Cowboy Biscuits:  Sustenance for a Texas Winter Hike

When other parts of the United States are hunkering down in the January chill, Texas weather can be perfect for outdoor activities – particularly hiking.  Texas State Parks offer a variety of options,  and a hike that would be, well should we say, “heat challenged” in the summer, can be delightful in the winter months.  It’s best to check the Texas State Parks and Wildlife website for entry tickets and availability before venturing to a park.  

Of course you will need some sustenance for your hike and may we suggest that a biscuit sandwich could be your perfect answer!  Biscuits will hold their shape better than bread and won’t easily become squashed in your backpack.  

To give us a lesson in flaky biscuit construction,  we called in Chip Miller, who was raised on a ranch along the Rio Grande, southwest of San Antonio in Eagle Pass.  This area is part of the Wintergarden region of Texas which includes seven counties located between southwest of San Antonio and north of Laredo.  Due to the idyllic climate, and availability of irrigation of the Wintergarden region, vegetable farming is prolific.  Chip’s family raised cattle, alfalfa, and a variety of vegetables like: spinach, onions, cantaloupe, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce and cabbage.

Biscuits were a breakfast tradition for the Miller family and fortunately for us, Chip honed his biscuit skill when training at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas.  

As is typical of baking – the process is extremely important and can make the difference in producing a flaky biscuit.  Keeping the ingredients chilled until the last moment is paramount to success.  Also folding the dough in triplets creates those luscious layers. Ingredients and the process is shown below. You can watch Chip in action on Texicureans YouTube channel.  

Now for a hike recommendation!  Colorado Bend State Park, about 37 miles north of Llano is a beautiful park located on the Colorado River before being dammed into the Highland Lakes.  My husband, son, and I loaded up our backpack with ham and cheese biscuit sandwiches and took this approximately 8 mile jaunt around a portion of the park.  

Here’s the trails we took: 

•  Parking lot to Gorman Falls, 
• Gorman Falls to Gorman Springs, 
• Gorman Springs back to Gorman Falls trail and head back to the parking lot. 
•  Take a .75 mile hike to Colorado River Overlook.  
• On the way back to the same trail, take the trail marked “Back to parking lot.”  It will loop you on the perimeter of the park.   

We broke out the biscuit sandwiches at the incredible Gorman Falls where a millennia of years has created stunning limestone formations as the water flows over the falls.  Then we took off along the creek formed by Gorman Springs – an almost paradise setting.  The Colorado River Overlook gives you an understanding of the river flow and the State Park’s location.  And the hike back to the parking lot from there gives you glimpses of a beautiful deep gorge.  

Are you ready for some biscuits?  Whether served simply with butter, honey, and/or jelly or created into a sandwich – you will love this recipe!  

Cowboy Biscuits

According to a Cowboy Chef

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Breakfast, lunch, Snack

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

• 2 sticks butter
• 3 1/4 cups Cups All Purpose Flour - Cold
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp Kosher Salt
• 1½ cups Buttermilk, well shaken
• Sea salt for sprinkling on top

Instructions

 

• The layered biscuit effect is created by folding the dough 3 times before portioning out your biscuits, but the secret to its success is chilling the main ingredients. I freeze the butter and flour beforehand and keep the buttermilk in the fridge until just ready to use it.
• Start the process by grating the frozen butter onto a sheet of parchment paper. Put this back into the freezer while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.
• Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the other dry ingredients,giving it a good stir to incorporate well. Get the frozen butter out and add it to the dry ingredients. Mix it with your fingertips (or a pair of forks)to coat the butter with the mixed dry ingredients until its completely mixed in the add about *half of the buttermilk and work it into the flour/butter mix using your fingertips, add the the balance and continue to mix until the ‘dough’ comes together in a shaggy irregular shape and all flour mix is incorporated (leaving no floury residue at the bottom of the bowl). Dough will be a little sticky and unsmooth at this point.
• Turn the rough dough out onto a lightly floured surface (I use a large wooden cutting board) and shape the rough dough into a rectangle about 8x12 inches in shape, using your hands. The dough will be 2-3 inches thick. Now give the dough a 3-fold – fold the right 1/3 of the dough to the middle, then fold the left 1/3 of the dough on top of it– making a ‘book fold’. Press the dough down to flatten it and reshape to 8x12 inch rectangle again. Pressing the dough down to about 2-3 inches and reshaping it into the rectangle for the next fold will begin to smooth the dough out. Fold it again into thirds like the first time, press down and reshape into a rectangle, and fold a 3rd time. You may have to use a pastry scraper to peel the dough off the working surface. By this point your dough will be much smoother in texture and is ready to cut into edible shapes. I like to use a large chef’s knife to cut the dough into thirds long ways then make four cuts across the middle to create 15 biscuits.
• Transfer the biscuits to a sheet pan being careful not to pinch/handle the edges of the biscuit dough as that will hinder the rising and layering while baking. Bake for about 15 minutes at 425 degrees and check for color (golden brown). Note: if you pull them a little early and find they are too doughy in the middle, just put them back in the oven for 2-3 more minutes.

