Christmas
1676 recipes found
Thumbprints With Dulce de Leche, Nutella or Jam
Thumbprints are the simplest of cookies, but these are packed with flavor from freshly toasted nuts, each paired with its own filling: pecans with dulce de leche (or homemade caramel sauce, if you have some on hand), hazelnuts with Nutella, or pistachios with a festive pool of red currant jelly in the center. Choose a single combination, or make a batch of each. These cookies benefit from forming the thumbprint halfway through baking, but if you can't take the heat, let the dough soften a bit and then press the thumbprints into the dough before baking.
Cuban Buñuelos With Anise Syrup
For many Cubans, the Christmas season means that frying buñuelos for dessert is almost as important as serving roast pork for dinner. Buñuelos have roots in Spain, particularly a Spain once under Muslim rule, but the Cuban version, spiced with anise and shaped into figure eights, highlights the island’s abundance of root vegetables like yuca, boniato, malanga, ñame and calabaza. They can be found in many Latino grocery stores, and they give the buñuelos a pillowy, doughnutlike texture inside and crisp up when deep-fried. This recipe is adapted from “The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors and History” by Ana Sofía Peláez.
Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies
Two things are required to get the best crinkly effect on these cookies: First, use the right ratio of leaveners (baking powder and baking soda). This causes the cookies to rise, then collapse quickly, which creates those visible cracks on the surface. Second, don’t skimp on the confectioners’ sugar! This recipe calls for two generous dustings before heading into the oven. If the cookies aren’t generously coated, they will absorb all the sugar as they bake. Cocoa powder provides the traditional red velvet flavor.
Blood Orange Poppy Seed Window Cookies
The classic linzer cookie provided inspiration for this sandwich cookie. You’ll want to roll out the dough on a silicone baking mat or sheet of parchment paper, removing the excess, rather than trying to move each cookie, which might distort its shape. The added bonus is that you can also slide them onto a baking sheet should the dough warm up too much, and chill it until it’s workable again. You can fill these window cookies with any kind of marmalade, jam or preserves — even lemon curd. If using any of the first three, warm the filling in the microwave, adding a dribble of water if very thick. Strain through a sieve to remove the solids, if you want.
Brandied Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie made with canned pumpkin is all well and good, but pumpkin pie made with fresh butternut squash purée is even better. Thin-skinned and easy to cut, butternut squash turns soft and velvety if you roast it, and a quick whirl in the food processor or a blender quickly reduces to it to a luscious purée. Here we’ve kept the seasonings on the light side to best showcase the character of the squash. But feel free to amp up the cinnamon and ginger if you like a spicier slice. The brandy is optional, and if you’d rather not use it, you can leave it out or substitute another spirit; bourbon is excellent. (Don't let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide has everything you need to know.)
Chicken Cafreal
Galinha cafreal or chicken cafreal is a classic dish that’s often included in Goan Christmas and other noteworthy celebrations, accompanied by bread or rice. This dish is widely believed to have its origins in Mozambique and was brought by the Portuguese to their former colony of Goa in India. The signature hallmark of this dish is the fragrant concoction of spices and fresh herbs that’s used as the marinade and then cooked to form a very thick “dry” sauce, in which most of the water is driven out through evaporation to form a thick, flavorful coat on the chicken. Typically, the potatoes are fried, but boiling them in water and then roasting them in the oven produces a creamier interior and crispy exterior.
Eggnog Overnight French Toast
Like a good pitcher of eggnog, this French toast is rich, sweet, boozy and covered in nutmeg. Slicing the bread but keeping the base connected not only makes this an attractive breakfast centerpiece, it also feeds family and friends with little effort since all the servings bake simultaneously. Allowing it to soak in the refrigerator overnight deepens the dish’s flavors. Don’t worry about forcing the bread pieces apart when pouring in the soaking mixture: The loaf will flower naturally as it bakes. This dish is sweet enough to eat without a final drench in maple syrup, but it’s great with a mountain of fresh, tart berries. A little homemade whipped cream wouldn’t hurt either.
