23 Popular Vintage Dessert Recipes From Every Region of the USA

The Northeast: Brown Sugar Candy

Brown Sugar Candy, also called penuche, is a fudge-like candy made from brown sugar, butter, and milk, and only flavored with vanilla. Brown Sugar Candy is primarily found in New England and is said to taste like caramel. Walnuts and pecans can be added to the candy for texture.

The Northeast: Hermit Bar Cookies

A traditional New England cookie, hermit cookies are soft and chewy and flavored with molasses. These spicy cookie bars were popular in the early 20th century, but have since fallen by the wayside. "This recipe took me back to my hometown of New Bedford MA where people even KNEW what hermits were. This is a great recipe. This is what I grew up with," says reviewer Julie.

The Northeast: Whoopie Pies

Whoopie pies, also called gobs in different regions, are cookie-shaped cakes sandwiched with a creamy filling. The most popular flavor of whoopie pies is chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, but other tasty varieties include chocolate peanut butter, double chocolate, and pumpkin. We're not sure where exactly whoopie pies came from as four states — New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania — claim to have created the dessert, but the first commercially produced whoopie pies were made in Maine.

The Mid-Atlantic: Concord Grape Pie

Grape pies came to be in The Finger Lakes in Upstate New York during the 1960s. The town where the pie was invented, Naples, New York, even has a grape festival every year where thousands of grape pies are sold during the festival weekend. The grape pie is fairly time consuming to make, but worth it for the taste.

The Mid-Atlantic: My Grandma's Shoo-Fly Pie

Some believe this classic Pennsylvania Dutch pie got its name because it looked and smelled so good that it attracted flies. Shoofly pie is made with brown sugar and molasses and topped with crumbs — making it comparable to a crumb cake.

The Mid-Atlantic: Honeycomb Toffee

A specialty from Buffalo, New York, Honeycomb Toffee is a hard candy with thousands of bubbles trapped in sugar syrup. Because of its appearance, this candy is also called cinder toffee, sponge candy, or hokey pokey. In New York, you'll see this melt-in-your-mouth candy coated with chocolate.

The Midwest: Watergate Salad

While the source of its name remains shrouded in mystery, Watergate Salad gained popularity during that presidential scandal and has become a traditional dessert across the Midwest. This five-ingredient fluff salad is made with pistachio pudding mix, crushed pineapples, marshmallows, walnuts, and whipped topping.

The Midwest: Freda's Cherry Supreme Salad

Cherry supreme salad has been gracing Midwesterners' dessert tables for years. But don't let the mayo in the lemon topping scare you away from this tasty Jell-O salad — reviewers say the flavor combination is like cheesecake. "I was a little skeptical with putting mayo in this but it turned out amazing. My husband turned his nose up at this until he tried it and loved it," says home cook Kristy Bryson Loneske.

The Midwest: Fudgy Chocolate Cream Pie

We have Midwestern dairy farms to thank for the delicious cream pie — especially the chocolate cream pie. Traditional chocolate cream pie has a flaky crust, a rich chocolate custard filling, and is topped with a mountain of whipped cream. This recipe allows for a meringue topping, so, if you opt for that, recipe creator Nancy Sabatino recommends using this Unbaked Meringue recipe.

The Southeast: Butter Biscuit Peach Cobbler

Cobblers were brought to America by English settlers who, as they were traveling, used canned fruits, leavened dough, and an open fire to create pies. Fruits were dumped into a Dutch oven, topped with biscuit dough, and baked until golden brown for a make-shift pie, which we now call a cobbler. The peach cobbler is believed to have this same origin story and has become a staple in the Deep South served with vanilla ice cream.

The Southeast: Fourteen Layer Chocolate Cake

The little layer chocolate cake is all about height. This Southern cake can be found at many gatherings and the cake's height is based on which birthday you're celebrating — or how many layers you could successfully add without the cake tumbling down. Each layer is baked individually and the cake is built while the layers and icing are still warm, which allows the icing to run down the sides of the cake.

