Christmas
1676 recipes found
Everything-Spice Phyllo Crackers
Here’s a cracker that bakes up flaky and buttery, no matter how much of a baker you may or may not be. There's no need for a whisk, mixing bowl or even flour: Just layer phyllo sheets with butter, top with everything-bagel seasoning (or other spices, or grated cheese), and slice them into squares or triangles of any size. Each cracker promises a joyful, shattering mess; a companion to wine, beer or something stronger; and the pleasure of knowing it was so easy to make. Each batch yields a bounty of crackers, but this recipe is also easy to scale.
Ombré Gratin
This stunning vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish belongs at the center of any table. Beneath a crispy, wispy golden crust of store-bought phyllo lies a gratin with layers of creamy autumnal vegetables in a colorful ombré pattern. Slice the vegetables very thinly using a mandoline for safety and ease (see Tip), and they’ll bake up tender and creamy. Because each vegetable has varying densities and sugar levels, they benefit from individual attention: Salt each layer zealously, as the vegetables need a significant amount to offset their natural sweetness, and they really soak up the sauce. The sweet potatoes and squash may be sliced before you start cooking, but the potatoes should be done later, to prevent them from oxidizing, and the beets, to prevent them from falling apart. This creamy root vegetable gratin is exacting, and requires some effort, but its wow factor justifies the labor.
Creamy Double-Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Roasted garlic is the secret to these deeply flavored mashed potatoes with a lively crunch from garlic chips. This dish takes a little more planning and prep than your average mashed potatoes, but it is well worth the effort. You can roast and fry the garlic and peel the potatoes ahead of time, storing the prepared potatoes submerged in water in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours before cooking. Feel free to use either red or russet potatoes here: Red potatoes will make a thick and creamy mash, while russets will yield a lighter and fluffier result (see Tip). If you run short on time, trim the garlic chips from your to-do list. Canned fried onions from your local supermarket, or fried shallots or fried garlic flakes from most Asian markets provide the same jolt of texture on top.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Honey, Almonds and Chile
Tossing sprouts with a simple honeyed vinaigrette brings out their natural sweetness, while roasting them helps develop their deep savory notes. To avoid soggy steamed sprouts, heat your sheet pan in the oven. When you add the sprouts to the hot pan, you’ll know by the accompanying sizzle that they’re on track. For a sunny jolt, top the charred sprouts with a drizzle of honey, sliced chiles tempered with a splash of vinegar, smoky almonds and fresh orange zest and juice.
Hashed Brussels Sprouts With Lemon
A shower of lemon zest and black mustard seeds on a fast sauté of hashed brussels sprouts makes a traditional side dish with unexpected, bright flavors. Slice the sprouts a day or so before (a food processor makes it easy) and refrigerate until it's time to prepare them.
Fluffy Mashed Potatoes
For the silkiest fluffy mashed potatoes, start with firm, cool Russet Burbank spuds, also known as baking potatoes. They’re the easiest to mash without becoming pasty and are even tastier steamed instead of boiled. Boiling potatoes can leave them waterlogged, diluting their earthy subtle sweetness, but steaming them preserves their inherent flavor. As the potatoes soften, they absorb just the right amount of moisture. Seasoning the dish only at the very end heightens their intrinsic subtle sweetness. If you have a ricer, use it for an exceptionally smooth texture: Press the steamed potatoes through the ricer back into the pot, then gently fold in the butter and milk with a wooden spoon or flexible spatula.
Cheesy Hasselback Potato Gratin
This golden and glorious mash-up of potato gratin and Hasselback potatoes, from the acclaimed food science writer J. Kenji López-Alt, has been engineered to give you both creamy potato and singed edge in each bite. The principal innovation here is placing the sliced potatoes in the casserole dish vertically, on their edges, rather than laying them flat as in a standard gratin, in order to get those crisp ridges on top. Allow extra time for the task of slicing the potatoes, for which it's helpful to have a mandoline or food processor (though not necessary, strictly speaking). And do buy extra potatoes, just in case; you want to pack the potatoes tightly and keep them standing up straight.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Cinnamon-Butter Yogurt and Chestnuts
This festive side would make a wonderful addition to your Thanksgiving table, but would be equally great with a Sunday roast, alongside a whole, roasted chicken or some baked pumpkin. Get ahead by making (and refrigerating) the chestnut topping and garlic yogurt the day before, then bringing them back up to room temperature while the brussels sprouts roast. Be sure to leave the preparation of your browned butter to just before serving, though, as it will solidify as it sits.
