There’s nothing quite like returning to a classic dish to bring back memories and tastes from the past. So, for this month’s Silver Travel Cook Club we’re taking a trip down memory lane with Baking Yesteryear: The Best Recipes from the 1900s to the 1980s. This decade-by-decade cookbook highlights the best (and a few of the worst) baking recipes from the 20th century.
Travel back in time on a delicious decade-by-decade jaunt as B. Dylan Hollins shows you how to bake vintage forgotten greats. With a big pinch of fun and a full cup of humour, you’ll be baking everything from Chocolate Potato Cake from the 1910s to Avocado Pie from the 1960s.
Dylan has baked hundreds of recipes from countless antique cookbooks and selected only the best for this bakebook, sharing the shining stars from each decade. And because some of the recipes Dylan shares on his wildly popular social media channels are spectacular failures, he’s thrown in a few of the most disastrously strange recipes for you to try if you dare.
Recipe: Peanut Butter Bread
Ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 cup sweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 tsp baking SODA
- (optional 1 cup of: nuts, chocolate chips)
Method:
- Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder in a large bowl
- Add peanut butter to the flour mixture, combine with fingertips until uniform (add optional additions)
- In a separate bowl, whisk together egg and sugar until light and fluffy
- Incorporate applesauce and milk to the egg mixture
- Add baking soda to the wet ingredients, stir briefly, then immediately add to the dry ingredients. Mix until barely combined
- Quickly turn into an oiled/buttered loaf pan and bake at 350ºF for 1 hour – 1 hour, 10 mins. Or until a toothpick inserted to the centre removes cleanly
Recipe and image credit: B. Dylan Hollis
How to win a copy of Baking Yesteryear
Comment below and tell us your your favourite childhood dish which brings back fond memories
A winner will be chosen at random in early June 2024.
The competition closes on 31st May 2024.
44 Responses
Lemon meringue pie. my mother made, It was delicous.
Nun bread and butter pudding, simple and easy but delish!
My Mother used to make us Baked Alaska – and I could never understand why the icecream never melted! Another favourite was a form of Parkin – always taken with us on days out.
As a child it was always a traditional Sunday roast with Yorkshire puddings and as my mum made small ones, any leftovers were eaten as a pudding with golden syrup. So, every time I make Yorkies, I always think of this.
My Mum used to make the best Bread Pudding ever
Two come to mind , Lemon meringue pie that my aunt Marj made , never been able to taste as good since and thick skinned rice pudding with a lump of jam that my mum would make
Chocolate sponge & custard for school dinners
Home made rice pudding with lots of jam in the middle mmmmmmm
My mother’s scones – with butter melting on them.
No has been able to make stuffed lambs hearts like my Mum, including me. I wish I had paid more attention.
We used to have currant squares as children. So very delicious.
Another favourite is bread and butter pudding with lashings of dark rind marmalade and dried citrus fruit. Yummy.
It’s really simple – late Saturday mornings and golden chips made from scratch with raw potatoes in a traditional fryer with my siblings … ahhhh – I am there already! The other thing I loved were traditional Indian sweets … melt in the mouth creamy and over-rich, but DELICIOUS.
Fresh hot scones
bacon pudding
Roly Poly pudding with custard.
Crepes was my favourite dish in my childhood.
Carnation milk whisked up was great.
Rice pudding hot from the oven when coming from school on a cold afternoon.
Potato pancakes with mushrooms
Rhubarb crumble, with lots of butter in the crumble! Mmmmmmmm!
My favourite childhood food is Beef Stew and Dumplings.
Pineapple upside down cake was always tasty and good for a laugh.
Lemon meringue pie. Why is this never served in restaurants now?
If it was i would choose it every time.
Fruit and suet pudding with custard
It has to be Battenberg cake as my neighbour who was also a family friend she always used to make one and pack it for us as it’s one of my favourites and we used to go to a beautiful park at the other side of the city some Saturdays for a picnic.
Many of these recipes remind me of my childhood. My mother and aunts used to use old recipes. It would be good to compare them.
My mothers Eve’s pudding with ice cream…..especially when the ice cream melted on the hot pudding
My mum’s pasties & rice pudding- she would always bag the skin on top!
My favourite childhood dish was my mum’s steamed syrup sponge pudding with custard. I loved the way the syrup oozed down the sides when it was turned out and the sweet sticky combination with the custard.
My mother had very little money for expensive foods as my father died at a young age. As a result she couldn’t afford a lot of meat so we had a lot of meals that were relatively cheap to make. My favourite was her butter pie which was delicious. Just onions and potatoes cooked in butter, seasoned, and baked in short crust pastry. She also made us oxtail with carrots and pearl barley, which was very good, and cheese and egg, which was cheese melted in the oven in individual bowls, then an egg baked on top. All good and nutritious!
Clootie dumpling. My mother taught me how to make my granny’s recipe. It’s a real labour of love. My children, grandchildren and family and friends love it.
I also loved my mother’s light, fluffy cream sponges – they were delicious. My brothers and I would wait patiently to see who’s turn it would be to lick the whisk and the bowl. Yummy Memories!
My favourite was bread and butter pudding using mixed fruit
Rhubarb or Apple Crumble,never tasted anything close to what my Nan used to make,over 60 years ago.
My Dad’s Irish soda bread was wonderful. No baking tray required, he used to put flour on the bottom of the oven and put the loaf there to bake. It was always a treat straight from the oven with a ‘slice’ of butter melting into it. A real treat was one made with brown flour and dried fruit, that never had time to get cold. Soda bread always take me back to those happy childhood days and memories of Mum and Dad.
My Mum used to make the most amazing “Jelly Fluff” It was nothing magical just jelly and evap milk whisked together but it was the best.
Tapioca, especially the skin on the top
Raspberry Torte made by my auntie
Mother in law used to make what she described as ‘Black Country Wedding cake’ which was made with stale bread soaked in milk with lots of dry fruit. It was always moist and delicious. It could keep for ages, but never did!
My mother was a great cook and my favourite thing was her home made rice pudding which we would always have after Sunday lunch
Parkin on Bonfire Night…
Bacon and onion suet pudding, delicious. Thank you
Bread and butter pudding, tasty.
Mum made a really good Apple Charlotte – not the fancy French dessert made like a Summer Pudding in a bowl lined with bread – but a cheap, simple recipe that used white breadcrumbs, butter, spices (a lemon if we had one) and apples from our garden layered into a dish and cooked in the oven , sometimes the top layer was cubes of bread fried in butter. We didn’t have much money in the 1950’s but this was a cheap ‘afters’ as we called a dessert as it used stale bread and our own apples.
My mother made a lovely ‘treacle tart’ but it was made with desiccated coconut and lots of golden syrup which was lovely hot or cold, sadly mine never turns out the same.