Jury duty is no piece of cake. But at least it comes with one in the court of U.S. District Judge Amos L. Mazzant III.
Judge Mazzant, chief judge of the Eastern District of Texas, has a longstanding practice of surprising jurors seated for trial in his Sherman courtroom with an unexpected treat: a home-baked coffee cake, from the oven of the judge himself.
Judge Mazzant’s previously unpublished recipe, furnished in response to a request from The Texas Lawbook, is below. A printable version is available here.
The warm gesture is the judge’s way of thanking jurors for their service, and of putting them at ease.
“Jury duty can be intimidating,” Judge Mazzant said in an interview. “For some jurors, just seeing the inside of a courtroom can be intimidating. And sitting through a trial takes jurors away from their routines, away from their daily lives, sometimes for weeks on end.
“I’m mindful that they’re being inconvenienced. I try to make the experience a little more welcoming, and a fresh-baked coffee cake can help. Who doesn’t like that?”
Baking is a favorite pastime of Judge Mazzant’s, sometimes on a scale that makes it a labor of love, with emphasis on the labor. For a conference of judges in the Fifth U.S. Circuit, he baked 53 different kinds of cookies.
When he was honored in Plano in June 2024 as the Baylor Lawyer of the Year (he’s a 1990 graduate of Baylor’s School of Law), Judge Mazzant, with help from his family, prepared what one luncheon attendee described as “an enormous selection” of cookies and other sweets — roughly 2,000 baked goods in all — and included bags so guests could take home a sampling of their favorites.
Michael C. Smith, a partner in the Marshall office of Scheef & Stone, said, “As former Northern District of Texas Chief Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn once said, if Judge Mazzant is involved in an event he’s attending, you know there will be two things — there will be tears and there will be cookies. (He’s famous for getting emotional when talking about things that matter to him.)
“Judge Mazzant is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet,” Smith said. “The only time I ever got a bad look from him was during a trial when he mentioned during a break that he had made coffee cake for the jurors and I asked, well, is the court going to make anything for the lawyers? Apparently, he doesn’t do that.”
In addition to his coffee cake recipe, Judge Mazzant shared with The Lawbook this invaluable bit of advice for would-be bakers:
“Butter,” he said, “makes everything better.”
