Davy Crockett Brownies

Davy Crockett Brownies

Dorcas Annette Walker

While up in Kentucky I came across Davy Crockett Brownies. The ingredients for these brownies are as varied as the man himself. David Crockett, born here in Tennessee, is celebrated as a legend, American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He roamed throughout most of Tennessee and parts of Kentucky as a backwoodsman, hunter, and trapper, who died at the Battle of the Alamo.

It was here in the mountains of Tennessee that my husband was introduced to raccoon hunting. A couple of fellows in our church were avid coon hunters. They raised coon dogs and competed among each other which hound was first-rate and the best spots to hunt coon. They assured my husband that it only took a couple of hours to coon hunt and they would easily be back by midnight. Invariably though, every time they went out into the woods to hunt coon they managed to get lost and wouldn’t get home until two or three in the morning after walking up and down innumerable mountainsides and wading through all kinds of brush and briars. One morning they brought home a record-breaking sized coon, but didn’t have the slightest idea where they were when they caught it. One hunter’s excuse, “When you get forty and plum and don’t know where you’re at that’s when everything happens and the dogs strike a trail.”

One of the hunters had a blue-tick hound named Ole Blue that he tried in vain to train. Ole Blue had a habit of sitting and barking at empty trees. His owner would threaten the dog by saying, “Blue, you come away from that tree or I’m going to sandpaper your rear end.” When the dog wouldn’t move his owner would calmly break off a branch, go over to the dog, and start switching the hound saying, “I told you I’d sandpaper your rear end for you if you didn’t get off that tree and come on.” Another time as they idled along an old road in a pickup waiting for the hounds to start baying signaling that the dogs had treed a coon, Ole Blue, kept stopping in the middle of the road and squatting instead of going into the woods and hunting. His owner told him, “Blue, old scudder, you stop in the road one more time and I’m going to run you over.” Ole Blue stopped and squatted again and the owner, who was driving, took off after the dog with his pickup. Ole Blue headed for the bank to escape frantically clawing its way up a steep embankment with the pickup truck roaring right behind him as his owner yelled, “I told you I’d run you over if you didn’t get out of the road and go to hunting.” The owner finally sold Ole Blue to another hunter in disgust. Ironically Ole Blue became a first-rate hunting coon dog and even won some ribbons.

My Davy Crockett Brownies are a soft moist brownie filled with chocolate chips and crunchy nuts that are quick to make up. These Davy Crockett Brownies take only ten minutes to prepare and this recipe makes twelve brownies.

Davy Crockett Brownies

In a large bowl beat together:
2 c self-rising flour
1 c sugar
1 c br sugar
½ c vegetable oil
3 eggs
1½ tsp vanilla
Then add:
1 c oatmeal
1 c chocolate chips
1 c nuts (your choice)

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together and pour the stiff batter into a 9 x 13 greased baking dish. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Cool and serve!

Weekly tip: If you always spray your baking pans or trays over the sink with your cooking spray you won’t mess up your counters!

Dorcas Annette Walker is a published author, columnist, speaker, freelance magazine writer, and photographer from Jamestown, Tennessee. Contact her at: dorcaswalker@twlakes.net. For more recipes check out her Creative Tennessee Mountain Cookin blog at: www.dorcasannettewalker.com