Video

Notes

*Note:  For a great variation on this recipe, kick it up a notch with this:  Before adding the buttermilk, mix in 8 oz of shredded sharp cheese, ½ tsp of cayenne and 1 ½ tsp of garlic powder. 

 

Keyword flaky biscuits, sandwich

Fruitcake of the Future

Fruitcake —- the controversial culinary dessert that conjures up more divided opinions than politics. Some find it tasty, colorful and a requisite for a truly nostalgic holiday. The other side? Well, they see it as dense, too sweet, and only a byproduct of yesteryear’s limited food preservation methods. No matter where you stand, it’s a classic and we have a modern recipe for you to try. 

A bit of history:  Hard for us to realize today, but before refrigeration one way to preserve the fruits from the summer in the colder months was in a cake. The summer fruit was dried and cut up, pecans were shelled, and sugar was run through a sieve.  All these ingredients were then baked into a cake that could be stored in a root cellar – many times wrapped in cheesecloth, where the temperatures were cooler. 

With this kind of loving preparation, you can see why the gift of a fruitcake was received with the greatest appreciation.  

Texas has its own unique history with fruitcake – Collin Street Bakery located in Corsicana, has been baking up and selling this notable desert since 1896 when “young German entrepreneur, Augustus “Gus” Weidman, journeyed to the heart of Texas with nothing but a whisk and a dream. “  In 1958 after decades of being a well loved local bakery, owner Bill McNutt expanded into the national and international market by creating a mail-order fruitcake business.  With a world wide market, the central Texas location in Corsicana still serves as the home for Collin Street Bakery.  

I was honored to speak with retired pastry chef Alan Harvey who was recruited from London to work with Collin Street Bakery. “They had  written a story in the magazine British Baker saying they were looking for only the best bakers.  I applied and was hired along with two other UK bakers.”, said Alan.  

 “The McNutt’s- owners of Collin Street Bakery are a lovely family.”  Their dedication to quality is assured by owning their own fruit and pecan orchards.  When making the fruitcakes, every cherry, pineapple, and pecan has to be in exactly the right place.  They also developed a streamlined distribution system to fill the world-wide orders,” added Alan.

You can order their famous DeLuxe Fruitcake by going to:   https://collinstreet.com/products/deluxe-fruitcake

Now to that Futuristic Fruitcake I promised you!  My friend, Kim Neal of Lakeway bakes a fruitcake every year for her father-in-law and the recipe she and I baked together might just change your mind about fruitcake.  Light, flavorful, and with just the right touch of citrus – it’s a heavenly accompaniment to a steaming cup of coffee.  

And did I mention that it is also beautiful?  Baked in a bundt pan, with a drizzle of icing, it earns the honor of being displayed on your loveliest cake stand.  

Spoiler alert:  You may have trouble sharing it with your friends or keeping it until the holidays!

Futuristic Fruitcake

A whole new tasty cake

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Equipment

• 1 bundt pan

Ingredients

  

Dried Fruit and Liquor

• 3 cups mixed dried fruit cranberries, apricots, fits, plums, golden raisins, currants
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 1/4 cup amaretto

Cake Batter

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp orange extract
• 4 large eggs room temperature
• 3 3/4 cups cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup orange juice
• 2 cups chopped pecans and/or walnuts
• 8 oz tub candied cherries
• 1 cup mixed candied fruit finely chopped

Toppings

• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• half and half to thin

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 325.  Butter bundt pan well, covering every spot completely.
• Add the dried fruits to the brandy and Amaretto in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 90 seconds and stir.  Let cool.
•  Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the baking powder, salt, and orange extract.  
• Thoroughly beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Blend in flour and orange juice - alternating.  Begin and end with flour.
• Fold in the soaked undrained fruit, candied fruits, and nuts.
• Spoon the batter into our pan and smooth out the surface.  Bake for about 70-90 minutes.  Test by inserting a toothpick into the center.  When comes out without wet batter it will be done.
• Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes.  Then invert onto a plate.  
• Combine 1/3 cup orange juice and 1/3 cup granulated sugar and brush over the entire surface of warm cake.  Let cool completely and set sit at room temperature for 24 hours.
• Add just enough half and half to 2 cups powdered sugar to make a thick glaze.  Let sit for a few minutes until all lumps dissolve.  Spoon the glaze over the surface of the cake.  Let harden and then slice.

Video

Keyword fruitcake, bundt cake, orange