The Crunchy Classic Cookies Johnny Cash Grew Up Loving

Johnny Cash was mostly known for his rebellious image and distinctive bass-baritone voice that gave life to his biggest hits, including "I Walk the Line" and "Ring of Fire." But away from the limelight and his massive fame as a musician, his home life was not complete without his favorite foods. Johnny Cash's signature dish was Southern-style chili, but he also enjoyed vintage country dishes like cornbread, biscuits and gravy, pinto beans, and fried catfish. As for his sweet tooth, Cash's go-to was peanut butter cookies made with crunchy peanut butter (not creamy).

Johnny's fondness for these cookies likely came from a place of love, considering his mom baked peanut butter cookies whenever she could. Though it's unknown what drove her to do this, she wasn't exactly alone. Peanut butter cookies were quite popular among home cooks at the time of Cash's childhood (between the 1930s and '40s). Following the Great Depression, families relied on affordable ingredients for their daily food consumption. The peanut butter cookie, which was invented by George Washington Carver in the 1910s as part of a cookbook promoting the nutty ingredient, was easy to make since it only used a few pantry staples. Given its practicality and taste, it's not surprising that the recipe remains one of the most popular cookie flavors in America to this day.

Aside from crunchy peanut butter cookies, Johnny Cash satisfied his sweet tooth with other baked treats made by his mom. His mother's cookbook, "Favorite Recipes From Mama Cash's Kitchen," featured various cake instructions, which she presumably prepared often for the singer and his siblings. One recipe from the cookbook, which the wife of Cash's cousin shared online, was for a fudge cake — a chocolate cake with hints of cinnamon. Another featured recipe in the book was pineapple pie. It's important to note that there are at least two pineapple recipes Cash grew up enjoying: cream cheese pineapple pie and slow-cooked pineapple upside-down dump cake.

Other confections served at the singer's Nashville home were Southern bourbon pecan pie, jam cake, French silk pie, and million-dollar pound cake. Interestingly, among the many sweets his mom prepared for her family, Johnny favored some over the others. One of his favorites was an old-school Southern cake called "scripture cake." If you aren't familiar with scripture cake, it's basically a fruitcake made from ingredients stipulated in the Bible. Cash purportedly preferred to eat this with a fruit salad. It's also not a reach to assume that Cash's other favorite was strawberry cake. He released a song and an album titled "Strawberry Cake" and even staged a photoshoot for the album cover, which showed him happily devouring the cake.