The Dolly Parton Recipe I’ll Always Treasure

Everywhere I went today, people were talking about Dolly Parton. In the grocery store, cashiers shared their most-loved songs. The bank teller told me his favorite Dolly quote. During school pickup, another parent told me how Dolly's Imagination Library shaped her daughter's love of reading. Now, it's my turn to share: Dolly Parton's Southern Corn Pudding has a permanent home in my recipe box.

This side dish is a staple in the South, but when I first made Dolly's corn pudding, my family hadn't been living in Tennessee for long. I was nervous to present my extended family with a Southern dish as a Northerner, but with Dolly's name on the recipe, I was confident enough to bring corn pudding to a holiday dinner. It was devoured quickly, and people requested that it stay on the menu for next year's holiday celebration!

Back then, I only knew Dolly for her music and our shared love of potatoes . Now, I know she was a culinary powerhouse, too. This weekend, we'll cook up country-style ribs, make her famous corn pudding, and blast "9 to 5" on the record player in Dolly's honor.

How To Make Dolly Parton's Southern Corn Pudding

Many corn puddings have a familiar mix of creamed corn, cornbread mix, sour cream, eggs, and butter. Dolly's recipe differs from others in that she also calls for frozen corn (most use canned corn) and uses her own brand of cornbread mix—Dolly Parton's Sweet Cornbread & Muffin Mix—which is twice the volume of cornbread mixes like Jiffy corn muffin mix. Her recipe has you mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and pour the batter into a greased 9x13-inch baking pan. It's really that easy.

After 40 minutes in a 375°F oven, this corn pudding is wonderfully caramelized along the sides while still tender and moist in the middle. You can serve it hot, at room temperature, or anywhere in between.

Having made this recipe a few times now, I've found that mixing the batter is a little easier if I melt the butter in the mixing bowl by popping it in the microwave , then add the other wet ingredients (can of creamed corn, sour cream, eggs, and salt), and mix those all together before adding Dolly's cornbread mix and the frozen corn.

This small step saves a dish (no need to melt the butter separately) and prevents overmixing. Also, follow Dolly's advice to add salt to the batter, because her cornbread mix is on the sweeter side, and the corn makes it even sweeter. You need the salt to balance the sweetness.

One of the things I love most about corn pudding is that it is so simple to make, and all of the cooking is hands-off. During the holidays, it takes advantage of an already hot oven when you're cooking for your family while making a dish that does double duty as a vegetable and a carb. Dolly's corn pudding is the fluffiest, moistest version I've ever eaten.

Get the Recipe: Dolly Parton's Southern Corn Pudding

Read the original article on Simply Recipes