‘Tis the season of sugar, spice, and everything nice. To me, this means plates of cinnamon rolls and tins of cookies, swoops of frosting and trays of candies. It’s the most wonderful time of the year—holiday baking season, that is— and here are a few of my very favorite festive recipes.
You can go directly to each of these recipes by clicking on the corresponding photo.
There’s no better gift than homemade bread. Focaccia is one of the lower-maintance breads, doesn’t need a sourdough starter, and most of its rising is done while you sleep. Mix up a batch for Christmas dinners or take to a holiday party to share with friends.
Christmas morning breakfast is one of the most important meals of the holiday season. If you’re looking for a little something savory to balance out your traditional cinnamon roll sugar rush, make a batch of popovers. The batter is mixed together ahead of time so that all that’s left to do on Christmas morning is pour it into a muffin tin, bake them off, and open gifts.
What is a holiday season without a batch of cinnamon rolls? These are a citrusy dough, filled with tahini and orange cinnamon filled and topped with a browned butter cream cheese frosting you will want to eat straight from the spoon.
My rendition of the classic gingerbread cake. This cake is super moist and dense, filled with spicy fresh ginger and dark, chocolatey carob molasses. The bright yellow frosting has a little spice thanks to the addition of turmeric and everything is topped with candied ginger and toasted pecans.
If you’ve never had coquito before, today is the day. Coquito is a traditional Puerto Rican holiday drink made with thick coconut cream, a little bit of cinnamon, and of course, rum. This dessert is a classic tiramisu with a tropical twist—lady fingers soaked in coquito, a sweetened condensed milk zabaglione, and lots of toasted coconut.
What’s a holiday table without cranberries? These festive little fruits shine in this cranberry orange clafoutis. A traditional, but very simple French custard filled with orange zest is poured over sugared cranberries and baked just until set. Serve your clafoutis hot, cold, or at room temperature with a big dollop of whipped cream.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating chocolate truffles at home along with three different flavor ideas. There are recipes for chocolate pomegranate truffles, chocolate tahini truffles, and chocolate truffles with sage caramel along with a primer on homemade ganache.
This is one of my very favorite desserts—holiday or not. A creamy cheesecake, lightened up with whipped egg whites, and marbled with an espresso and kahlua layer. It’s topped with a tangy whipped sour cream that you won’t want to miss.
A spin on the classic Italian dessert, this simple, fall affogato is perfect for the holiday season. It comes together quickly, and features caramel gelato drowned in mulled apple cider and topped with whipped crème fraîche and a crunchy hazelnut streusel.
Happy Thanksgiving week to all!
I am very hot and cold when it comes to Thanksgiving celebrations. I love that Thanksgiving is essentially a holiday with celebrations that revolve completely around food. But, I tend to get fairly frustrated at the traditional fare (not surprising at all) and often feel like I’m straddling a line of trying to please everyone with all of Turkey Day classic dishes that, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t really like. On top of that, with a career in food media, I’ve already made at least three Thanksgiving feasts by the time the fourth Thursday in November actually arrives.
In case you haven’t figured it out through a glance of my recipe index, I like to buck tradition when it comes to food. This year, it’s our first Thanksgiving in Minneapolis and will just be me and the boys (Martin and Tahini) since all of our family is thousands of miles away in the regions of the country where there is still a touch of warmth. We’ll be staying in and watching movies with a big batch of bolognese simmering in the background. There will be caesar salad, garlic bread, tiramisu, and sparkling negronis and I cannot wait.
I wrote this recipe for those of you interested in spicing up your Thanksgiving table a bit. If you’re looking for a dessert closer to the classics, check out my pumpkin ricotta tart. This apple cider affogato recipe is for wow-ing your guest with a table-side dessert that takes almost no effort at all. Be a little bit fancy this year.
Affogato is an Italian dessert traditionally made by pouring hot espresso over gelato—the word affogato means “drowned” in Italian.
For this recipe, we’ll use whatever store-bought caramel gelato you like best. I really love Talenti and Dolcezza brands, but pick your favorite! Then we’ll mull some apple cider with a handful of spices just until its hot and spiced and your house smells like a holiday dream. A little whipped crème fraîche and hazelnut streusel round everything out with a little tang and a bit of crunch.
The only thing you’re baking here is the hazelnut streusel and you can make this in advance. It takes about 5 minutes to mix together the cookie dough and then you’re just going to clump it in a granola-like layer on a baking sheet and bake it until it’s golden. After the streusel has cooled, break it into chunks and transfer it a container. It will keep at room temperature for 4-5 days and you can just pop any leftovers in the freezer and keep it for sprinkling on ice cream or pies anytime.
