Fall is a Southern baker’s favorite time of year, and this special collector’s edition from Southern Living covers all the classic hits, including cakes, pies, breads, cobblers, and more. Our test kitchen pros have turned out delicious treats full of our favorite fall flavors, from caramel and apples to pumpkin and pecans. We’re even sharing our very best recipe for Southern cornbread, DIY doughnuts, and 5-star rated recipes like German Chocolate Cake.
fragrant PEONY TRIO
PIE Baking Tips • Test Kitchen baker extraordinaire Deb Wise shares her tips for mastering these classics
The Right Way To Make Whipped Cream
Baking Tools that Hit the Sweet Spot • Before whipping up sugary confections, add these three helpers to your list
Baking Essentials Breakdown • Stock up on must-have ingredients to get you through the sweetest season
Fill a Piping Bag Like a Pro • Easy instructions for making a tricky job much less messy
Smart Shortcuts • Our sneakiest ways of sprucing up store-bought products
Fantastic FANTANS • Master the art of shaping delectable pull-apart fantans (page 80) in four simple steps
Five Orchard-Fresh Favorites • September brings a bounty of crisp fall apples, each one unique—from tart ‘Granny Smith’ to candy-sweet ‘Fuji.’ Many lesser known varieties arrive in peak season and appear only briefly, so enjoy them now.
ANY WAY YOU SLICE IT • Seven gorgeous fall desserts with delicious surprises inside, from decadent chocolate layers to fresh and flavorful seasonal ingredients
LOST PIES OF THE SOUTH • This fall, we’re inviting you on a little road trip, an imaginary excursion through nine Southern states, each one with a particular pie worthy of your own holiday table. You won’t need a map, a seat belt, or car keys for this journey—just an appetite to try something different. These pies, each with a distinct provenance, are full of stories and flavors that are unique to the states from which they came. Feeling adventurous? Bake a streusel-topped persimmon pie inspired by the tangy fruit that grows wild throughout North Carolina. Then try a transparent pie, which is as beloved in some corners of the Bluegrass State as a glass of well-aged bourbon. Or treat yourself to a smooth pumpkin pie made with cushaw squash, an old-time favorite of Cajun and Creole cooks in Louisiana. Wherever you call home, these delicious desserts will give you even more reasons to love the South.
Sliced Sweet Potato Pie • As an accomplished researcher and educator at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute in the early 1900s, George Washington Carver featured a recipe for Sliced Potato Pie in an agricultural bulletin about sweet potatoes, which encouraged African-American farmers to cultivate the root vegetable as a cash crop and nutritional powerhouse. This old-fashioned, double-crust pie may look ordinary on the outside, but when it’s sliced, the inside reveals vibrant orange layers of sweet potatoes flecked with spices and sweetened with sugar and sorghum syrup. We love the simplicity of the classic custard-style sweet potato pie, but on a special occasion, this handsome antique version is well worth the extra time. We suggest topping each slice with a dollop of whipped cream flavored with molasses and vanilla.
Black Apple Pie • First cultivated in Benton County, Arkansas, in 1870, the Arkansas Black apple is a distinctive heirloom that ripens to a deep red on the tree but transforms to a nearly black hue after a few weeks in storage. Fragrant, tart, and tasty out of hand as well as in baked goods, it also thrives in parts of Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia, and beyond the South in Pennsylvania and California. The Arkansas Black keeps for months and ripens after it’s picked, improving in flavor and texture over time. Be on the lookout for this member of the Winesap apple...
