12 Sweet Treats Boomers Grew Up Eating That Need To Make A Comeback

Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, often get a bad rap from younger generations, evidenced by the popular phrase "OK Boomer" in 2019. This struck a chord with Boomers, and delighted younger generations with the deluge of snarky commentary it produced. Moreover, it highlighted cultural divisions between Boomers and younger generations, in differences in media choices, worldviews, and even restaurant habits.

The Baby Boomer generation is characterized by optimism and idealism, spurred by postwar economic growth. Many of these values are obvious in the childhood diets of Baby Boomers, with novelty foods and decadent recipes characterizing the era. Regardless of how we feel about Boomers, we can't deny they had a knack for throwing together stunning, satisfying sweet treats.

While some of the treats they enjoyed stayed on grocery store shelves, or made it into the canon of classic American cuisine, some recipes fell out of popularity, but live on in the fond childhood memories of Boomers. We consulted classic cookbooks from approximately the 1950s to the 1970s — as well as some notable media from the time — to resurrect some popular sweet treats from Baby Boomer's childhoods that may have fallen into obscurity.

Originally a Depression-era recipe, soda cracker pie was also referred to as "Make-Do Pie," since ingredients home bakers had to use whatever was readily available during the period. As such, this vintage Southern recipe comes together incredibly easily, with just a few ingredients — and that's part of the magic. 

Crushed soda crackers, sugar, pecans, butter, and egg whites are mixed together and then added directly to a pie dish. Next, the mixture is garnished with a topping of whipped cream and fruit. In the '60s, this recipe transformed from a scarcity food into a simple, nostalgic recipe with inclusion of Cool Whip (a then-trendy Boomer staple ingredient).

We searched for "soda cracker pie" on Reddit and found only four threads posted in the past eight years about it, which is a true testament to its lack of popularity. But the simplicity of the recipe makes it a breeze to throw together and to customize, making it the perfect dessert for busy people and compact kitchens.

Originally published in Canadian cookbooks starting in the early '50s, Nanaimo bars are one of the most iconic Canadian desserts. This delicious no-bake recipe consists of a chocolate topping, a custardy middle layer, and a salty-sweet graham cracker base. Few other desserts capture the decadence and consumerism of the postwar period quite like the Nanaimo bar. 

Several expensive pre-packaged ingredients team up in this recipe: plenty of butter and sugar, store-bought graham crackers, shredded coconut, baking chocolate, and Bird's Custard Powder, an instant vanilla custard mix that became popular in the postwar period. In lieu of baking, the whole tray is refrigerated to allow each layer to set. The pre-packaged ingredients made this recipe an indulgent treat that debuted at church potlucks and holiday parties, but fell into relative obscurity outside of the town it was named for. Nowadays, even some residents of Nanaimo haven't tried the dessert, with one Redditor admitting: "I've lived here for years and I've never had one."

It's hard to imagine graham crackers and instant custard powder being luxury pantry items, and the indulgent flavors of the Nanaimo bar will still impress dinner guests just as much as they did in the '50s. That's reason enough to dust off this recipe and let your Friendsgiving guests believe you came up with the recipe all on your own.

This classic Pennsylvania Dutch shoofly pie is a gooey masterpiece of molasses, with a cinnamon-spiced crumble topping with an oddly memorable name. While its roots date back to the late 19th century, it was popularized by cookbook writers who shed light on Pennsylvania Dutch life in the 1960s — most notably Ruth Redcay and Edna Eby Heller. When baked, the pie contains the perfect cross section of crunchy, cakey, and gooey textures, and is perfect for dunking into a mug of hot coffee.

Some Redditors on r/Old_Recipes have traded recipes without knowing what an authentic shoofly pie tastes like, while a Redditor on a recipe post said: "I remember my dad talking about his mom making this, but I've never had it." The Pennsylvania Dutch are an undeniable thread in America's cultural tapestry, and resurrecting this recipe feels like a nod to the diversity of American cuisine. 

Scotcheroos are a dessert bar containing chocolate, butterscotch (from which the treat gets its playful name), puffed rice, and peanut butter. While the rice crispy treat had its day in the sun by making it to grocery store shelves under multiple brand names, its estranged cousin, Scotcheroos, never got a chance to fully shine.

The recipe for Scotcheroos first appeared on the side of Rice Krispies boxes in the '60s as a way to popularize alternative uses for the cereal. The recipe encapsulates everything trendy about '60s home cooking: highly processed ingredients like Rice Krispies, cooking spray, and corn syrup come together to create an irresistible no-bake treat.

