Homemade holidays: 12 days of vintage sweets
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2022 (743 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
To cap off the Free Press’s anniversary year, we’re plumbing the archives for holiday recipes of yore.
Follow along until Dec. 23 for a sampling of the sweet, strange and trendy desserts to grace our pages and your tables over the last 150 years.
Day 12: Rum Balls, 2011
Posted:
We made it. This is the last entry in our 12 days of vintage treats series, which has featured weird and wonderful recipes spanning nearly 200 years from the Free Press archives and family recipe troves. Thanks to everyone who has been following along.
Day 11: Ashley’s Family Shortbread, 2007
Posted:
For former Free Press reporter, Ashley Prest, shortbread is a family heirloom.
Day 10: Traditional Holiday Eggnog, 1992
Posted:
This eggnog recipe from 1992 was part of an impressive four-page Christmas Countdown spread compiled by former Free Press staffer, Carreen Maloney.
Day 9: Apple Dessert Latkes, 1987
Posted:
Happy Hanukkah! It’s the ninth day of our Homemade vintage treats series and, at sundown, the third day of the Jewish festival of lights, which started at sundown on Sunday.
Day 8: Irmie’s Honey Spice Drops, 1975
Posted:
Are holiday cookie parties still a thing? Because, as Free Press food writer Evelyn Larson attests in 1975, they sound like a great way to reduce time spent baking while increasing the variety of said baking.
Mulled apple juice delivers holiday cheer
Posted:
Cinnamon, cloves and warm apples — throw a pot of this mulled apple juice on the stove and your home will be smelling like holiday cheer in no time.
Divinity fudge answers prayers for those with a sweet tooth
Posted:
Divinity fudge? More like a sticky, marshmallowy nightmare. I’m not sure the task of cleaning rock hard egg whites and syrup from the beaters of my mixer was worth the pretty, but cloyingly sweet results of this recipe (which I had to make twice because the first batch was too runny to cut).
Frosty, festive inspiration from 1930s ‘hand freezer’
Posted:
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Christmas ice cream. No? Well, then I’d like to take this opportunity to push for the revival of the ice cream-as-holiday-dessert trend of the 1930s.
Day 4: Cranberry meringue pie
Posted:
Cranberry propaganda was having a heyday 100 years ago. In 1922, the pages of the Free Press were littered with advertisements for the tart red berries, with promotions ramping up, understandably, around the holiday season.
Day 3: Cocoanut caramels deliver a sweet and simple tropical treat
Posted:
With lightly browned sugar, lemon extract and coconut — or rather cocoanut, as per the original recipe — these sweet and simple treats are decidedly tropical.
Day 2: Plum pudding recipe indulges in old-fashioned passion for dried fruit
Posted:
For the first several decades of the Free Press’s existence, holiday recipes were decked with all manner of dried fruits and booze. If it wasn’t fruitcake, it was plum pudding.
Day 1: Fruitcake recipe fit for a queen
Posted:
Have you heard the one about monkey soup? How about sailing through the Canary Islands? Or the time a family member swiped the recipe for Queen Victoria’s wedding cake from the castle kitchen?
To see our archive of previous years of holiday baking click here.
History
Updated on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 7:50 AM CST: Adds cranberry meringue pie recipes
Updated on Thursday, December 15, 2022 8:00 AM CST: Adds new recipe
Updated on Sunday, December 18, 2022 9:49 AM CST: Adds new recipe
Updated on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 6:20 AM CST: Adds latkes
Updated on Wednesday, December 21, 2022 8:14 AM CST: Adds eggnog
Updated on Thursday, December 22, 2022 10:36 AM CST: Adds shortbread
Updated on Friday, December 23, 2022 6:24 AM CST: Adds final recipe