Needed: authentic dessert recipes from the Southern U.S.

My husband and are are going to a theme dinner at the home of a friend this weekend. My contribution is supposed to be dessert. I would like to bring two: one that may include nuts and one that doesn't (one person has a nut aversion).

I have no idea what the rest of the menu will be. I'm considering the following ideas:

Red Velvet Cake
Gooey Butter Cake
Pecan Pie
Moon Pies
Pecan Pralines
Peach Cobbler

Thanks!
Mezz

I vote for Red Velvet cake for the no nuts option..have you ever heard of a Hummingbird cake? It would qualify for the nutty option...tee hee. Just read reviews on the Red Velvet if you chose to make that...a good one is GREAT...a bad one is HORRIBLE.

Sadie, what would make a good one vs. a horrible one?

By the way, I realize now this should have been posted in the General Baking and Pastry forum. Oops! Suzanne, Kuan or Anneke: feel free to move it. :blush:

BANANA PUDDING with nilla wafers.

My sis ordered me stuff from Sunnyland Farms

pecans, fresh, but even better than that, most delicious stuff made with those pecans

Turtles, and some orange flavored pecan treat. Got my 1st place vote from what I have tasted so far.

Well, I like lots of chocolate in mine...some recipes don't call for much chocolate, and given the large amount of food coloring required you need strong flavors to offset it..the food coloring can leave a "taste". If you don't mind using a cake mix as a base and adding to it, the Cake Doctor has a very good recipe. If you want to make one from scratch, I would check out reviews on the recipe (if you are pulling from the web) and make sure there is a good amount of chocolate in it. There are tons to chose from.

Well, I'd suggest Moon Pies. It seems you have a recipe for them, and they are so quintessentially a southern thing. Break out some Dr. Pepper and you've got a nice presentation (try to get the soda in glass bottles).

Maybe you can find a Dr. Pepper servig tray to make the presentation complete. I brought one back from our tour of the south, but ex-wifey glomed it from me. Dr. Pepper Tray

I recall settin' on the rickety wooden porch of a run down country store somewhere in rural Georgia, drinkin' Dr. Pepper and munching a Moon Pie. What a wonderful change from bagels, lox, and cream cheese and "coffee regular."

Have fun,

shel

Pecan Pie with a glug of good bourbon in the goo.....
The recipe on the back of the Karo jar is good and fairly standard...sugar, syrup, eggs, vanilla, butter, pecans....I add more pecans (some chopped some whole) some Penzy's orange zest and aforementioned glug, usually of Maker's Mark.

Or Sweet Potato Pie with orange zest and yes the glug of bourbon....

Gooey butter cake is STL not southern.....well, guess we're more south than you.

Peach Cobbler is best in season...unless you have some frozen peaches from last July.

Moon Pies....now those are fun. Seems like Paula Deen has some good chocolate cakettes with white goo icing filling recipe......yummmm, fun.

Banana pudding is very southern, as is hummingbird cake....

Depending on how large the party is and what the menu is and how many people are bringing desserts.......if dinner is really rich, then I'd go into the cobbler mode, well ala mode.

Growing up in the south, here are some of the standards I remember at church potlucks, family gatherings, etc.

Pecan Pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Red Velvet Cake
Coconut Cake
Chocolate Cake (yellow cake with chocolate frosting)
Banana Pudding (usually the cooked kind)
Peach cobbler
Chocolate Meringue Pie
Coconut Pie
Gooey Butter Cake (called Chess Cake in my family...Paula Deen's is just like my cousin used to make when I was a kid in SE Georgia)
Chocolate Delight (like this Cooks.com - Recipe - Chocolate Delight)
Pound Cake (I have a recipe for a good cream cheese pound cake.)
Sweet Potato Pie
Pumpkin Pie

My grandmother's specialty Scuppernong Pie (made from scuppernong grapes with meringue on top......yum!)

If I think of more, I will post them.

Red velvet cake usually has pecans with the frosting. Mabe Banana Pudding, or coconut cake.

pies!

i make a chocolate bourbon pecan pie that is simple and great..i also would vote for a fruit cobbler..i would vote for sweet potato or pumpkin pie normally, but i think maybe the holidays has given us enough of those two. of course the red velvet cake would just be stunning!

Damon Fowler's books on Southern cooking focus on the custard pies, the various "chess" pies. He explains that it's a term more akin to cheese meaning the curd.

There are a number of varieties and the buttermilk one sounds interesting to me.