The Southeast: Classic Pudding Pops

If you remember Jell-O Pudding Pops, which were popular in the 1980s, you know all about this recipe. These four-ingredient pudding pops are simply pudding mix, milk, evaporated milk, and sugar frozen in popsicle molds. This specific recipe is for chocolate pudding pops, but you can use any flavor of pudding mix you like.

The South: Banana Pudding

Banana pudding is one of the most classic no-bake desserts. Different variations of this beloved recipe began popping up in the late 1800s, but the banana pudding you know and love — made with vanilla wafer cookies — was created in 1921. Banana pudding actually originated in Illinois, but the simple dessert, made with pudding, bananas, and vanilla wafers, has become a Southern staple throughout the years.

The South: Coconut Ambrosia Salad

A traditional holiday dessert in the South, ambrosia salad has mandarin oranges, pineapple, coconut, maraschino cherries, and — sometimes — whipped topping and marshmallows. The ingredients of ambrosia salad are highly debated as most people continue to make their family's version of the recipe. The first ambrosia salad appeared in a cookbook in 1867 and only included grated coconut, a little sugar, and pulped oranges, so the recipe has evolved from there.

The South: Hummingbird Cake

This banana-pineapple spice cake originated in Jamaica and has become a popular Southern dessert since its stateside arrival in the 1970s. It traditionally has two or three layers of banana, pineapple, and walnut spice cake and a sweet cream cheese frosting.

The Southwest: Tunnel of Fudge Cake

The first tunnel of fudge cake was baked in the 1960s in Houston at the Pillsbury Bake-Off. The original cake used Pillsbury's Double Dutch Frosting Mix as a key ingredient, and when Pillsbury discontinued this mix, bakers were furious. This led Pillsbury to adapt a new recipe for this cake using cocoa powder and confectioners' sugar for the glaze. As the cake bakes, it creates a tunnel for the fudgy glaze — but make sure to use enough nuts, or else the cake won't turn out correctly.

The Southwest: Biscochitos Traditional Cookies

Biscochitos are the official state cookie of New Mexico and are traditionally served during special celebrations — especially Christmas — alongside a mug of hot chocolate. These butter cookies are flavored with sugar, cinnamon, and anise and are typically cut into the shape of fleur-de-lis, crosses, stars, and moons, but of course you can use any other cookie cutter shape.

The Southwest: Texas Sheet Cake

Texas sheet cake has been a dessert sensation since the early 20th century. While the origin of the cake is unclear, and it may just look like a normal sheet cake, you can't go wrong with the chocolate, fudgy Texas sheet cake. It's believed this cake is a Texas native because of the pecans, which are indigenous to parts of Texas.

The West: Lemon Chiffon Pie

The chiffon pie, invented in Los Angeles in 1926, is known for its airy filling. The secret to this light and fluffy filling is unflavored gelatin. Though it has many varieties, the most popular chiffon pie is a Lemon Chiffon Pie with graham cracker crust.

The West: Rocky Road Ice Cream

Invented in Oakland, California and taking its name from the troubled times during the Great Depression, this ice cream packed with chocolate, marshmallows, and nuts was a huge leap forward in the world of commercial ice cream flavors which were at the time mainly limited to vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

The West: Hot Fudge Sundae

Los Angeles restaurateur Clarence Clifton Brown was the first to pour hot fudge sauce on an ice cream sundae in the late 1920s and the dessert became an instant hit, enabling him to move his establishment to a more high-profile location in the heart of Hollywood.

The Northwest: Northwest Marionberry Pie

The marionberry is a cross-species of blackberry developed in Marion County, Oregon. Since the marionberry's creation in the 1950s, the marionberry pie has become a staple in the Northwest. These berries have a sweet and tart flavor that are perfect for this summer pie.

The Northwest: Nanaimo Bars

While Nanaimo bars originated in Nanaimo, British Columbia, in the 1950s, the Canadian dessert was introduced to the U.S. thanks to Seattle-based coffee chain Starbucks. Starbucks sells Nanaimo bars as a seasonal item during the holidays. These bars consist of a layer of graham cracker and nut crust, a layer of pudding or buttercream frosting, and a layer of chocolate.

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