Rochester Junior League Cookbook Applehood and Motherpie

Sharing is caring!

I love old cookbooks, especially community cookbooks. I have a collection of old church cookbooks, each recipe is neatly typewritten, quite the feat when I consider the amount of times I use the backspace key. I also have cookbooks compiled by schools, such as nursery and private schools, those are fun because they often feature artwork from kids.  A few general vintage cookbooks round out my collection, just because they can be fun to read. But my favorite by a landslide is the Rochester Junior League Cookbook Applehood and Motherpie

Ask any cookbook collector and they will tell you no cookbook collection is complete without some Junior League cookbooks.  Junior League cookbooks are considered the golden standard of community cookbooks. Created by Junior League chapters all over the country the cookbooks are used to raise money for churches, schools and other various nonprofit community programs, that feature tried and true recipes with a focus on local tastes and trends.

If you walk into any bookstore you will find a ton of newer cookbooks all with highly styled gorgeous photos.  Applehood & Pie’s focus was always on the job at hand:  providing you with a book full of amazing recipes with local ties. There are no full-page glossy photos, but the recipes enough. I find myself reaching for this book again and again.

Rochester Junior League Cookbook Applehood and Motherpie

Junior League cookbooks become beloved in the communities they were created. I grew up in Wayne County which lies within the Rochester area, and is also the biggest apple producing county in the state of New York,  Applehood and Motherpie was almost required reading. The appeal was twofold for us, many of the recipes feature apples, and it was put together by our neighbors down the road, or New York State Route 104 to be exact.

Almost all my friends mother’s kitchens had a copy of the Applehood and Motherpie. Usually the book was proudly displayed on a shelf, easy to spot sporting an  apple– green vinyl cover that bends partway so that the book cover can also serve as book stand, which by the way is truly a genius idea. The book was first published in 1981, but is still in print, and you can get the vinyl stand book cover version directly from the Junior League of Rochester, and I even have a $5 off coupon code for you! Just use the coupon code HomeinFLX .

Want to take a peek into Applehood and Motherpie? These are a few of my favorite recpies:

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

18 Comments

  1. I’ve misplaced my copy of Applehood & Motherpie and my daughter is searching for her favorite recipe, a baked chocolate pudding with coffee on top… Can anybody help?

  2. I lived in Rochester when Applehood and Motherpie came out in 1981. The book itself, with that “fold back” cover, was a brilliant addition to my cookbook collection; so clever and easy to use! My kids were toddlers back then, and our favorite project was making the fat pretzels found on page 78. I made them again, today, and they are still fabulous!

  3. Hello!
    I am in search of the Deluxe Carrot Cake Recipe from the Junior League Cookbook. Can you help me with this.
    My cookbook is at our home in Roanoke Virginia and due to the Pandemic, we are remaining in this area until the end of the year.
    If you can help me with this, awesome!

  4. I’m planning to bake Apple Bread from Applewood & Motherpie: Handpicked Recipes from Upstate New York on Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. I plan to serve it for breakfast Thanksgiving morning and to give half of it to our neighbors for their breakfast.

    Does anyone know if the baking instructions, which are,”Preheat over to 325 degrees and bake until set, 55-60 minutes” for a convection oven or a conventional oven, the kind our Moms used.

    Thank you for your help and Happy Thanksgiving. Carole

    1. Hi Carole,
      I have actually made this recipe!
      My oven has an optional convection oven setting, but I did not turn it on for this recipe and the 325 F for an hour was pretty spot on. If you would like to use your convection oven I would recommend either by lowering the oven’s temperature by about 25 degrees, or shortening the cooking time by about a quarter (That is what my oven manual calls for when using convection, and seems to be the standard recipe adjustment)
      Happy Thanksgiving!

  5. Good to know I’m not the only one who adores these cookbooks! I have a few Junior League cookbooks, but they are all southern. I’ll have to look for this one on Amazon! My favorite is from the Junior League in Austin, Texas, “The Collection a Cookbook” published in 1976. The recipe for Italian Cream Cake is amazing!

    1. I am going to have to keep an eye out for that one! There is an Italian Cream Cake in Applehood and Motherpie too, I have never tried it, but now I want to!

  6. I inherited my mother-in-law’s copy but haven’t made any recipes from it yet; I’m looking forward to see which recipes you try. One of my favorite cookbooks is from the First Presbyterian Church of East Rochester.

    1. The Seafood Casserole is delish and definitely one of our favorites! I will have to keep an eye out for the East Rochester Cookbook, I like to stalk the book section of Goodwill and have found some good ones there 🙂

    2. @Teresa Young, my 2 favorite recipes are the Mushroom Croustades and the Forest Hills Zucchini Soup.
      Both are always a big hit.