Phil

Great ideas here! :bounce:

I'm circling in on the chocolate pecan pie (maybe with a shot of bourbon) and the peach cobbler. That way there'll be nuts and chocolate or something fruity- a little something for everyone. I'll bring some premium vanilla ice cream to serve with both.

I have a sneaking suspicion, based on the people who will be there, that the amount of red food coloring in the red velvet cake might be a bit too shocking. Also, I have less experience with cakes than with pies and cobblers.

Anyone care to share a chocolate pecan pie recipe? Or a favorite cobbler recipe? I will use frozen peaches; I recently tasted some simply thawed and sweetened, and they were worthy. How far ahead can I make the pie? I will do the cobbler during the day on Saturday; I assume it shouldn't be refrigerated.

pie recipe

i willl look up and send you my chocolate bourbon pecan pie recipe..do you need a crust recipe as well?last time i made it with vodka, but normally i just make it with lemon juice... i made these pies over the holidays and froze them..they were just fine.
joey

Sure, Durangojo! I have a recipe that I know works, but I'm a newphyte crust-baker and would appreciate having your recipe as well. Am I correct in assuming that because the filling is so sweet that the crust would not be?

chocolate bourbon pecan pie recipe!

mezzaluna,
this recipe is dead easy. are you at high altitude? they react differently sometimes at altitude. the chocolate chips don't really melt when you bake the pie and that doesn't bother me..i like finding little chips of chocolate when eating the pie. if you would rather not have the little bits of chocolate, you could slightly soften the chips in the microwave before add it to the filling if you are use to making your own pie crusts, you can just do them..mine are probably similar, but i do them in the food processor for easy, easy. let me know how they turn out..this recipe makes two pies so you can just halve the recipe or to me its easier just to make them both and freeze one...good luck!...joey
filling:
1 cup each, packed light and dark brown sugar
1 /3 cups light corn syrup
1/2 cup(1 stick) meleted unsalted butter
1/4 cup bourbon
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
4 cups toasted coarsely chopped pecans ( i don't chop all the pecans, i keep some halves)
whisk eggs, whisk in both sugars, then next 5 ingredients. stir in pecans and handful of semisweet chocolate chipes and pour into prepped, unbaked crusts. bake approximately 55 minutes or til pies are puffed and center is set. cool, wrap in foil and store at room temp, or freeze.
pie crust: makes two
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cake flour
1 tbl sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut in cubes
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
6 tbl ice water (more if needed)
blend both flours and salt in food processor. add butter and pulse til a coarse meal. add lemon juice then 6 tbl ice water. pulse just til moist and clumpy adding more water by the tsp. if needed. divide dough in half and wrap in plastic. refrigerate for at least 2 hours. roll out dough and place in 9 inch pie pans...trim overhangs and crimp edges. crust is ready for filling..this dough also freezes well

Thank you for the recipe, Durangojo! I think I'll use chopped bittersweet chocolate to cut some of the sweetness.

What would be the difference for this recipe if I used dark corn syrup rather than light? Just curious; I have both.

========
I just made up 1/2 recipe of the dough and stuck it in the fridge for tomorrow's baking.

Japanese Fruit Pie! A true Southern specialty.

No kidding. This has got to be the most curiously named dish ever. It is a pie, and I suppose raisins do qualify as fruit, but where the Japanese comes from is anyone's guess.

Anyway, it's a pantry pie made with raisins, coconut & pecans. Google it & you'll find hundreds of virtually identical recipes (which are, reassuringly, virtually identical to the recipe my [East Texas] mother uses).

Follow my sig link for a great beignet recipe.

am i too late

no difference in taste, your pie will just be a bit darker in color if you use the dark syrup..kinda like dark and light brown sugars

so Mezz,

What did you end up bringing and how was the party? What did everyone else bring? Anything unusual?

Thanks for asking

I used durangojo's pie crust recipe. It was delicious and very flaky. I made the pecan pie with dark syrup, and it was great. I used a peach cobbler recipe that was very tasty, made with thawed frozen peaches. It was kind of thin in the 13X9 pan stipulated in the recipe; I'd make it again in a smaller pan so it could be thicker (deeper). I made a sugar-free cobbler but suffice to say it fed the food disposer; it was TERRIBLE, a waste of fruit.

The rest of the dinner was good. The main course was cornish hens glazed with a fruit glaze. Sides, brought by another couple, included corn pudding (excellent), a creamed onion and peanut dish (odd, but tasty) and some stewed apples.

We're hosting the next meal in March. It'll be northern Italian. I'll be trolling for a main course recipe soon.