When it comes to Thanksgiving, every family has its own food traditions.
Many will dish up customary staples including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole (topped with the obligatory mini marshmallows) and creamed corn. Dessert may feature pumpkin, apple and, perhaps, pecan pie.
While our family feasts on all those goodies, there’s one more dessert that’s been a fixture at our Thanksgiving table for as long as I can remember.
Since starting my position as food and family editor for Lancaster Farming, I’ve received thousands of recipes from readers. Those recipes were submitted for our Weekly Recipe theme, Cook’s Question Corner and, of course, the ever-popular June Dairy Month.
Of those countless recipes I’ve received, I am a bit surprised to have never received this one — despite my family having lived in Lancaster County for many generations.
It’s called Graham Cracker Fluff.
While the name may seem a bit perplexing, the recipe couldn’t be simpler. Here’s it is:
Graham Cracker Fluff
- Two sleeves graham crackers
- One (48-ounce) jar apple sauce
- One tub (16 ounces) whipped topping
Crush graham crackers in a large plastic bag with rolling pin. In a clear bowl, layer in this order, half of the apple sauce, half crushed graham crackers, and half whipped topping. Repeat. Serves about 10.
While the ingredients are spartan and humble, when the spoon captures all three layers, the taste is astonishingly similar to apple pie.
When I was a child and my mom’s mom (Granny) was making this for Thanksgiving, my cousins and I would bypass the pies that were worked on all morning and head straight for the dessert that took less than 5 minutes to make.
Of course, like most families, there are a few rules needed to maintain tradition. I’ll let mom take it from here:
“Do not use already crushed graham crackers, and the applesauce should be plain — not chunky or with cinnamon. I serve in sherbet cups and add red and green sprinkles for Christmas.”
If you choose to make this for your Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, permission granted to modify to suit your family’s tastes. (Personally, I feel the addition of cinnamon would crank up the apple-pie-o-meter a few more notches.)
Over the past few years, the turkey torch has been passed to me to host Thanksgiving — a rite of passage I take very seriously.
I have already preordered my turkey from a nearby farm and plan to roast it in the traditional fashion (no deep frying or smoking in this house).
My sides will include mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (my husband’s favorite), stuffing and some other veggie TBD.
I make my own gravy, but always purchase cranberry sauce from a local meat market that has a delicious tangy/sweet version I don’t think I could ever replicate.
I am a pretty good cook, but not a baker (much to my sweet-toothed husband’s chagrin), so the pie will most likely be store bought.
However, there is one dessert that will be brought by a guest. And it will be sure to — once again — bring back a cornucopia of Thanksgiving memories.
After all, no one makes it like mom.
Have you ever made this recipe? If so, let us know! You can write Kelly Thomas at Lancaster Farming, P.O. Box 609, Ephrata, PA 17522 or email kthomas@lancasterfarming.com.
