Pecans and Kolache

One or two of our dedicated blog readers has mentioned that our posts seem to emphasize food, at least just a little bit. Well, so far we've posted about BBQ, pizza, local items available at the supermarket, the Alamo Drafthouse, frozen custard, brain tacos, White Castle and more. So I'm not arguing with that one.

Okay, so maybe we like grubbing. So far, Austin has impressed us with its local cuisine. One local food that we don't even have to leave the house for are pecans. If you didn't know, the pecan tree is the state tree of Texas, after then-governor James Stephen "Jim" Hogg made it official in 1906. The story goes that Hogg had a pecan tree planted at his grave instead of a traditional headstone, requesting that the nuts be distributed throughout the state to make Texas a "Land of Trees."

Folks here are wild about pecans, and use them for all sorts of things. We have two mature pecan trees in our backyard that have been dropping the little buggers since before we moved in. For some reason, we hadn't bothered to collect any until this past weekend. I think we thought it was a little too late already, but after spending about ten minutes or so scoping out a couple of prime spots, we managed to gather up about 60 or 70 nice looking nuts. Now we have to go get a nutcracker! Our plan is to try something simple with them, like this recipe for spiced pecans. Don't worry -- we'll report back with the results.

Some of our backyard pecans

Another local specialty that we had heard a lot about but had not yet tried is the kolache. Kolache (pronounced "ko - losh") are a type of Czech/Slovak pastry filled with different things, like fruits, cheese, or sausage. Some of the towns close to Austin have large Czech populations, like West, TX, which is considered the best place nearby for kolache. It even bills itself as the "home of the official Kolache of the Texas Legislature." There are also a fair number of places that make kolache within the city of Austin. After checking some of the reviews on Yelp, I decided to try the Kolache Shoppe on Burnet Road, just 2 miles from home. Not feeling particularly adventurous, I decided to try the apricot and blueberry. Lucky for me, when I got there the bakers were just pulling apricot and blueberry kolache out of the oven. Heeding the warning to let them cool off, I brought them home and waited a bit before trying them. The pastry is soft and delicate -- nothing like a flaky Danish. The apricot filling was tasty, with chunks of fruit and a not too sweet. The blueberry was a little sweeter, and had a more jelly-like consistency. Really, the pastry is the star of the show. Soft, buttery goodness. Next time, I'll try something different, like cheese and/or sausage and/or bacon. Oh, and the Kolache Shoppe also makes some mean-looking cinnamon twists. Lots of reasons to go back.

Blueberry and apricot kolache from Austin's Kolache Shoppe