Why This Retro Canadian Pie Should Be Your Go-To Summer Dessert

When it comes to comfort food, Canada knows a thing or two. Whether it's poutine, which emerged from Quebec to become the country's national dish, to snacks such as maple leaf cream cookies, this country gets it right. While some Canadian treats have managed to make their way south, there's one retro dessert that's still a bit of a hidden gem that's perfect for summer. 

It's called flapper pie, and features a graham cracker crust, a cool, refreshing vanilla custard filling, and a meringue top with a crisp, airy bite that's sometimes sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs. It should be your go-to dessert for summer since it's served cold, and making it doesn't require a lot of time in the oven. The graham cracker crust doesn't have to be prebaked, the filling is made on the stovetop, and you only need to use the oven for about 10 minutes to brown the meringue.

This product of the Roaring '20s got its name from the era's flappers, jazz-loving young women with bobbed hair and rolled down stockings who defied older societal expectations. While flapper pie is today mostly associated with Canada's Prairie Provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba), where it remains popular, this pie's roots are in an American company.

Back at the turn of the century, the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) included a simple recipe for a cream pie on its graham cracker packages that, by the 1920s, had morphed into flapper pie. At that time In the U.S., the pie was fairly popular. There was a recipe for flapper pie in the Los Angeles Evening Express in 1929 that touted it as being easy enough for a "modern girl" to make. "It is pretty, it tastes good, and no matter how fluffy and frivolous looking it is, it has a very excellent foundation," the newspaper proclaimed. "Probably these are the reasons for its name."

For whatever reason, flapper pie, at least by that name, fell out of fashion in the U.S., but became a mainstay in Western Canada — perhaps because its ingredient list was short and easily available to farm families. Thankfully, you can now find recipes for flapper pie, one of the best Canadian desserts everyone should know about, pretty easily on the web. We highly recommend making your own flapper pie; it's simple, satisfying, and the perfect summer dessert.