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David Bancroft’s Smoked Texas Hot Links

by David Bancroft

Spend some time handcrafting these delicious Texas hot links alongside James Beard nominee and restauranteur David Bancroft as he takes you through his favorite hot links recipe. If you’ve never had fresh sausage, you’re in for a real treat. There’s nothing quite like it! Thinking about making homemade sausage might seem intimidating, but with Bancroft’s help, you’ll make quick work of it.

Sausage-making has a rich history and has long been a favorite activity of hunters and butchers alike. Making sausage allows you to ensure you’re making the most of every bit of meat you have, so you don’t waste any of your hard-won meats. Sausage is also a great option if you’re looking to freeze some for later use. Sausage freezes and cooks from frozen easily with very little taste change. Because who wants to compromise on flavor? You can keep it for up to three months frozen and can freeze it from fresh or from cooked. 

Bancroft likes to prepare fresh sausages using metric units because using grams and kilograms for measurement allows for a much more accurate recipe. That’s especially true because every butcher wants to utilize all the leftover meat they have when making sausage so that weight is always varying. This recipe allows you to easily scale up or down no matter what starting weight you’re working with so you can make sausage in any situation, even if you’ve just got a little bit of meat leftover for one batch and far too much for the next.

For example:

1kg meat = 1000g

1000g X .018 salt = 18g salt

100,000g meat X .018 salt = 1,800g salt

If you need some extra support for these conversions, Culinary Schools has a super helpful conversion calculator that’s easy to use.

Now that you’ve got the conversions under control, it’s time to get started learning how the sausage is made.

David Bancroft’s Smoked Texas Hot Links
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David Bancroft’s Smoked Texas Hot Links

Servings

4

servings

Ingredients

  • 50% beef chuck

  • 50% Boston butt

  • .018 grams Salt

  • .0025 grams #1 pink salt (sodium nitrite)

  • .007 grams Pepper

  • .002 grams Sugar

  • .02 grams Paprika

  • .004 grams Red pepper

  • .006 grams Fresh minced Garlic

  • .01 grams Ice water

Directions

  • Trim meats and chop into 1-inch cubes for grinding.
  • Weigh meats in grams/kilograms.
  • Follow the measurements for each spice and mix together the sausage cure.
  • Mix cure over meats and marinate for 3-4 hours.
  • Grind sausage and set in mixing bowl.
  • Add ice water and dry milk powder and fold mix until completely incorporated.
  • Stuff in hog casings and allow to rest in fridge for 1 hour before cooking or smoking.
  • Bancroft recommends smoking sausages slowly at 180° until they reach around 160° or sausage casing gets nice and crisp.

Enjoy your delicious Texas hot links recipe at your next party or backyard event!

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Brisket Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers Recipe

by David Bancroft

Looking for a new recipe to add a little spice to your next meal? James Beard-nominated chef David Bancroft has just the thing. His brisket stuffed jalapeño poppers recipe (topped with delicious honey hot sauce) is bound to bring a smile to your face—and some warmth to to your belly.

Tips for Your Brisket

Cooking brisket isn’t an easy feat. While you can always cut corners and buy it precooked at your local grocery store, half the fun is learning to do it yourself. When the recipe is all said and done, you’ll be able to take pride in the fact you cooked your own brisket—and enjoy some mouthwatering flavors of your own creation.

  1. Buy the Best Meat
    The first step in making the best brisket is buying the best meat. Experts recommend buying Choice grade or higher. This ensures you’ve got great marbling, which means enough fat to really make something tender and flavorful.
  2. Trim Fat
    Now, trimming fat might seem counter-intuitive when it plays such a crucial role in the taste of your brisket. However, overly-thick fat will keep your brisket from cooking properly. You want to trim back that fat, but leave a thin layer to help trap in the moisture and flavor.
  3. Be Sure to Season
    Don’t skip the seasoning! That’s what brings even more delicious flavors out of your meat. When making brisket for this recipe, you might want to consider a smoky or sweet flavor to complement the heat of the jalapeño.
  4. Decide How You Want to Cook It
    This is probably the hardest decision to make—you have to choose how you want the brisket cooked. If you have the time, you can smoke it to really render those delicious flavors. If not, you can broil it, bake it, or grill it.
Brisket Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers Recipe
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Brisket Stuffed Jalapeño Poppers Recipe

Ingredients

  • Jalapeño-Brisket Poppers

  • 4-5 Jalapeños (large)

  • 4 oz. Shredded pepperjack

  • 4 oz. Cream cheese (soft)

  • 6 oz. Brisket

  • ¼ tsp. Garlic salt

  • Honey-Hot Sauce

  • 3 oz. Local honey

  • 3 oz. Hot sauce of choice

Directions

  • Jalapeño-Brisket Poppers
  • Mix cheeses and garlic salt together until semi smooth.
  • Fold in 4 oz. of shredded brisket but don’t over-mix.
  • Cut jalapeños in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Stuff each half equally with cheese mix.
  • Top each jalapeño with the last 2 oz. of shredded brisket.
  • Bake in oven at 350° F for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until cheese is nice and melted and brisket bits look crispy.
  • Honey-Hot Sauce
  • Stir honey and hot sauce together. Drizzle over the top of the finished poppers to serve.

