Desserts with Attitude

Texas home cooks have a legendary sweet tooth, as evidenced by the state's early cookbooks, which practically overflow with baked-goods recipes. Buttery kolaches are yeast rolls filled with fruit preserves and cottage cheese; drop biscuits top a blueberry-cherry cobbler; Dallas chef Stephan Pyles's Heaven and Hell Cake consists of angel's food and devil's food cake, peanut butter mousse, and chocolate ganache; grapefruit slices garnish a citrus-spiked sheet cake; former first lady Laura Bush's chewy cowboy cookies are packed with coconut, oats, and chocolate chips; and crunchy-gooey pecan pie is a favorite in this pecan-producing state.