Abstract Art Cookies
Some cookies feature tightly piped designs that require a master draftsman’s talents. That’s not this cookie, which looks best decorated with a looser hand. Here, sugar cookie dough is flavored with rosemary and lemon zest, baked, coated with lemony glaze, and sprinkled with crushed pistachios, freeze-dried raspberries, rose petals and pomegranate seeds. Finally, they are drizzled with a bit of pink glaze, Jackson Pollock-style. Each one looks like a little abstract painting, no special skills needed.
Mexican Buñuelos With Piloncillo Syrup
These buñuelos, which are made by deep-frying dough shaped like a disk, are typically eaten year-round as a street food in Mexico. But buñuelos are most popular around the Christmas season when many people make them on Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve. The ingredients in buñuelos vary depending on the region, but this version is adapted from Mely Martínez, a food blogger and the author of “The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes That Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico.” The dough is rolled out flat, and though it’s not called for here, can be laid on an inverted bowl covered with a pastry cloth or parchment to stretch it even thinner (similar to when women flattened the dough on their knees) to make a crispy, paper-thin buñuelo. The finished buñuelos are topped with granulated sugar and spiced syrup made with cinnamon, anise, orange zest and piloncillo, a raw form of cane sugar.
Royal Fans
Gingerbread Cookies
These traditional cookies came to The Times by way of Jennifer Steinhauer in an article about her grandmother's beloved Christmas cookie recipes. Isabelle Steinhauer would bake between “15 and 20 varieties each season: cream cheese wreaths shot from a cookie press; papery wafers carefully dipped in colored sugar; elaborate cutout cookies of nursery rhyme characters, their eyes fashioned from metallic dragées that the F.D.A. has written off as inedible; all manner of confections with nuts.” There's nothing fancy about these gingerbread cookies, but they are tender, gently spiced (feel free to add more to taste) and completely wonderful with a glass of cold milk. If you don't like using shortening, some readers have had good luck using half solid coconut oil and half softened butter instead.
Crème Brûlée Pie
This crowd-pleasing dessert imitates the velvety custard and caramelized sugar shell of a crème brûlée, with the added bonus of a flaky crust. A food processor makes easy work of the all-butter pie shell, which can be chilled, then baked, a day in advance. Unlike with traditional crème brûlée, there’s no need to simmer the cream on a stovetop or use a blow torch, ramekins or water bath to pull this dessert together. The filling is simply blended together, baked in the pie shell, then chilled. Broil the pie just before serving to achieve that characteristic crackle on top; like a typical crème brûlée, the filling will be delicate, loose and delightfully wobbly.
Graham Cracker Crust
Everyone loves pie, but not everyone loves the sometimes-finicky task of making a traditional rolled-out pie crust. For them, there is this press-in crust made with just graham cracker crumbs, sugar, salt and butter. It works best with fillings that don't require the structure and heft of traditional pie dough, like this Key lime pie or this ube pie.
Cheesy Breakfast Egg and Polenta Casserole
If you’ve had the pleasure of a cheesy polenta dinner, topped with a creamy-yolked egg, you can imagine how good that combination is at breakfast. This quick casserole for a crowd is exactly that, made elegant and easy so you can have a perfectly cooked portion for each person with very little work. Layer your polenta with anything you desire, whether salami or ham — or keep it vegetable-centric with spinach or oven-roasted tomatoes. Make nests between your toppings and the polenta where the eggs will cook slowly, giving you a soft-cooked finish that’s loaded with flavor.
Gingery Brownie Crinkle Cookies
These chocolate cookies are irresistible warm from the oven, when the chips or chunks inside are still luxuriously liquidy. They then cool to a fudgy, brownielike texture with a chewy edge — if any manage to stay around that long. Both fresh and candied ginger lend sophistication, but feel free to leave them out if you want a pure chocolate experience. These cookies are also ideal for late-night cravings: You can be eating them 30 minutes after you start measuring the cocoa powder.
