Steen's & Tabasco Spiced Pecans

Hey y'all!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  I hope you're having a wonderfully relaxing day full of mulled wine, cider, and hot cocoa (while your kids play quietly/destroy your in-laws house).  I wanted to share a little Christmas snack with you (that pairs well with beverages of all types).

This idea came to me while I was having a beer at Lost Forty Brewing down in Little Rock, Arkansas.  They have these AMAZING molasses & black pepper glazed pecans that I have to get every time I'm down there.  

I like to make glazed pecans around the holidays (because they're delicious and make your whole house smell like a spice factory). I've shared a few different recipes for spiced pecans with you before--some in the oven, and some made using the microwave.

But this time I decided to "Cajun" the recipe up a bit...by using Steen's Cane Syrup instead of molasses.  Steen's has been around since the early 1900's, based out of Abbeville, LA (just south of Lafayette).  Sugar cane is big business in that part of the state: about $2 Billion worth of business, covering about 400,000 acres of farmland across 22 parishes, and providing jobs to about 17,000 Louisianians.  

I see Steen's used much like some folks would maple syrup or honey--drizzled over pancakes, served with biscuits, mixed in with glazes for BBQ...there's tons of recipe ideas on their website.

Also, because I like my spiced pecans to be sweet, smoky, salty, and spicy, I wanted to add in some Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce.  If you haven't tried this yet...MAN.  You are missing out. It is the #1 used condiment in our house, and goes great with nearly everything.  Scrambled eggs, chili, grilled meat, pepper jelly, queso sauce... I even added some to a beef stroganoff the other night. It's a really well rounded, balanced flavor profile with just enough heat.

This is a super-easy, quick recipe. Takes about 10 minutes of actual labor to make, then you just let them cool and package them up!  I made several batches this Christmas to share with coworkers.

INGREDIENTS:
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp Steen's cane syrup
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups pecans (about one 12 oz bag)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350*F.
In a large saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the pecans and stir over high heat, until it comes to a boil.  Then add your pecans and stir continuously for about 3 minutes--the syrup will start to thicken (but don't let the syrup  burn).

Then transfer the pecans to a parchment-lined baking sheet pan, and separate as much as possible using a spatula.

Bake for about 7 minutes, then remove from the oven, separate pecans more if needed (otherwise they'll cluster together when cooled), and let cool completely.

Store in an air-tight container for up to 2 weeks. If you try them, please let me know what you think!

Blackberry Chipotle Freezer Jam

My cousin sometimes lets us come raid the blackberry bush at their farm when they've got a surplus.  I was itching to make some freezer jam, but didn't want to make plain ol' regular boring blackberry jam.  No...I wanted to do something INTERESTING.

...in retrospect, I really should have split the batch, and been boring with half and then played with the other half, because now I have 6 pints of INTERESTING jam when I would occasionally really like some regular ol' blackberry freezer jam.  But not to worry. I'll share the recipe for both, so you can learn from my mistakes.

INGREDIENTS (makes 4 jars):
4 cups crushed blackberries (you can use a potato masher or pastry cutter, but I'd shy away from a food processor, otherwise you'll end up with puree. A few pulses with a stick blender might work well.)
4 Tbsp Instant (no cook) pectin (or one 1.35 oz packet)
1.5 cups  Sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS: 

Combine the pectin and the sugar and mix well, then add the lemon juice and the blackberries, and stir well until fully incorporated.  At this point, if you're making straight up regular blackberry jam, you can go ahead and divvy these into half-pint jars.  Let sit at room temp for 30 minutes, at which point it should be soft-set. Then you can put one in the fridge and the rest in the freezer for later.

However, if you want to ramp things up a bit, then add the following to the mix:

1/4 tsp Chipotle powder (per jar)
1/4 tsp Cumin (per jar)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (per jar)
1/4 tsp Tabasco Chipotle Sauce
a pinch of smoked salt (per jar)

I'm providing these as "per jar" ratios so that if you want, you can make a full batch of the base, and then make the Chipotle version in one or two of the jars.  Just make sure you label them appropriately! 

The Chipotle version is pretty versatile. It makes a great grilled cheese (like this one), or you can put it in a Crockpot with a pork tenderloin for a delicious dinner. And of course it goes great on a biscuit.

The Loozy-Anna Dawg: Andouille w/Cream Cheese & Pepper Jelly

We’ve been doing some “market research” as of late, testing out different recipes for possible use at the shop.  Because we’re more than just ice cream.  We have sandwiches and hot dogs and smoothies as well.

I’m not really sure where the inspiration for this came from…I think I was just trying to think of something “different” that would go well on an andouille link, but not require a huge heap of extra product on our part.  A “jambalaya dog” or a “red beans” dog both sound fantastic and I have no doubt they’d be completely deelish… but it would also require us (i.e. ME) to find the time to cook up batches at home for them to use at the shop, because we don’t have a stove top at the ice cream parlor.

And then, I had an epiphany.

If you’ve ever been to a party in the south, you’ve probably seen this included in the spread:

A true classic.  No Southern party is complete without a brick of cream cheese smothered in Tabasco pepper jelly (or homemade pepper jelly, if you’re that advanced).  I thought it was completely weird and looked disgusting when I first moved to Louisiana.

And then…I tried it.  And probably ate half of it all myself.  I was completely hooked.  I’m not usually huge on cream cheese, but in this combination, there’s no better pairing.  The sweet-hot bite of the pepper jelly is balanced perfectly by the silky smoothness of the cream cheese.  Add the crisp, salty crackers, and you’re just in heaven.

So…why not try it on a hot dog? But of course, not a regular hot dog.  No.  That’s just silly. We need an andouille link to make this properly.

Ingredients:

Johnsonville Andouille New Orleans Style Sausage links (or more authentic andouille links if you can get them, but I like the Johnsonville since they’re close in size to a regular hot dog & have good flavor)

Hot Dog buns

Light Cream Cheese (about 2 teaspoons per sausage)

Tabasco pepper jelly (or other brand if you can’t find Tabasco, but the Tabasco texture is much more smooth & less “jelly-like”… compare the photo of the dip to the photo of the dog—I had to use Reese’s brand for this demo because I couldn’t find Tabasco brand) – also about 2 tsp per sausage

 

Directions:

Grill the andouille links for a nice smoky flavor, and toast the buns if you have the option.

Scoop a couple tablespoons of cream cheese into a ziploc bag and squeeze down into one corner of the bag; then snip off the corner to use it as a piping bag.  Do the same for the jelly.

Drizzle the cream cheese & the jelly across the sausage link.

Devour.

 

I was pretty impressed with this concoction.  The flavor on the Johnsonville sausage is really wonderful; a good amount of spice without being overkill.  And the cream cheese & jelly combo, mixed with the saltiness of the sausage made a really wonderful combination.  My husband who is a spicy-food-fanatic, thought it wasn’t quite spicy enough, but I thought it was about perfect for most taste buds—however, if you have a hot food freak in your house, you could always throw a few jalapeno slices on there as well for more heat (and a pretty color combo to boot).

 

Serve with a side of Zapp’s chips, or a nice salad.

 

NutriFacts (per dawg):

Calories 412.5

  Total Fat 24.9 g

  Saturated Fat 9.1 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g

  Cholesterol 55.6 mg

  Sodium 1,018.8 mg

  Potassium 0.0 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 33.0 g

  Dietary Fiber 2.0 g

  Sugars 13.3 g

  Protein 13.8 g