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Joe Thomas’ Cut Out Sugar Cookies

by Exmark

This cut out sugar cookie recipe is easy to cut out, holds its shape after baking, and yields soft and chewy sugar cookies.

Cut Out Sugar Cookies
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Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Cookie Ingredients

  • 1 cup salted butter (2 sticks) cold & cut into chunks

  • 1 cup granulated sugar (or vanilla sugar)

  • 1 egg

  • 3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

  • 1 vanilla bean scraped (optional)

  • 1/2 tsp pure almond extract

  • 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

  • 2 tsp baking powder

  • ICING INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cups (480g) confectioners sugar, sifted (I use and recommend Domino brand)

  • 3 tablespoons meringue powder (not plain egg white powder)

  • 9–10 tablespoons room temperature water

  • optional for decorating: gel food coloring

Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Cream butter and sugar together. Stir in egg, extracts, and vanilla bean. In a small bowl, stir flour and baking powder together. Slowly incorporate dry ingredients.
  • Roll the dough out onto the floured surface to be just over 1/4″ thick. Cut cookies out using cookie cutters and place them onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
  • Freeze for 5-7 minutes, then bake for 10-12 minutes, or until bottoms have lightly browned but edges are still light in color. Cool for 3 minutes on the baking sheet, then remove to cooling racks. Decorate as desired.
  • ICING INSTRUCTIONS
  • Pour confectioners sugar, meringue powder, and 9 tablespoons of water into a large bowl.
  • Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5-2 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5-10 seconds.
  • If it’s too thick, beat in more water 1 tablespoon at a time. It may take up to 12-14 tablespoons. Remember that the longer you beat the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air, OR you can add more confectioners sugar.
  • When applied to cookies or confections in a thin layer, icing completely dries in about 2 hours at room temperature. If the icing consistency is too thin and runny, it will take longer to dry. If the icing is applied very thickly on cookies, it will also take longer to dry.
  • If you’re layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to help speed it up.

Notes

  • When you’re not working directly with the royal icing (for example, you are decorating cookies but you still have some icing left in the bowl that you intend to use next), place a damp paper towel directly on the surface of the royal icing. This prevents it from hardening.

Brian Latimer’s Sugar Cookies

by Exmark

Sugar cookies are a holiday favorite and MLF bass pro, Brian Latimer agrees! Follow along with his tasty recipe to bake some delicious and irresistible holiday cookies.

Brian Latimer’s Sugar Cookies
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Brian Latimer’s Sugar Cookies

Servings

4

servings

Cookies

  • 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

  • 1 tsp baking soda

  • ½ tsp baking powder

  • 1 cup butter, softened

  • 1 ½ cups white sugar

  • 1 egg

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • Frosting

  • ½ cup shortening

  • 4 cups confectioners sugar

  • 5 tbsp milk, or more as needed

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract, or more to taste

  • Food coloring (optional)

COokies

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
  • Stir flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in a small bowl.
  • Beat sugar and butter together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in flour mixture. Roll dough into walnut-sized balls and place 2 inches apart onto un-greased baking sheets.
  • Bake in the preheated oven until edges are golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets briefly before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Frosting
  • Beat shortening in a large bowl until creamy. Gradually mix in confectioners’ sugar in small amounts, alternating with 5 tablespoons milk, until smooth. Mix in vanilla and continue to beat until frosting is stiff and glossy, about 5 minutes, adding more milk if needed.
  • Mix in food coloring, separating into smaller bowls if using multiple colors.
  • Spread frosting on cookies or fill piping bags and decorate cookies as desired.

Notes

  • Top these sweet cookies with a sugar cookie frosting to really impress!

Austin Dillon’s Holiday Sugar Cookies

by Exmark

Put on your apron, grab your baking supplies, and get ready for some fun! Follow along as Exmark Ambassador Austin Dillon shares his delicious holiday sugar cookie recipe.

Holiday Sugar Cookies
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Holiday Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour

  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened

  • 1 cup sugar

  • 1 egg, beaten

  • 1 tablespoon milk

  • Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Directions

  • Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  • Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as-is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container or up to 1 week.

Macadamia Nut Cookie Recipe from Grae Buck

by Exmark

Bake up this delectable macadamia nut cookie recipe this holiday season. Exmark ambassador Grae Buck shares his favorite recipe with you!

Macadamia Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Macadamia Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter, softened

  • ⅓ cup packed dark brown sugar

  • ⅓ cup white sugar

  • 1 egg

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1⅛ cups sifted all-purpose flour

  • ½ teaspoon baking soda

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • 1 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

  • 1¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 2 large cookie sheets with vegetable shortening.
  • Cream the butter and sugars together in a large bowl. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until well blended. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; gradually blend into the batter. Stir in the chopped macadamia nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.
  • Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown. Remove from the oven, and transfer the cookies to cooling racks.

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