‘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.
This weekend, we decorated our little duplex for Christmas. We went to the Christmas tree farm and picked out a barely-five-feet Frasier fir who has a bit of a side lean and we named him Felipe. Then we brought him home and my sweet, patient, loving husband spent three hours trying to construct a make-shift tree stand to tuck inside of a wicker basket in order to recreate a picture that I saw somewhere in the depths of Pinterest. It mostly worked and Felipe is now sparkling in all of his Christmas tree glory in our living room, although my basket tree stand idea doesn’t look exactly like the one from the manicured Pinterest apartment. My desired aesthetic was “minimalist festive” which is the fancy way of saying that I tried to spend as little money on decorations as physically possible so that I would have more money for all the things about Christmas that I really love— hosting dinner parties, making cheeseboards and elaborately decorated cookies, wine, and of course, new cocktails.
I love of a good holiday cocktail. I started working on this one a couple of months ago, right after Halloween when it became acceptable to start drinking holiday cocktails. It’s the perfect drink to take you all the way through the New Year. The pomegranate juice gives a tart, fruity flavor and provides that season-signature deep red color. The sage syrup and gin provide a gentle sweetness and an earthy, floral, component and the Champagne bubbles make it feel festive and party-worthy. This drink is also easy to scale up and mix ahead of time. If you’re heading out to an ugly sweater party or a Christmas Eve dinner, mix up a big batch of the pomegranate juice, sage syrup, and gin and bring a bottle of bubbly along. You can use any dry sparkling wine in place of Champagne (like Cava or Prosecco), but then you may have to change the name to a Spanish 75 or an Italian 75. :) Mix it any way you like, but I recommend enjoying this cocktail with lots of good friends, preferably under some twinkling lights.
Yield: 4 cocktails
Ingredients:
6 oz gin
3 oz pomegranate juice
1.5 oz sage syrup
8 oz dry champagne
Strips of orange zest from 1 orange
for the sage syrup:
4 oz sugar
4 oz water
3-4 sprigs of fresh sage
Procedure:
To make the sage simply syrup: combine equal parts sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add sprigs of sage and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. When sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Remove sage (strain if needed) and refrigerate.
For the cocktail: Combine gin, pomegranate juice, and sage syrup and mix well. Divide evenly between glasses. Top each glass with 2 oz champagne and 1 strip of orange zest. Add ice if desired.
I’m Anna Ramiz. I’m a pastry chef, recipe developer, and culinary educator. Welcome to my table!