I love the holiday season because it is a wonderful excuse to gorge on cheese and salty meats. I love it even more now that highly-styled, decorative plates filled with said meats and cheeses have become a cool, trendy thing because it gives me another excuse to play with my food. The beauty of a great charcuterie board is it’s versatility. You can use pretty much anything that you like snacking on and it’s great for any occasion- from that Christmas potluck you signed up to bring an appetizer for, to Thursday night snack-dinner. Charcuterie boards are always there for you.
I put together a holiday-esque snacking board a few weeks ago and have compiled a few tips and tricks to help you create your own.
Step 1:
Start with a board. Fancy bamboo platters are very nice and beautiful, but they can also be kind of expensive and, if your kitchen storage is anything like ours, a little tricky to find a home for. If you already have a big platter, then by all means, cheese it up. But if you don’t have a fancy platter, not to worry. You can really use any, large flat-surfaced item that you have. I used a baking stone for mine, and just trimmed a piece of parchment to lay on top of it. My board was 12”x16”.
I find that it’s also really helpful for me to pull out all of the items I’m going to put on the board before starting to arrange so that I get an idea of how much space I will need. If you’re only using 1-2 cheeses and a couple of other little snacks, you might want to use a smaller platter or a plate. For more cheese/snacks/charcuterie, use a bigger platter.
Step 2:
Place your cheeses, spread out a bit, on the board. They are your anchors and the whole board will revolve around them. I’ve read quite a few charcuterie board “recipes” that call for a soft cheese, a hard cheese, an aged cheese, and a blue cheese. This is a good rule of thumb to ensure you have a little diversity on your board, but ultimately, you should pick cheeses that you like.
For this board, I used: goat cheese, a very mild blue cheese, a salty gouda, a creamy port salut, and a smoked sheep’s milk cheese called etxegarai.
Shop local when you can, and when you can’t, there is always Trader Joe’s. Cheese boards can get expensive. Cured meats and good cheese are some of the pricier items in the store and building a whole board out of them can quickly add up. Since I unfortunately do not have a never-ending supply of cheese money, I like to get one or two meats/cheese from my local cheese shop (in Orlando, I like La Femme du Fromage at East End Market) and then bulk the rest of my board up with less-expensive cheese from the grocery store. If you have a Trader Joe’s anywhere near you, it is worth the drive! Their cheese selection is really great and really affordable.
Step 3:
After you lay out your cheeses, place small bowls or ramekins on the board for your jams, dips, mustards, and olives. I like to spread these out in empty spaces around the cheeses. Don’t fill your bowls, just yet. We will just use them as placeholders for now.
Step 4:
It’s time for the meats. I cannot exaggerate enough how much I enjoy a salty, cured, meat. I would eat slices of chorizo or salami everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I could. (In fact, on my most recent trip to Spain, I did.) I choose my meats the same way I choose my cheese- a variety of different types, splurging on one or two really great ones. When placing your meats on the board, you want to make sure that you are folding or bunching them into little, easy to grab parcels. For larger pieces of meat, like prosciutto or jamon, slice them in half before folding so that everything is bite size.
For this board, I used: prosciutto, chorizo, salami, salchichon, and Serrano jamon.
Step 5:
Fill in all empty space with cheese board accoutrements. Again, pick a variety of bite-sized, stackable foods that you like. Here are some suggestions:
Fruit- Fresh and/or dried. I am berry girl myself, but Martin likes grapes and apples so I included a little of each on this board.
Nuts- It’s nice to have a crunchy contrast to all of the soft, creamy things on the board. I used cashews and almonds, but pistachios are also great.
Jams, Jellies, and Dips- For this board, I used raspberry jam and fig butter, because I thought their flavors paired well with the port salut and the blue cheese. I also like the addition of seedy, whole grain mustards, yogurt-based dips with lots of garlic and chives, or marmalades.
Olives and other Marinated/Pickled Goodies: I don’t want a cheese board if it doesn’t have olives. I found some little, buttery green olives, but I also really love Kalamatas, or really anything swimming in oil coming off of an olive bar. Martin doesn’t like olives, so I added grilled marinated artichoke hearts so he didn’t feel left out. Pickles and other pickled vegetables give a briny, pucker-y flavor to the board.
Crackers and Bread: Not exactly a part of the board, I alway like to have a basket of bread off to the side for slathering with cheeses and jams and piling with salami. I like baguettes sliced into little rounds or squares of focaccia best. I also like to include crackers of some sort on the board, for a little extra crunch and for when the bread runs out. I prefer butter crackers without a lot of added flavors so that the cheeses can really sing, but if you’re a water cracker kind of person, go for it. If you can, it’s nice to include a gluten-free cracker for those who are sensitive to gluten, but still love a good cheese board.
We still have a week until Christmas, and two weeks until New Year’s. There is plenty of time to add a cheese board or two to your holiday plans! Swing by your local cheese monger, pick up some snacky foods and let your creative side loose. Happy boarding!
I’m Anna Ramiz. I’m a pastry chef, recipe developer, and culinary educator. Welcome to my table!
