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

[Mezzaluna]

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

[Sadie1]

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.

[Mezzaluna]

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.

[ChefRAZ]

BANANA PUDDING with nilla wafers.

[AndyG]

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.

[Sadie1]

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.

[shel]

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

[shroomgirl]

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.

[allie]

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.

[chef monganie]

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

[durangojo]

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!

[phatch]

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

[Mezzaluna]

Great ideas here!

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.

[durangojo]

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

[Mezzaluna]

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?