A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook: Cookies, Candies, Cakes & More: Vintage Baking to Celebrate the Festive Season

A great down home Christmas recipe book. I shared with friends, and ordered 2 more for Christmas presents.

The recipes and images bring up nostalgia for the past. Practical and beautiful. A lot of fun recipes for the whole family.

I love all things Christmas but THIS is hands down one of my favorite Christmas Baking Cookbooks I have ever owned (and I have a ton of them)!! Not only does it evoke a nostalgic feeling from the beautiful photo styling, the recipes bring back classic Christmas memories and help create new ones with recipes I have never seen before! Don’t hesitate to purchase this! You won’t regret it!!

"A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook" by Karlynn Johnston is full of nostalgic charm on each page, including Atomic Age Christmas decorations (aluminum trees!), ornaments and period bakeware and serveware. The over 120 recipes are firmly rooted in 1950s holiday nostalgia, and you'll find a lot of recipes that use gumdrops, candied fruit, and marshmallows. You'll find multiple variations of shortbread, spritz cookies, sugar cookies and gingerbread. as well as candy (brittles, pralines, caramels, honeycomb candy), bar cookies, slices, fruitcakes and icebox cakes, molded Jello salads, fluffs, and steamed puddings.As a fan of MCM (Mid-Century Modern) and vintage cookbooks, I'd really been looking forward to this release. I love baking from vintage Betty Crocker cookie books as I grew up on chocolate-filled snowballs and candy cane cookies, so there are loads of new ideas here for this year. I've bookmarked the maple shortbread meltaways, brown butter chocolate chip cookies, gingerbread spritz, peppermint candy chocolate cookies, and chocolate-covered cherries already and plan on making several of these for our upcoming Christmas cookie exchange at work. As someone of Polish heritage, I also appreciated the inclusion of Ukrainian Christmas recipes like kutia and khrustyky (we have them too!) and would have loved to see a few more Ukrainian recipes in the mix!Overall, this is a delightful baking book for fans of 1950s nostalgia that perfectly captures the holiday spirit of decades past for modern kitchens. Happy holidays and happy baking!

What’s not to like about Christmas treats?

If you’re into vintage baking, is this ever the book for you. Everything I’ve made has been delicious and worth making a gain. Book is beautifully laid out and will be in my go to pile for years to come.

This Cookbook had all the old recipes my family used to make. Some I had forgotten about and beautifully illustrated.

