Sarah Polk’s Hickory Nut Cake

Author Notes: When hickory trees populated America, people would rush to gather the
sweet, buttery nuts in the fall before the animals did. Carol Meeks of Indianapolis, said
that in 1838 her great-great-grandparents purchased Indiana farmland with an abundance
of shagbark hickory trees. Gathering the nuts became a generations-old tradition, and the
nuts were laid under beds in the old farmhouse to dry, before cracking, shelling, and
folding the nut meat into cakes and cookies for the holidays. Smooth, ivory-colored
hickory nuts are one of the few indigenous American nuts, and Native Americans ate
them raw. They are a lot like the pecan, only smaller, harder to obtain, and more labor
intensive to shell. Hickory wood is known for its strength and durability, used for tool
handles and fence posts in addition to firewood.
This pound cake with chopped hickory nuts folded into the batter was popular during the
1800s and is adapted from The First Ladies Cook Book by Margaret Brown Klapthor. It
was a favorite recipe of Sarah Polk, wife of former U.S. president James K. Polk.
Click here for recipe
Serves 12 to 16

• Butter and flour for prepping the pan

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup whole milk or half-and-half
• 1 cup chopped hickory nuts or pecans
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly butter and flour a
10-inch tube pan, and shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.
2. Place the butter in a large mixing bowl, and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until
creamy, 1 minute. Add the sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, beating on medium until light
and creamy, 2 minutes. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating until combined. Set aside.
3. Place the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl and sift to combine. Set aside.
Place the egg whites in a large mixing bowl and, with clean beaters, beat on high speed until stiff
peaks form, about 4 minutes. Set aside. Stir the lemon juice into the milk. Alternately add the flour
mixture and milk to the butter mixture in 3 additions, beating on low speed just to combine. Beat
in the hickory nuts and extracts, if desired, on low speed until combined. By hand, fold the beaten
egg whites into the batter, just until combined. Turn the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the
top, and place the pan in the oven.
4. Bake the cake until it is golden brown and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan, 55 to 60
minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, and place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.
Run a knife around the edges of the pan, give the pan a gentle shake, then invert the cake onto the
rack to cool, right side up, for 30 minutes. Slice and serve.
Hugenot Torte
Author Notes: A cross between a pecan pie and a macaroon, with the addition of apples,
this might seem to be the quintessential Southern coastal dessert. And for generations, the
families of Charleston, South Carolina, proudly thought this torte was their own, brought
on the boat with the first French Huguenots who fled to Charleston in the 17th century for
religious freedom, right?
Wrong... It was centuries later that a South Carolina food writer and historian, John
Martin Taylor, sought out the woman who placed the first Huguenot Torte recipe in the
venerable Charleston Receipts cookbook. And who first shared the recipe with the other
ladies at the St. Philips Episcopal Tearoom and who baked this cake for the Huguenot
Tavern in Charleston.
The recipe, divulged its creator Evelyn Anderson Florance, didn’t date back to the
Huguenots. It was a dessert she’d enjoyed on vacation and couldn’t wait to get home and
try out in her own kitchen. It was most likely an Ozark Pudding, what Mrs. S. R. Dull
shared as Apple Torte in her 1928 book, Southern Cooking. And what Bess Truman
shared in the 1948 Congressional Club Cook Book. Whether made in Charleston, the
Ozarks, or any city on the map, enjoy.—Anne Byrn
Click here for recipe (webpage)
Serves 6 to 8

• Butter and flour for prepping the pan

• 1 cup pecans
• 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 medium tart apple, peeled and finely chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1 cup unsweetened whipped cream, for topping

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly grease and flour a 9-
inch springform pan. Shake out the excess flour, and set the pan aside.
2. Place the pecans and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a food processor fitted with a steel blade (or finely
chop the pecans by hand, then combine with the sugar). Pulse 3 or 4 times so that the pecans are
finely minced and nearly ground. Set aside.
3. Place the eggs in a large mixing bowl, and whisk by hand or beat with an electric mixer on high
speed until they double in volume. Reduce the mixer speed to medium, and gradually beat in 3⁄4
cup sugar until the eggs are thick and pale yellow in color. Scatter the pecans over the top of the
eggs. Combine the flour with the baking powder and salt, and sprinkle this over the pecans. Add
the chopped apple. Fold the ingredients together lightly with a rubber spatula, and turn the batter
into the prepared pan.
4. Place the pan in the oven, and bake until the torte is golden and just pulls away from the sides of
the pan, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and cool for 20 minutes. Unfasten the
collar of the pan, and remove. Slice the torte and serve with the whipped cream.

Cowboy Cookies
The bigger the cookie, the more chewy it can be. So if you like chewy cookies, make
them big. If you want a chewy cookie, cook them until the edges are browned, but
not the whole cookie. If you cook the cookie until it is all nicely browned, it will be
more crisp.
Recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter (6 ounces, 12 Tbsp), at room temperature
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 large eggs*, beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut (we used shredded)
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Method
1 Preheat oven to 350°F with racks in upper and lower third. Line two large baking sheets
with Silpat or parchment paper.
2 In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda,
cinnamon, and salt.
3 Place butter in a standing electric mixer and beat on medium speed until smooth and
light, about 1 minute. Slowly add in the white sugar and brown sugar, and beat to
combine, about 2 more minutes. Add half the eggs, beat, and then add the other half and
beat again. Add the vanilla extract and beat again.
4 Lower the speed of the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture, until just
combined. Add the chocolate chips, oats, coconut, and pecans, mixing until just
combined.
5 If you want large cookies, drop about 1/4 cup lumps of the dough onto the prepared
cookie sheets, separated by 3 inches to allow for enough room for the cookies to spread
as they cook. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, then rotate the cookie sheets front to back and top
to bottom, and bake for an additional 7 to 9 minutes. For smaller cookies, use about 2
Tbsp of the cookie dough per cookie and cook for 13 to 16 minutes, rotating half way.
Note that if you are using a dark baking sheet, it will absorb more heat, and you won't
need as much baking time. Also, the top rack will bake more quickly because heat rises.
6 Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Then remove the
cookies to a rack to cool completely.
You'll likely need to work in batches, depending on the size of your oven and your
baking sheets.
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/cowboy_cookies/#ixzz4dyc3VYU6