Make winter gatherings even cozier with the warming aroma of sweet potatoes, sugar, and butter wafting from the oven. From the iconic Dollywood cinnamon bread to a show-stopping buttermilk biscuit method, these comforting recipes from America’s Test Kitchen’s When Southern Women Cook are a perfect way to elevate any meal of the day.
Pat-in-the-Pan Buttermilk Biscuits
Southern cookbook queen, Virginia Willis, led a demonstration at Cook’s Country in August 2018, during which she shared this advice: “Biscuits are like people; they are better when they rise together.” Her biscuit-baking technique inspired this recipe. The biscuits touch each other while they bake and push each other up in the oven for a higher rise.
Low-protein cake flour is used for tenderness, while baking powder and baking soda are used to achieve plenty of lightness and lift. Pinched bits of cold butter infuse the biscuits with steam, resulting in the fluffiest texture! This recipe gets its name from the tried-and-true Southern method of patting biscuit dough in a pan.
If you’re feeding a crowd, you can easily double this recipe to yield 15 biscuits. To double, use a 13 by 9-inch baking pan and extend the baking time by about 15 minutes. Get the recipe HERE.
Brush melted butter over the top of the biscuits and serve them warm. Get the full recipe HERE. Image: America’s Test Kitchen / Joe Keller
Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
If you’ve been to Dollywood, you know that the real attraction is the bread. On any given morning, you’ll find a line of patrons at the gristmill waiting for a freshly baked loaf of cinnamon bread. In fact, it’s so popular that the mill serves about 350 loaves of bread every hour! This famous yeasted bread is lavished in butter and cinnamon sugar for the most satisfying treat. At Dollywood, this bread is served glazed, dusted with powdered sugar, or slathered with apple butter — it’s even delicious all on its own!
In Dolly Parton’s recipe (from Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s), she suggests using pizza dough to make it easier. In this recipe, you can swap in pizza dough for bread dough by skipping steps one and two. However, making your own dough allows you to be in better control of the flavor and texture. Get the recipe HERE.
At Dollywood, you have to wait in line to get this famous Cinnamon Bread. Now, you can make it in the comfort of your home! Get the full recipe HERE. Image: America’s Test Kitchen / Steve Klise
Sweet Potato Cornbread
Chef Stephanie Tyson adds sweet potatoes to her cornbread, which she serves up at her restaurant, Sweet Potatoes (Well Shut My Mouth!!). After years of working as an actress, Tyson made a career shift toward cooking the food she watched her grandmother, Ora Porter, cook. “Everything I saw my grandmother do, I do,” said Tyson in a 2017 article in Our State magazine. Tyson has two cookbooks, she’s a two-time semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast, and she has a second restaurant called Miss Ora’s Kitchen in honor of her grandmother.
This recipe is quick and easy, thanks to microwaving the sweet potatoes. The cornbread’s texture is light, and the brown sugar underscores the sweet potatoes’ caramel notes. Take your sweet potato cornbread up a notch and add a little cinnamon and sugar to the batter like Tyson does! Get the recipe HERE.
This Sweet Potato Cornbread is best prepared in a cast iron skillet, and it’s delicious when served with warm ginger-honey butter. Get the full recipe HERE. Image: America’s Test Kitchen / Steve Klise
Looking for last-minute holiday gifts? Featuring 70 diverse Southern women contributors (offering everything from Texas barbecue to Gullah Geechee rice dishes and treasured hometown desserts), When Southern Women Cook is perfect for the hobby home cook in your life!
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