When a state legislature strikes a blow for regional gastronomy, it’s usually on the symbolic level, like when Texas lawmakers designated chili to be their official state dish in 1977. But the Georgia House of Representatives took a more direct approach two weeks ago, when it gave Willie Watts permission to resume selling her homemade fried pies.

Some quick background: Fried pies are little hot-pocket semicircles of dough that are filled with fruit and, as the name implies, deep-fried. They’re particularly popular in the South. Ms. Watts, a retired seamstress living near Atlanta, had been making them in her home kitchen and selling them to a local restaurant for years without incident, but the state agriculture department shut her down last month for not having a commercial license or inspection certificate. That prompted so much local outrage that the state legislature unanimously passed a bill to exempt her from the regulations.

With or without legislative sanction, fried pies are an endearing combination of deliciousness and portability. In the South, they’re typically sold at corner groceries and gas stations, where they make an irresistible impulse snack. The most common fillings are apple and peach, although I’ve also seen chocolate, apricot, and lemon.

Fried pie history is sketchy. Before cold storage and imports made apples available year-round, lots of folks sliced up their fresh apples and then dried them, which was an effective means of long-term preservation. According to the book “Apple Pie: An American Story” by the Southern food historian John Edge, “Many of those dried apples ended up in fried pies.” From dried to fried – nice.

This explains why many fried pie makers today, including Ms. Watts, continue to use dried fruit. There’s nothing wrong with that, but after experimenting with various fresh and dried fruits, I’m convinced that fresh yields better results. And although purists might disagree, I also like adding some raisins,chopped walnuts,and whiskey (see accompanying recipe).

Then there’s the crust. Ms.Watts makes her dough from scratch, but many others use premade biscuit dough – the stuff that comes in a refrigerated tube at the supermarket. That may sound like a lazy shortcut, but keep in mind that a fried pie’s crust has to withstand the rigors of cooking in hot oil. If the handcrimped pocket of dough develops a crack, or the crimp doesn’t hold, the filling will come streaming out and the pie will be ruined.

I’m sure there’s an ideal recipe out there for fried pie dough, but I didn’t find it during several rounds of kitchen research. All the things that make a crust ideal for a traditional pie – layered flakiness, fall-apart crispiness, and so on – make it ill-suited for a fried pie, because it develops fissures during the frying process.

So I turned to commercial biscuit doughs, including a new product called Pillsbury Perfect Portions.It’s packaged in a box and is a bit denser than Pillsbury’s tube-packed dough. This makes for mediocre biscuits, but it turns out to be ideal for fried pies.

My pies might not pass muster with the Georgia House of Representatives, but my houseguests sure seemed to like them. So will yours.

Fried Apple Pies

1/3 cup raisins and/or dried cherries
2 tablespoons butter
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons bourbon, Jack Daniel’s, or other American whiskey
6 rounds of Pillsbury Perfect Portions refrigerated biscuit dough
Oil for frying

1. Place the raisins and/or cherries in a medium bowl, add boiling water to cover, and set aside.

2. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Add the apples, sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, wal nuts, and whiskey and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are soft, about 15 minutes. Drain raisins and/or cherries and add to skillet. Remove skillet from heat and set aside.

3. While the filling cools, place the rounds of biscuit dough on a lightly floured surface and roll them out until each one forms a 6- to 7-inch circle. Spoon a few tablespoons of the filling onto one side of a dough circle, brush the edges of the dough with water, and then fold the uncovered flap of dough over the filling. Press the edges closed, use a fork to crimp, and set aside. Repeat for remaining rounds of dough.

4. Add oil to a pot or deep skillet to a depth of at least 1 inch and place over high heat until the oil registers 350 degrees on a candy thermometer. Working in batches, gently place the pies into the oil and cook, turning once, until golden brown, about 90 seconds a side. Remove pies with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Dust with powdered sugar, if you like, and serve warm.

YIELD Six pies