Earlier this week my reserved copy of Dylan Hollis’ cookbook, Baking Yesteryear arrived at my doorstep. Have you heard of Dylan? No! I’m surprised, especially if you are someone who spends a significant amount of time on social media.

During quarantine, Dylan started making TikTok shorts of him baking recipes from his vintage cookbook collection. The recipes ranged in dates from the 1900s to the 1980s. Thanks to his personality and delivery of his content, he went viral. In fact, I came across his stuff on Instagram then used YouTube to watch more. Since he became popular, he started posting a few, longer-form videos on YouTube that have a very different vibe than his TikToks. If you haven’t seen him yet, go and check him out. He’s quite entertaining.

Similar to most people who become popular online, he ended up releasing a cookbook featuring some of the best recipes from each decade that he cooked from. (Gotta diversify that income stream, I suppose.)

I am quite intrigued with his content and his cookbook, so this weekend I plan to bake one of the recipes from it. I haven’t decided which one yet, or even which decade. Though the cookies that are called
“Rocks” is really calling to me for some reason. What is interesting about these recipes is that they are quite different from the ones I’ve been using lately.

The recipes from the Depression don’t usually have ingredients such as butter because it was a lot harder to come by during those harsh economic times (though, one could argue that paying close to $5 a pound is similar). These recipes were also designed to use up with people had on hand, another requirement for large families trying to survive the period.

Much like fashion and hair styles have changed with each decade, so did America’s taste buds. There are some ingredients in his content that I would never dream of using such as Cool Whip or margarine. That’s why I want to do this. I want to expand my horizons and accept the fact that I don’t need the top quality ingredients every time I want to make something.

I can’t wait to share with you all what I baked!