Product Name: Dolly Parton Baking Collection
Release Date: February 8, 2023
Recipes: 4
Price: $40
The original "Backwoods Barbie," Dolly Parton, graced our kitchens with her new Duncan Hines baking collection this month, including two brownie mixes, a cornbread mix, a biscuit mix and collectible recipe cards.
If you know me, you know I love all things Dolly Parton. I just had to get my hands on the collection when it was released on Feb. 8. In addition to the baking mixes, the collection includes a complimentary “What Would Dolly Do?” tea towel and spatula. While the complete collection is currently sold out, individual mixes can still be purchased on the Duncan Hines website.
The complete collection retails for $40, the brownie mixes for $3.49 and the cornbread and biscuit mixes for $3.29.
This new release follows her original Duncan Hines collaboration, which featured southern-style coconut-flavored cake mix, banana pudding-flavored cake mix and original and chocolate buttercream frostings.
The Buttermilk Biscuits
Dolly’s buttermilk biscuit mix took the most work to whip up, but it was certainly worth the effort.
Calling for a whopping 12 tablespoons of butter and one cup of milk, the biscuit dough had the longest preparation time of about 15 minutes to mix and knead.
According to the box, the mix is supposed to yield 14 biscuits, but using three tablespoons of dough per biscuit only produced 12. It is hard to be mad at the preparation time or quantity, however, because the final product was simply immaculate.
Biting into the perfectly golden, warm and buttered biscuit took me back to a time where I was sitting on my grandparents' porch and listening to “Love Is Like a Butterfly” on a cool summer evening.
The flawless combination of a crispy outside and a soft, fluffy inside puts grocery store biscuits to shame.
Overall, the biscuits are a front-runner in this collection and would serve as the perfect pairing for homemade sausage gravy.
The Fabulously Fudgy and Caramel Turtle Brownies
Most brownie mixes call for about a half cup of vegetable oil, but not Dolly’s.
Butter was most definitely the key ingredient for both of these sweet treats, as each mix called for a half cup of butter, one large egg and three tablespoons of milk.
The Fabulously Fudgy brownies were just that — fabulous.
Coming out of the oven, they looked a little on the dry side, but after letting them cool for about 10 minutes, the first bite will make you reevaluate whether you're even eating boxed brownies.
These brownies had the densest, gooiest texture and the richest chocolate flavor. While the denseness definitely comes from the abundance of butter, the flavor has to be Dolly’s best-kept secret.
Even after sitting on the counter for a few hours, they maintained the same gooey consistency.
The caramel turtle brownies had the same base as the Fabulously Fudgy brownies, but the added walnuts and caramel drizzle sent me over the moon.
The crunch of the walnuts perfectly offset the gooey texture of the brownies, and the caramel drizzle added just the right amount of salty-sweetness.
Dolly’s brownies could satisfy anyone’s sweet tooth, whether they're a fan of nuts in chocolate or not.
The Sweet Cornbread and Muffin Mix
Cornbread isn't a food that everyone grows up eating, and it is definitely not a nationwide delicacy, but Dolly's recipe has the potential to change that.
Cornbread is a southern staple, so who has a better recipe to follow than the southern belle herself?
Once again, butter was a vital ingredient in this recipe, calling for a third of a cup in addition to one large egg and a cup of milk.
Cornbread can be tricky to make, as it often comes out dry or burnt on the bottom. However, Dolly’s recipe included an exact cook time with adjustments for glass pans. These details made all the difference, as the loaf came out perfectly yellow with golden-brown edges.
The cornbread had a unique balance of starchy corn flavor with just the right amount of added sweetness.
Cornbread has never been my snack choice because of its dry, gritty texture, but this recipe turned out incredibly moist and balanced. For me, it really is the perfect symbol of southern cuisine.
Similar to the brownies, the cornbread kept its moisture even after sitting out for a few hours.
This baking collection is as if “My Tennessee Mountain Home” was edible, with recipes that embody the taste of the South.
It's hard to find a distaste for anything in this collection, but the biscuits were undoubtedly the star of the show.