Great book - sadly cover was damaged - poor packaging

For something that happens only once a year, I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about cookie boxes. The holidays are a time for wheeling out the recipes that don’t get made at any other time during the year and, I know when I hand over a box of cookies in December, the recipient better feel that Christmas spirit and an oatmeal cookie ain’t going to cut it. Luckily this year, Appetite by Random House sent me a copy of Karlynn Johnston’s (aka The Kitchen Magpie – find my review of The Prairie Table here) A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook, so I made the bold move to choose all the recipes I would make from this book.Maybe you’re wondering why I’m so taken with Johnston’s book? While flipping through the pages, I was hit with a deep sense of nostalgia – these are the recipes of my childhood. When we would pile into the family car, we would make the rounds and visit our friends and relatives during the holiday season. And, at these visits we would be offered the most plentiful trays of gorgeous cookies, candies, dainties, and treats. These are the feelings and memories I want to invoke with my holiday boxes, and I adore Johnston’s attitude too! For her, living in that beautiful prairie city of Edmonton, the winter brings a time when people slow down and keep cozy indoors. It’s also a time to enjoy “the food that we only have during the holiday season! The glorious, once-a-year baking fest where we pull out all the stops.” (1)In case you’re wondering, A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook is more than just cookies! The 120 recipes are organized into 8 chapters: 1) Shortbread and Sugar Cookies, 2) Gingerbread & Festively Filled Cookies, 3) Candies, 4) Confections, 5) Dainties, Bars & Slices, 6) Cakes, Dessert Salads & Puddings, 7) Icings, Frostings, Sauces & Garnishes, and 8) Cocktails & Punches. Over these chapters, Johnston offers everything to make your holidays warm and festive (there’s even an extra section on Ukrainian Christmas Favourites – recipes that speak to Johnston’s Ukrainian heritage). For those of you who are new to The Kitchen Magpie universe, Johnston is a prolific collector of vintage and retro, which is also beautifully showcased throughout the book.What I appreciate about these recipes is that they accomplish a lot without home bakers selling their souls to the Bulk Barn. Ingredients are used sparingly but to good advantage. And, out of the nine recipes I made, I didn’t have to source anything from the internet. No expensive “specialty” ingredients either. The other thing that I noticed about the recipes I chose is that the processes for making the treats was simple and succinct – the recipes I used weren’t stretched over multiple pages. With modern recipes, it seems like the authors expect people to bake cookies that will be eaten almost immediately, whereas Johnston tells home bakers that many of the goods can be frozen (up to 3 months in some cases). This is helpful if you can’t bake everything in one go. In my case, I took one Sunday and made 9 recipes! With previous boxes, it took me as long as 3 days to complete all the baking (doughs often needed to be chilled over night, etc). So, I am sitting here, middle of December with all my baking done and my holiday boxes delivered.I can tell you right now that it was difficult to choose what to make because everything looked so wonderful! I made sure to go with some obvious classics: the Traditional Whipped Shortbread and the Gingerbread Press Cookies. I love that the shortbread cookies are topped with glace cherries – this is something I remember from childhood. The have such a beautiful light texture – I’m thinking that Santa would appreciate having these on his cookie plate this year. Then there’s the gingerbread – I’m not sure I could enjoy this time of year without making them! While the recipe for the press cookies requires the use of a spritz cookie extruder, Johnston also gives directions in case you don’t have one. I’ve already heard back from a friend that these are “THE BEST” gingerbread cookies they’ve had.There’s something about using everyday ingredients such as saltine crackers or cornflakes and turning it into a holiday star. Just ask my neighbour – The Saltine Toffee Bark is to die for (and I’m fairly certain she didn’t share with her kids – no shade because I would keep it to myself too). Saltine crackers are layered with buttery toffee and chocolate – I garnished mine with roasted nuts, festive sprinkles, and flakey sea salt. And, if you’re looking for a great gluten free recipe to add to your repertoire, then give the Chocolate Meringue Corn Cereal Cookies a try. A whipped, vanilla-infused meringue batter is mixed with cornflakes, chocolate chips, and flaked coconut, then topped with a halved glace cherry. Once baked, this crispy cookie is a fantastic addition to any cookie platter.My daughter preferred the candy-based cookies – the Peppermint Candy Chocolate Cookies, Gumdrop Cookies, and the Chocolate-Kissed Snowball Cookies. I like the gumdrop cookies because they remind me of my best friend Kate who originally introduced these cookies to me (for those unfamiliar with gumdrops, they’re smaller-sized bits of jujubes). My daughter marvelled at the chocolate cookies topped with the peppermint kisses because she wondered how they didn’t melt in the oven (the secret is to add the kisses once the cookies are immediately out of the oven). Even plain chocolate kisses get some love when they are stuffed inside buttery cookie dough that contains finely chopped toasted hazelnuts.No cookie box or holiday treat platter could be complete without some fudge or some type of marshmallow-laced slice. I went with Peanut Butter Fudge and the Marshmallow Yule Log. Both recipes are no bake/made on the stovetop and are quick to make. I tend to shy away from fudge recipes because, like Johnston, I’ve had a few seize up on me. But with Johnston’s “foolproof” method (this recipe uses a jar of marshmallow fluff), the Peanut Butter Fudge turned out with the perfect texture. And, all it took for me to try the yule log recipe was that, unlike most versions, Johnston’s version omitted the use of raw egg yolk! As you can see from the photo, once sliced, the rainbow marshmallows give such a festive holiday effect.I am so pleased to add A Very Prairie Christmas Bakebook to my shelf because it’s one that I’m already looking forward to using again next year (and all the years after that). Johnston’s book so perfectly hits on that vintage holiday vibe while bringing all the nostalgia from the Christmases I enjoyed as a kid. Festive and celebratory, this is exactly the book I needed this holiday season.I would like to take this opportunity to thank Appetite by Random House for providing me with a free, review copy of this book. I did not receive monetary compensation for my review. I loved this book so much I purchased a copy to gift.

I recognize so many of the recipes from my childhood. Tried and true! This book will be well-used , not just for Christmas, but for any time of the year.

The photos of every recipe bring you back in time to Chrstmas past. Recipes are clearly written. It is going to be front and center with my family favorites. A must have for the Chrstmas or any treat maker! I want to reach in and pluck out the dishes and ornaments. A beautiful collection.

Beautiful book inside and out. It is loaded with recipes for many categories and a picture for each recipe which I find a plus. The vintage feel of the book makes you want to display it all season long as a decorative piece. The recipes are easy to follow and I can’t wait to bake a new recipe or two every holiday season :) .

When I purchased I didn't know much about the author. I saw that it said prairie in the title and knew I would love it. It doesn't disappoint. When my great grandparents settled from Ukraine over 100 years ago now they settled in Saskatchewan. I was so surprised to see the traditional recipes that my grand father always talked about in this book. I'm trying some of the cookie recipes today but I know they will be amazing. Definitely worth purchasing.