While this recipe was a staple of potlucks and birthday parties, it eventually fell out of fashion and remained a regional delicacy in some Midwestern states. Midwesterners in the r/Old_Recipes subReddit reminisced about Scotcheroos from their childhood, with one saying, "I made these all the time when I was a tween/teen in the '70s!" As Iowa food historian Darcy Dougherty Maulsby noted for the Des Moines Register, the popularity of the Scotcheroo comes from the simplicity of its ingredients, which can be found at just about any grocery store or corner store. We hope this means we'll see the Scotcheroo at more holiday parties this year. 

This impossibly simple crustless pie recipe was popularized by Betty Crocker in the '70s. Ingredients come together and are poured directly into a pie dish. As the pie bakes, the batter forms its own bottom crust and turns into a silky custard. Coconut flakes contrast with the creamy custard and provide the perfect chew to this delicious dessert. Later in its history, the recipe evolved to include savory versions, including impossible cheeseburger pie, which involved a box of Bisquick.

With how easy the recipe is, it's easy to customize with different flavors or toppings. Southern Living recommends a variant with lemon zest, or an equally delicious-sounding version with warming spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. While crustless pies have existed in Southern cooking for years before Betty Crocker's recipe, this particular version became a hit. One commenter on an impossible pie recipe thread in the subReddit r/Baking recalled, "I used to make this for my family in the '70s all the [time] for dessert." In our increasingly hectic lives, the idea of a pie that bakes its own crust sounds like a daydream. 

The quintessentially Southern recipe of graham crackers, butterscotch and chocolate chips, chopped nuts, coconut flakes, sweetened condensed milk, and whatever else grandma has in her pantry became popular in the 1960s. Hello Dolly bars have the perfect ingredients for a satisfying snap, a tooth-achingly sweet chew, and enough elements for even the pickiest grandkid to reach for it.

The origin of Hello Dolly bar recipes are shrouded in myth, but are most likely to have been circulated in magazines and local newspapers during the late '50s and early '60s. Then, they likely became truly popular in 1965, when a magazine published the recipe in honor of the musical "Hello! Dolly," which opened on Broadway the year before.

Redditors in r/Old_Recipes remembered this recipe fondly: "I forgot all about these. My mom made these all the time when I was a kid and now I'm going to have to make a pan during the holidays!"

Hummingbird cake is hands down one of the most iconic Southern desserts of all time, but one that has been on a downward swing in popularity due to its difficult recipe. Tropical flavors team up with spices and cream in hummingbird cake: bananas and pineapples, plus vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. A deep dive by Epicurious uncovers these ingredients' true intention as a scheme devised by the Jamaica Tourism Board designed to entice Americans into visiting the island country to discover its cuisine and agricultural products.

In original recipes published in Jamaican newspapers, the cake was called "doctor bird cake" in a nod to Jamaica's national bird. When it crossed the ocean and caught on in the South like a wildfire, its name changed to "hummingbird cake," a bird that was more familiar to Americans. The plentiful flavors, the dense, rich texture of the cake, and the overall sweetness of the recipe were said to attract nectar-loving hummingbirds. 

While hummingbird cake was all the rage in the South in the late '70s, Redditors have hinted at the dessert's more recent obscurity: "I had to Google hummingbird cake. How have I been in the South for seven years now and have never heard of this?" Reviewing the recipe, the hummingbird cake is admittedly one of the more complicated recipes on this list, but the effort that goes into the cake is sure to impress dinner guests.

Icebox cake is less of a set recipe and more of a concept of a dessert. Infinite variations exist, with the ingredients only limited by one's imagination. Spurred by the miracle of efficient home refrigeration, the basic recipe for an icebox cake includes a combination of cookies, whipped cream, and time. The recipe is shockingly simple, and that's all we need to hear when we're rushing through the grocery store after a day of work. 

In essence, icebox cake is an American take on the French Charlotte and the Italian zuppa inglese, both of which were lumped together under the category of "icebox cakes" in a 1955 New York Times article. We like the idea of throwing these cakes together for casual summertime hangouts when temperatures climb too high to bother with the oven. Some Redditors had fond family memories of icebox cakes, and for some, the love for the simple recipe was passed down by loved ones. "I love making these!" wrote one Redditor. "My grandma taught me."