Stamped Citrus Shortbread
Use cast-iron cookie stamps to leave imprints on this beautifully textured shortbread, which is flavored with tangy orange and lemon zests. The stamps, which are available online, are a fun way to shape and decorate cookies without much effort. (Don’t be afraid to be generous with the flour, on the cookie balls and on the stamps themselves, shaking off excess so you still get a clean imprint.) But if you don’t have stamps, you can roll and cut the dough using a simply shaped cutter, or roll the dough into a log for slice-and-bake cookies.
Clementine Confit
In the age-old French tradition of fruit confit, it takes many days and many pounds of sugar to make a whole clementine shimmer like a glass orb, preserving it for many and making it more of a conversation piece than anything you actually might want to eat. This is a decidedly fresher take that requires less sugar and time. Individual segments of the tart citrus take a long, warm oven bath in a light sugar syrup until chewy and translucent. They are a perfect topping for Ginger Chocolate Cake almost any dessert or even a bowl of yogurt, fruit and nuts.
Cheater’s Turkey Stock
If you have the time or desire (or both) to make your own turkey stock from additional parts and bones before Thanksgiving cooking gets started, feel free. The rest of us can doctor store-bought broth with the “extra” parts of the turkey.
Spice-Rubbed Braised Brisket
With its assertive coffee and spice rub, this brisket cooks long enough to become very tender. A final sear under the broiler thickens the sauce into a glaze for the top. This recipe calls for the lean first cut, also known as the flat cut, and works with the much fattier second cut, sometimes labeled the point cut or deckle. This dish is delicious the day it’s made, but tastes even better prepared ahead of time. After chilling, the meat is easier to slice and the fat a snap to remove.
Cazuela
Puerto Rican cazuela, a richly spiced crustless pie with a texture between thick custard and bread pudding, is a unique dessert with a complex history. The name means “cooking pot” in Spanish, and the key ingredients — batata (white sweet potato), pumpkin and coconut milk — and the traditional cooking process speak to the island’s African ancestry. Flavored with ginger, cloves, cinnamon and anise, this dish also includes spices brought to the Caribbean during the spice trade. Cazuela has been prepared since at least the 19th century, and today it’s largely reserved for holidays. This version is an adaptation of the classic, with sweet plantain added for flavor, and a tip for using canned ingredients. While this dessert may seem challenging at first glance, it is incredibly adaptable and can be prepared days in advance in a casserole dish, ramekins or even foil cupcake tins.
Iced Oatmeal Cookies
These extra craggy oatmeal cookies start by beating sugar with eggs, instead of mixing the typical way: creaming butter and sugar first. This method gives the cookies a crusty exterior, which eventually cracks, creating deep fissures along the surface over centers that are still gooey and chewy. With a couple of teaspoons of cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice) and vanilla for flavor, they make a wonderful and simple pantry cookie to bake over and over again. Don’t skip the final step: These cookies are visually and texturally incomplete without their classic coat of glossy white icing.
White House Apple Cake
Leafy Herb Salad
This salad is ideal for Thanksgiving or other huge, rich meals, something to nibble on between bites of sour cream potatoes and buttered stuffing. It’s more of an idea than a recipe, so feel free to riff on the greens and herbs involved. It should have about a 1:1 ratio of salad greens to herbs, and be very lemony, with plenty of salt.
Peanut Shortbread With Honeycomb
A giant crumbly peanut cookie topped with airy honeycomb and lashed with dark chocolate, this recipe is especially good if you love salty-sweet flavors, and fun to eat too, since you break off shards to serve. Honeycomb candy is one of the easiest confections to make, but, like any candy, it requires careful attention to timing and safety. It’s helpful to have a clip-on candy thermometer to tell you when the sugar is at the right temperature, and you’ll want to transfer the hot sugar mixture to a large bowl. Doing so not only ensures that there is plenty of room for the dramatic billowing that occurs when the baking soda is added, but it also slows the cooking, to avoid burning. This recipe yields quite a lot of pieces, making its perfect for packing into tins for gifts.