Giant Yorkshire Pudding
Classic Yorkshire pudding is the combination of a few humble ingredients—eggs, milk and flour—bolstered by the savory drippings from a large beef roast. The recipe is simple, and relies upon just a few ingredients whisked together in a bowl then baked at a high temperature to achieve puffy, golden-brown perfection. (Yorkshire pudding also happens to serve as a perfect accompaniment to said roast.) If you don’t have roast drippings, or run short on them, or are serving vegetarians, the recipe can also be prepared using butter instead.
Crispy Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Shallots
Slivered brussels sprouts and shallots caramelize, getting crisp and golden if you roast them at high heat. A dash of Worcestershire and a drizzle of lemon juice add just enough tang and acidity to round them out, without obscuring their natural sweetness. If you’re not cooking for a crowd, feel free to halve the recipe and use one baking sheet. Serve these as a simple side dish to roast meats or fish, or use it to top a grain bowl, adding a fried or jammy egg for protein.
Bad Day at Work
High-quality gin, clementine orange juice and a generous splash of seltzer make this cocktail just the thing after a stressful day at the office.
Classic Philadelphia Fish House Punch
Rum and Cognac mix with a muddled sugar and lemon mixture, known as oleo-saccharum, and peach brandy in this classic punch, which dates back to the early 18th century. If you can’t find peach brandy (a dry, high-proof brandy distilled from peaches, not the saccharine peach-flavored liqueur) swap in a fruit eau de vie, such as apricot, plum, apple or pear. While this recipe is written to be served cold, it can also be served warm: Skip the ice block and gently warm the punch in a large saucepan or Dutch oven before ladling into small, heatproof mugs or tea cups. Hot or cold, finish each serving with a dusting of freshly grated nutmeg.
Hot Rum Punch
Nothing warms a cold body up like a quaff of hot rum punch. This version, spiked with cognac and infused with citrus and nutmeg, is exactly what you want to serve at a party once the temperature drops outside. If you’re feeling flamboyant, you can flambé it, to the great amusement of your guests. Just make sure to use a fireproof bowl; silver or another metal is ideal, wood or even tempered glass is not. But even if you don’t set it on fire, it’s a rich, soothing and powerful libation. Serve it in small cups for the most civilized gathering.
Nonalcoholic Smoky Citrus Punch
Historically, punch is an alcoholic drink, made with a spirit, sugar, citrus and spice, but this variation drops the spirit and doubles down on its other central components. Opting for smoky Lapsang souchong adds distinctive depth and character to the punch, though another black tea, such as Earl Grey or Darjeeling or a more robust green tea, can also be used. Likewise, the oranges in the lemon-orange oleo-saccharum (a muddled sugar and citrus mixture) can be swapped out for seasonal citrus, such as satsuma, mandarin or blood oranges. Bear in mind you need to start this punch the day before serving: While some of the tea is brewed hot before being added to the lemon-orange oleo-saccharum, cold-brewing the remainder of the tea ensures that the final punch is deeply flavored, smooth drinking and more nuanced than astringent. A mix of tonic and soda water to finish imbues the punch with a bubbly, quinine bitterness and helps to balance the tannins of the tea.
Large-Batch Rye Manhattan Cocktails
According to the cocktail historian David Wondrich, from whom this recipe is adapted, this is the manhattan as it was made from the 1890s until the 1960s, and again since the 2000s. The optional absinthe, which amounts to no more than a dash per drink, is a late-19th century addition that gives the drink a little herbal pizzazz; do not use more than suggested. This keeps for weeks at room temperature.
Grapefruit-tini
Top-shelf vodka and fresh grapefruit juice topped with prosecco: a refreshing holiday cocktail.
