There’s a feel-good cookbook just out – one that can be cherished by grandparents or the teenage grandkids alike. In fact, that’s a big part of the goal for Edmonton’s Karlynn Johnston (a.k.a. The Kitchen Magpie, of blogging fame), author of the new but retro-inspired cookbook, Flapper Pie and a Blue Prairie Sky: A modern baker’s guide to old-fashioned desserts.
Featuring must-have favourites from her blog and treasured family recipes, the colourful, vintage hardcover book is filled with the goodies your grandma or auntie most certainly would have made. It includes date squares, doughnuts, dainties, raisin pie, whipped shortbread, icings and bars – plus an equal number of new takes on those old favourites. A classic Nanaimo bar on one page becomes a boozy bar on the next, for example.
The traditional recipes are featured on weathered-looking pages reminiscent of the handwritten recipes we know from our childhoods, those cherished family recipes for a famous shortbread or Mom’s best-ever cheesecake, perhaps. Tupperware and Pyrex dishes showcasing Johnston’s vintage glassware obsession are featured prominently in the colour photos too – in retro shades of yellows, teals, oranges and browns. For each vintage recipe, a modern take on the dessert is highlighted on the very next page: 55 retro recipes, and 55 updated twists on the classics. They are all in full colour to make you want to get the apron on and rolling pin ready.
Johnston said she can see grandmothers buying the book for the younger generation – a tome to pass down from parent to child – there is even room to write in your own family heirloom recipes too.
“Everyone has a special cookie or dainty they make at the holidays or for special gatherings, so add them in. I’m just a home cook like everyone else, and took what my grandmother and mother taught me – all my favourites, plus the biggest hits from my blog,” said Johnston, pointing to her must-have butter cream icing recipe (the secret ingredients are salted butter and full-fat cream), a homemade whipped topping substitute, and of course, Flapper Pie.
Being a prairie Slav just like Johnston, my family roots included an abundance of baked goods made with honey, poppy seed and cream cheese, plus roaster pans full of fried doughnuts sprinkled with icing sugar – a weekend treat in my family home. Johnston’s Flapper Pie, for which the book is named, is a custard pie with a graham cracker crust and a graham-dusted meringue top. Now, if you’re from Winnipeg, that is virtually the same pie as the signature favourite at Salisbury House, a beloved coffee/burger shop that has been a Manitoba staple for decades.
“I came upon Flapper Pie a few years ago, and the most regular comment I heard was ‘I forgot about this pie’. I’m not a pastry chef, so all my recipes have to be straightforward and easy to make. The book recalls my Ukrainian prairie roots and the nostalgic desserts we all ate growing up,” she said.
Who remembers raisin pie and matrimonial squares? This book will take some home bakers down memory lane, and start new traditions for other prairie bakers too. How about turning that raisin pie recipe on its ear with a saskatoon butter tart pie, which Johnston said is one of the hands-down favourites in the book. Who doesn’t recognize the butterscotch and chocolate rainbow marshmallow dainties that adorn every bake sale table across the prairie? Amp it up with Nutella chocolate rainbow bars, which Johnston said are ‘totally addictive.” Or what about saltine toffee squares, which morph into the even more sinfully delicious saltine peanut butter chocolate bars?
Johnston said there are many recipes in the book that hearken back to the Depression era, when money was tight and staples not always easy to find. Hence the use of saltines, or no-bowl chocolate vinegar cake, made without eggs and using vinegar as the needed acid.
Johnston’s U.S. fans, who number about half her blog followers, scooped up thousands of the cookbooks when the Edmontonian nabbed a recent appearance on America’s QVC home shopping channel. Johnston said viewers were charmed by her prairie recipes, and particularly loved the caramel apple streusel pie with sour cream. “That may be the sleeper surprise of the book,” she said.
Beyond the recipes, Johnston shares with readers her tips for setting up the kitchen and stocking the pantry – it’s an ode to Canadian prairie baking, available in St. Albert through Chapters and the Bookstore on Perron.
If you’re inspired to try some vintage-style cooking or baking, look for church-based cookie exchanges. As well, The Enjoy Centre’s free holiday demonstration events on Saturday, Nov. 19 may be just the ticket. At 1:30 p.m., Glasshouse Bistro Master Chef Enrique Toledo will show participants how to make Lois Hole’s favourite holiday recipes. The free event is sure to be a popular crowd pleaser, so sign up quickly.
