A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [218]
4. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks, then fold into the batter until no streaks of white or brown remain; easy does it.
5. Scoop a scant ½ cup of the batter into each custard cup, then arrange the custard cups, not touching, on a large baking sheet.
6. Slide the baking sheet onto the middle oven shelf and bake the individual gingerbreads for about 25 minutes or until springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one comes out clean.
7. Transfer the gingerbreads to a wire rack and cool in the upright custard cups for 5 minutes. Using a small thin-blade spatula, carefully loosen each gingerbread around the edge and invert on a dessert plate.
8. Top each individual gingerbread with Brown Sugar Sauce and serve.
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
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TIME LINE: the people and events that shaped Southern Cuisine
1987
Lipton manager Mack Fleming and third-generation English tea taster Bill Hall buy the 127-acre Wadmalaw Island tea farm, found the Charleston Tea Plantation, and begin producing this country’s only homegrown tea. They call it American Classic.
Lattimore M. Michael, a Cleveland, Mississippi, grocer known for the superb burgers he serves at his store, opens a restaurant called the Back Yard Burger. A year later he is selling franchises; today there are Back Yard Burgers in some 18 states.
1988
The Virginia General Assembly claims Brunswick stew as Virginia’s own. According to its proclamation, a camp cook named Jimmy Matthews made squirrel stew one day for his master, Creed Haskins. The place: Brunswick County, Virginia. The year: 1828.
After closing many of its Colonial stores, financially troubled Grand Union sells its Virginia and North Carolina Big Star supermarkets to North Carolina’s up-and-coming Harris Teeter chain.
1989
Fred Carl, Jr., begins manufacturing Viking gas ranges for home kitchens in Greenwood, Mississippi. They incorporate many features of heavy-duty professional ranges.
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GRATED SWEET POTATO CAKE WITH COCONUT