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.Â
MOST ICONIC Key Lime Pie
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Peanut butter pie is a traditional American pie hailing from Georgia. This sweet and salty pie consists of a crumbly pie crust that's filled with gooey peanut butter and chunks of roasted and salted peanuts. The filling is enriched with brown sugar, flour, butter, eggs, milk, vanilla extract, and corn syrup, while the crust is made from flour, sugar, salt, butter, and water.
If desired, the peanuts can also be added to the crust. Once done, this nutritious pie is typically served with a dollop of whipped cream on top.
MOST ICONIC Peanut Butter Pie
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One of the hallmarks of traditional American cuisine is the classic pecan pie. It consists of a thin pastry crust that is topped with a mixture of eggs, butter, flour, a sweetener such as brown sugar, syrup, or molasses, and a handful of halved or chopped pecans.
When baked, pecan pie should have the consistency of a thick, silky custard with a pronounced caramel taste. When it initially appeared in written form at the end of the 19th century, it was mostly associated with the American South, but today it represents an authentic American dessert, traditionally prepared on Thanksgiving Day.
MOST ICONIC Pecan Pie
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Traditionally associated with the American South (and Virginia in particular), the sweet chess pie consists of a thin pastry crust that is topped with a mixture of eggs, butter, vanilla, cornmeal, and various sweeteners. When baked, the filling turns into a thick, velvety custard, which is best complemented with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.
Among numerous theories of the origin and the name of chess pies, the most reasonable one says that it evolved from the British cheese pie, a term formerly used to denote various pies with similar fillings as this Southern classic.
MOST ICONIC Chess Pie
Buttermilk pie is an old-fashioned pie that's especially popular in the American South (Georgia in particular). This light and smooth pie gets its flavor from buttermilk, a bit of vanilla, and some lemon juice. Other ingredients include flour, eggs, butter, and sugar.
Once mixed, the combination is poured into a pie crust, and it's then baked until almost set. Before serving and slicing, buttermilk pie should be cooled. The origins of this pie date back to the Depression and WWII, when women used pantry staples and what they had on hand.
MOST ICONIC Buttermilk Pie
Sweet potato pie is a traditional pie with origins in the southern parts of the United States of America, and it's especially popular in North Carolina. The dessert is prepared as an open pie without the top crust; its interior usually filled a combination of milk, eggs, sugar, and mashed sweet potatoes.
It is often flavored with spices such as vanilla or nutmeg in the South, while in the North, some like to top the pie with marshmallow pieces. The tradition of making sweet potato pie in the South has been present since the days of slavery, and African slaves were the first ones to make the dish.Â
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Peach pie is a classic American pie hailing from Georgia, also known as the Peach State. In order to prepare it, a buttery pie crust is filled with sweet local Georgia peaches that are typically picked at the peak of their flavor. The pie crust is made from flour, sugar, salt, butter, shortening, and ice water, while the filling usually includes peaches, sugar, lemon juice, flour, butter, and egg wash.
The pie is baked until the crust becomes deeply golden and the filling is bubbling. Once chilled, it is sliced and served with whipped cream. Interestingly, peach pie is the official state pie of Delaware, because the state was the leading producer of peaches in the 19th century.
MOST ICONIC Georgia Peach Pie
Fudge pie is a traditional American pie hailing from Tennessee. It's made with a combination of butter, semi-sweet chocolate, salt, sugar, cocoa, eggs, vanilla extract, and evaporated milk. Once mixed, the combination is poured into a pie crust and it's then baked until the crust becomes golden.
Before slicing, the pie should be completely cooled. It's recommended to serve fudge pie with a cloud of whipped cream on top. The pie is popular throughout the South, and it was first prepared in the early 1900s. Not much later, it was a staple at family reunions and church suppers, and nowadays it's often enriched with walnuts or pecans.
MOST ICONIC Fudge Pie
Crawfish pie is a traditional savory American pie originating from Louisiana. These pies usually consist of a pie shell that's filled with a combination of crawfish tails, bell peppers, green onions, garlic, stock, parsley, milk, butter, cornstarch, and seasonings.
The ingredients are cooked until the mixture thickens, and the filling is then poured into the pie crust. The pie is baked in the oven until the crust becomes golden brown and the filling is bubbling. This Cajun delicacy is especially popular on weekends.Â
MOST ICONIC Crawfish Pie
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.
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