift dry ingredients together; cut in shortening. Dissolve yeast in warm milk, add to dry ingredients. Add beaten egg yolks. Mix; do not knead. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Cover apricots with water and simmer until soft. Add ½ cup sugar and mash with fork.
Mix together filling ingredients.
Separate dough into three parts, roll each to ¼-inch thickness. Place one in 3 x 10-inch greased liner pan. Spread one-third of the apricots over dough; add one-third of the filling. Add another layer of dough, more apricots and filling. Repeat with apricots and filling on top.
Place liner pan in Dutch oven and bake 35 to 40 minutes.
Serves 10
This Bourbon Sauce is a luscious accompaniment to Bread Pudding. Rum or brandy can be substituted for a variation.
1 cup sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup half-and-half
¼ cup Jack Daniel’s Black Label Tennessee Whiskey
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to low boil, cooking until thickened. Pour warm sauce over bread pudding 30 minutes before serving, or spoon over individual servings as they are served. Sauce may be kept refrigerated for one week and reheated. It’s good over ice cream.
Yields 1½ cups
Bourbon Sauce
