Top 44 Southern American Desserts

Bananas Foster is an iconic dessert created in New Orleans in 1951. It consists of bananas sautéed in a combination of rum, brown sugar, banana liqueur, butter, and spices. When the bananas are slightly tender and begin to brown, cooks set the alcohol on fire with the famous flambé technique. Bananas are usually served with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. Because the process is so visually attractive, the dessert is often prepared alongside tables in most restaurants. It was invented by Paul Blangé, a chef from the New Orleans restaurant called Brennan's. He named it in honor of Stephen Foster, a local businessman who used to frequent the restaurant. Since 1951, bananas Foster rose in popularity, and it is still one of the most popular items on Brennan's menu.Expand

Key lime pie is a glass-green sweet and sour dessert originating from the Florida Keys. It consists of intensely aromatic Key lime juice, condensed milk, and eggs that are mixed together into a custard. The custard is poured into a buttery crust made from graham crackers and topped with sweet whipped cream. The spicy and acidic flavors of the limes provide a great contrast to sugar and sweet cream. Key lime, also known as citrus aurantifolia, Mexican lime, and West Indian lime is a fruit indigenous to Malaysia, and it has been connected to Florida since the 1830s when a botanist named Henry Perrine started planting them on Florida's Indian Key. Today, they are used in this traditional, refreshing pie that is even better when paired with light-bodied, crisp, and fruity white wines.Expand

Mississippi mud pie is a flavorful American dessert consisting of a cookie crust filled with numerous variable ingredients such as biscuits, ice cream, pudding, whipped cream, liqueur, and marshmallows. The pie is usually prepared in layers and often topped with almonds, pecans, chocolate syrup, or marshmallows. The origins of the dessert are still murky, so some believe that the pie is an updated version of Mississippi mud cake from the 1970s, while others claim that the pie was invented much longer ago in the Vicksburg-Natchez region near Jackson.Expand

Banana pudding is a sweet treat originating from the Southern United States. It typically consists of layered vanilla custard, sliced bananas, and wafers or ladyfingers. The concoction is then topped with either meringue or whipped cream. This dessert became closely associated with the American South after WWII, when numerous banana pudding recipes started to get published in newspapers. Nowadays, there are many variations of this classic dessert that is often seen at church picnics and family gatherings.Expand

These squares of deep-fried pastry dough are sprinkled with powdered sugar and are traditionally served hot. The dish hails from France, and French settlers brought it to the Acadia region of Canada in the 17th century. Many of the Acadians later moved to Louisiana, and they brought their culinary traditions with them. Today, beignets are most commonly associated with the French Quarter of New Orleans, where they were declared the official state donut in 1986. These treats are typically served alongside chocolate milk or café au lait, a combination often served at the Cafe Du Monde - a New Orleans restaurant that is most often associated with beignets.Expand

Texas sheet cake is an American dessert made with a combination of buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, sugar, flour, butter, and cocoa. Once baked, the hot chocolate cake is topped with a crunchy icing featuring pecan pieces. In Texas, it is a staple at funerals, but it is also often seen in churches. The cake is beloved because it is easy to prepare and has a moist and gooey texture. Although its place of origin is still unknown, most people agree that it was invented in Texas due to the usage of local ingredients such as buttermilk and pecans.Expand

Originating in the early 1940s in the American South, black bottom pie is a sweet dessert consisting of a chocolate pastry cream that is flavored with rum and vanilla, and a crust made with butter, sugar, and crumbled cookies. The pie is typically topped with stiff meringue peaks or whipped cream, then garnished with chocolate shavings. When fully chilled, it can be served and consumed. Today, there are many version of this dessert with added coconut, lemon, strawberries, or bananas.Expand

Frozen lemonade is a refreshingly tart and sweet frozen treat made by blending lemon juice, sugar, and water with ice until slushy, or by freezing a lemon-flavored mixture into a soft, icy consistency. It’s essentially a cross between a sorbet and a slushie, delivering the bold citrus kick of lemonade in an icy, spoonable or sippable form. Popular at fairs, boardwalks, and summer stands across the U.S., frozen lemonade is especially iconic in New England (think Del’s in Rhode Island) and parts of the South. It can be served in cups, scooped like Italian ice, or blended fresh to order. Some versions include real lemon zest or pulp for an extra burst of flavor, while others lean smoother and sweeter. Whether it's served from a food truck, in a paper cup at a baseball game, or scooped at home, frozen lemonade is a go-to summer classic—bright, chilly, and irresistibly nostalgic.Expand

This American classic is traditionally made for Valentine’s Day and Christmas. Red velvet cake is typically covered in a French-style butter roux icing, though recently cream cheese frosting and buttercream have both been used as a simpler and tastier alternative. During World War II and the Depression, this moist cake got its vibrant coloring from boiled beets, but has since adapted into red food coloring courtesy of a Texan company called Adams Extract. The cake gets its light and fluffy texture from the reaction caused by mixing buttermilk and vinegar together in addition to eggs, sugar, butter, baking soda, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Interestingly enough, even though this cake is a typical southern American dessert, a department store in Canada called Eaton's promoted it as an exclusive recipe, mistakenly fooling many people into believing it was created by the store's matriarch, Lady Eaton.Expand

Bread pudding is an old dish that has been prepared since Medieval times in Europe and the Middle East. However, it is extremely beloved and defining in the cuisine of New Orleans. The dish consists of stale bread that is bathed in a combination of milk, sugar, eggs, nuts, and fruits, and is then baked into a delicious dessert. It can be consumed either hot as a pudding or cold as a cake. In the past, there was a practice of hollowing out a loaf which then acted as a container for a sweet dish. There are numerous variations of bread pudding, from Egypt and Turkey to India and Malaysia. The earliest bread and butter puddings in Britain were called white-pot, and were made with butter or marrow. Today, in New Orleans, local bread with a crispy crust and a light interior is combined with a sweet custard, resulting in a light, airy, and decadent dessert. The cooks are always making new variations of the dish in Louisiana, adding white chocolate, strawberry compotes, Creole cream cheese, and caramel sauce with brown sugar and rum. Comforting and hearty, bread pudding has even been called the gumbo of New Orleans desserts.Expand

Burtree Puddings is a family-run dessert producer based in Darlington, known for its handmade, traditional British puddings. They use locally sourced ingredients and have won several awards for their products. Burtree Puddings offers a range of desserts, including sticky toffee pudding and Christmas puddings.Expand