Bitter Coffee
Maksym Pazuniak, who has tended bar at Cure in New Orleans and The Counting Room in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is a devotee of challenging tastes. Bitter Coffee, a hot, creamy concoction suited to the winter holidays, takes as its base Cynar, the bittersweet Italian liqueur that incorporates flavors of artichoke and rhubarb, among others. A few minutes of easy whisking over a stove yields a full-flavored mugful in which the maple-vanilla roundness of the drink are snapped to attention by the edgy amaro and steaming coffee.
Mulled Cider
This is a recipe for a hot beverage we enjoy on cold winter evenings. When curled up with a good book in front of a blazing fire, nothing tastes better than cider. Preferably, it is made with cloudy, unfiltered sweet cider, the fresh juice of pressed apples, which I combine with cloves, allspice berries and cinnamon sticks. After being steeped together like tea, the cloves and allspice come to the top and can be removed before serving, and the stick of cinnamon, which sinks to the bottom, can be served with the liquid. Add bourbon or rum if you wish.
Hot Chocolate Mix
Fancy hot chocolate mixes can be wildly expensive, but they’re extremely easy to make at home. This one uses a mix of bittersweet and milk chocolate to give it a deeply complex flavor. (For a vegan version, you can substitute vegan milk chocolate.) This makes an excellent winter gift, packaged in festive jars or tins and will keep for at least six months stored at room temperature. Feel free to double or triple the recipe as needed.
Tom and Jerry
This drink has nothing to do with the cartoon cat and mouse, or Jerry Thomas, the celebrated New York barman of the 1800s, who often boasted of inventing it. It is a rich holiday elixir, a relative of eggnog that flourished in America in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and is frequently (though not definitively) credited to Pierce Egan, the English chronicler of sports and popular culture. Robert Simonson brought this version of the drink, which is especially popular in Wisconsin and is bordering states, to The Times in 2012. It is adapted from Audrey Saunders, the owner of the Manhattan cocktail bar Pegu Club. She decreased the sugar and added Angostura bitters and vanilla. “It makes a huge difference,” she said. It’s best on snowy days, when it can warm and comfort from within.
Spicy Hot Chocolate
Gently seasoned with a touch of chile powder, cinnamon and vanilla, this fragrant hot chocolate recipe is not too sweet and very complex. Using both cocoa powder and chocolate gives the roundest, deepest chocolate flavor while a mix of whole milk and cream makes it wonderfully rich and thick.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Mesoamerican women are believed to be the first to ferment and roast cacao beans, a crucial step in chocolate making that is still used thousands of years later. Then, it was prepared as a frothy, unsweetened drink for rituals and medicinal purposes. Later, Spanish colonists brought the ingredient back to Spain, where sugar, cinnamon and vanilla were added, making it more similar to the spicy-sweet beverage we know today. This recipe is adapted from Churrería El Moro, a restaurant in Mexico City known for churros and hot chocolate. To get the signature foamy top, use a molinillo, a Mexican wooden whisk, or a wire whisk to make it light and frothy. And while it’s not traditional, you can also put the hot chocolate in a blender for about 2 minutes.
Port Toddy
A port toddy is one of winter’s unsung delights. Replacing whiskey with port in a toddy leads to something surprising and special. Somehow, it feels more curative than one with harder spirits: it’s like the alcohol-fortified equivalent of a bowl of homemade chicken soup. This requires a ruby port, which is the cheapest and most easily found. (The New York Times)
Creamy Vegan Hot Chocolate
For a vegan hot chocolate that rivals even the creamiest dairy-laden variety, add a few tablespoons of nut butter like almond, sunflower or peanut to the nondairy milk, chocolate chips and cocoa powder. Whisking is also essential here; nondairy products tend to contain stabilizers that keep them emulsified, so they can separate when boiled. If you keep whisking the mix as it heats and remove it from the stove when it’s nice and steaming, but before it boils, you’ll end up with perfectly smooth hot chocolate. Don’t worry if it breaks: You can simply blend it with a whisk or immersion blender over low heat to bring it back together.