Going back for thirds: “The Best Dessert in Every State”
There are just too many yummy desserts to sample in two weeks, so I simply had to split them up over three weeks. Bear with me as we go back for thirds of “The Best Dessert in Every State.”
OHIO: Buckeyes. No tailgate party at Ohio State is complete without these sweet treats! Start with a peanut butter ball on a toothpick, and dunk it into chocolate sauce. Actually, there is a little more to it than that, but you get the picture. The little round circle at the top that doesn’t get covered in chocolate makes the treat look like the seed from a buckeye tree!
OKLAHOMA: Fried pies. I absolutely must agree! Without a doubt, the ONLY good thing about our son moving to Texas is that our vehicle now knows exactly where to exit the interstate to stop at Arbuckle Mountain for fried pies!
OREGON: Marionberry Cobbler. The Marionberry — a blackberry/raspberry hybrid — was developed by the Oregon State University Ag Department in 1948, and the rest, they say, is history. Now these berries are everywhere in Oregon.
PENNSYLVANIA: Shoofly Pie. This “pie” is actually a molasses crumb cake baked in a pie crust, which makes it easier to hold while eating. It was created by the Pennsylvania Dutch.
RHODE ISLAND: Del’s Frozen Lemonade. Franco DeLucia came to Rhode Island in the early 20th century and turned his father’s lemonade recipe from Naples, Italy into a slushie empire.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Benne Wafers. These crisp, crunchy cookies taste both sweet and nutty because they are topped with toasted sesame seeds. Benne means ‘sesame’ in Bantu, a language from sub-Saharan Africa. Sesame seeds were brought to the southern U.S. by African slaves, who believed that eating them would bring good luck.
SOUTH DAKOTA: Kuchen. The German word for cake, kuchen is typically made with a sweet dough and a fruit filling of peaches, apples, plums, etc. Around here, we just call it coffeecake.
TENNESSEE: Banana Pudding. Think dessert lasagna: vanilla pudding layered with banana slices and vanilla wafers, then topped with meringue or whipped cream. Now I need to go to Tennessee!
TEXAS: Pecan Pie. Pecan is the state tree and the state pie of Texas, so pecan pie shows up at every holiday as well as any and every day!
UTAH: Jell-O. In the 1980s, the Jell-O folks started targeting their advertisements to young families, and it quickly became popular in Utah, which was then the state with the highest birth rate and now the state with the highest per capita consumption of Jell-O!
VERMONT: Maple Creemee. No, that’s not a typo. It’s actually a maple-flavored dairy treat that’s frozen to the consistency of soft-serve ice cream, only creamier.
VIRGINIA: Chess Pie. No one can agree on where the name came from — whether from the chestnut flour that was an original ingredient, or a misinterpretation of ‘just pie’ said in a southern accent — Chess Pie is really ‘just’ butter, flour, sugar and eggs, sometimes flavored with vanilla extract or lemon juice.
WASHINGTON: Loganberry Pie. If you’re the first guy to cross a blackberry with a raspberry, and your last name is “Logan,” well then, you get to call that berry a loganberry, and you would want to bake a pie quickly because the loganberry has a very short shelf life.
WEST VIRGINIA: Molasses Cookies. Many West Virginians relied on molasses until refined sugar became readily available after World War II, but these cookies, also flavored with cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg, are yummy enough to stand the test of time.
WISCONSIN: Kringle. Danish immigrants brought this dessert to America in the 1800s. It’s like a coffeecake, only flakier and filled with nuts, fruit or cream cheese or a combination of the three. It is sometimes topped with chocolate. Look for it at Trader Joe’s when you’re traveling!
WYOMING: Cowboy Cookies. These are jacked-up chocolate chip cookies made with lots of butter, plus rolled oats, pecans and coconut added to the dough. They supposedly packed lasting energy for long days out in the Old West! You should search online for Laura Bush’s recipe for Cowboy Cookies... They. Are. The. Best.
So there you have it, spread out over three weeks because of the calorie intake: The Best Dessert in Every State! Keep walking and doing those exercises to take off the pounds we’ve added just by reading the descriptions!
