Flapper pie, or forgotten Prairie pie, is a vanilla custard pie with meringue (or sometimes whipped cream in southern Saskatchewan) inside a Graham cracker crust.
Additions to the custard filling can include: whiskey, peach leaves, lemon zest, or vanilla.
At the “Salisbury House” restaurant chain in Winnipeg, it is sold as “wafer pie”.
The exact origin of the flapper pie is unknown.
It became popular in the Canadian Prairies during the 1920s and the dessert was named after flappers, the young Western women who, after World War I and in the 1920s, wore short skirts (knee-length was considered short at the time), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for codes.
It began to appear, albeit briefly, in Graham cracker ads in newspapers like the ‘Edmonton Journal’ in the 1920s, when recipes were presented by manufacturers to convince housewives that their Graham crackers were the best.
Flapper pie continued to be made even during the Depression era because the recipe required only simple ingredients.
However, after World War II, it began its descent into obscurity, relegated to family traditions and recipes passed down by word of mouth.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 6 People
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: American
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 9 oz graham crackers (or Digestives)
- 1 cup butter (melted)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- to taste ground cinnamon
- 1 2/3 cups milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 tbsps cornstarch
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 egg whites
- 2 tbsps sugar
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
Steps
• Mix all the crust ingredients (Graham crackers, melted butter, granulated sugar, and ground cinnamon) in a medium bowl. Press the mixture into a 9-inch deep pie dish, pressing it onto the bottom and sides. Bake the crust for 10 minutes in an oven at 350°F.
• Combine the vanilla custard filling ingredients (milk, granulated sugar, cornstarch, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and salt) and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the custard thickens and reaches a pudding-like consistency. Set aside to cool.• Beat together the meringue ingredients (egg whites, granulated sugar, cream of tartar) until stiff and shiny.
• To assemble the pie: pour the filling into the crust and cover with a thick layer of meringue, creating small peaks.
• Bake in the oven at 350°F until the meringue turns golden (about 10 minutes).
• Cool in the refrigerator and consume within a few hours of baking.
Perhaps it was Karlynn Johnston’s 2016 cookbook titled Flapper Pie and A Blue Prairie Sky: A Modern Baker’s Guide to Old-Fashioned Desserts: A Baking Book that brought this forgotten dessert back to the Canadian culinary spotlight.
Perhaps it was Karlynn Johnston’s 2016 cookbook titled Flapper Pie and A Blue Prairie Sky: A Modern Baker’s Guide to Old-Fashioned Desserts: A Baking Book that brought this forgotten dessert back to the Canadian culinary spotlight.