Featured in Betty Crocker's 1978 cookbook simply titled "Betty Crocker's Cookbook," this strangely named cookie sounds too good to be true: warming spices team up with minced dried fruit in a cookie with a satisfying snap. According to a deep dive by Bon Appétit into the history of the cookie, the first recorded recipes for hermits date back to the late 19th century.

A quick Reddit search turns up a ton of examples of home bakers sharing hermit recipes they baked for their parents or grandparents, which makes sense considering this old-school recipe is probably one of the cookie flavors your grandma grew up on. Others had fond personal experiences with the cookie, with one Redditor fondly recalling, "I had these once on a visit to the US a long time ago and I was too young to think about recipes or names. When I saw this post it was like a flash of lightning. So I made some yesterday. They taste just as I remember them from my childhood visit."

While some have fond childhood memories of hermit cookies, there are just as many people who have never had them. Another Redditor found an old family recipe for hermits scrawled in pen on an index card and shared the recipe to r/Recipes: "I found this recipe in my grandma's little recipe container. I never even heard of "Hermits" and I had to Google them." Even as the cookie wanes in popularity, the spices that are key to this recipe are much easier to come by than they were in our parents' day, which is even more reason to preserve this piece of American culinary tradition.

The Southern lane cake had a mention in Harper Lee's beloved classic novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," but this is the extent of many people's exposure to this dessert. Pecans, coconuts, raisins, and bourbon shine in this classic Alabama dessert that was named the state's official dessert in 2016. The cake is generally accepted to be a creation from local Georgia baker Emma Rylander Lane in the late 19th century. This incredibly decadent bake earned her first prize in a baking contest at a fair, after which she published the recipe in her cookbook in 1898.

Searching Reddit for users' experiences with the dessert sheds light on the lack of awareness of the cake itself. A Redditor in r/TastingHistory posted a recipe for lane cake, prefacing their experience by saying, "I only know of this from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' where it's referenced but apparently it's a historical recipe from the American South." While we may not be baking this recipe to win at a state fair, the decadence of this recipe is a prize in and of itself.

Lemon chiffon cake is just one variation of chiffon cake that was popularized by Betty Crocker in a pamphlet published in 1948, according to research conducted by America's Test Kitchen for their 2004 cookbook, "The New Best Recipe." Light, fluffy chiffon cake meets deliciously tangy lemon in this dessert. Chiffon cakes were all the rage by the early '50s, with home bakers excited by the revolutionary idea of using vegetable oil in a cake recipe, which helped the cake rise to impressive heights.

Vegetable oil also cuts out the tedious butter creaming necessary for moist bakes and consistent batter. Whipping egg whites for the batter was a challenge for this recipe that was easily overcome by the invention of electric stand mixers. It would follow that this recipe became a marker of conspicuous consumption; you could easily whip up a chiffon cake at home if you had an expensive stand mixer. 

While chiffon cake became one of the most popular recipes of the '50s, it's not often that they make an appearance at birthday parties and holidays these days. It's understandable; chiffon cakes are notoriously difficult to bake. Regardless, the formidable bake is one that deserves a revival. Creating one makes an excellent challenge for an adept home baker, with its lighter-than-air texture, and pop of citrusy flavor that wouldn't be unwelcome on today's dessert plates.

Hear us out. We know the mayonnaise might throw off even the most passionate sweets lover, but this recipe is culinary genius. Originally popularized from the scarcity caused by the Second World War, the mayonnaise replaces eggs and oil in this recipe for a dense, moist cake with a sinfully rich chocolate flavor. While the mayonnaise in this recipe came from necessity, chocolate mayonnaise cake persisted well into the abundance of the '50s and '60s in part due to the fact that mayonnaise used to dominate Boomers' kitchens. After the Second World War, the recipe was further popularized when Hellmann's printed the recipe on its mayonnaise jars.

Despite the unlikely ingredient in this bake, Redditors recalled this dessert with fondness. "My mother used to bake this cake," recalled one Redditor. "It was the only thing she ever baked that was edible."

Another Redditor used a family recipe that they recalled with fondness: "Haven't made one of those in a long time. They are so moist! Yes, the recipe my grandmother made came from the Hellmann's mayonnaise jar." While imported ingredients like ube and matcha are earning their place in pantries across the country, we think the novelty of using mayonnaise in a chocolate cake is more likely to raise eyebrows and impress dinner guests.