Christmas
1676 recipes found
Lasagna With Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Carrots
A crowd-pleasing dish with endless varieties. If you are ever in doubt about what sort of casserole to make ahead for a crowd, make lasagna. There are so many versions that will please children and grown-ups, lacto-vegetarians and meat eaters. I like to tuck roasted vegetables into the layers of pasta, marinara sauce, Parmesan and ricotta. In this rendition I used brussels sprouts and carrots; the sprouts are slightly bitter and the carrots sweet. I sliced the brussels sprouts about the same width as the carrots and roasted the two together. Before you begin to assemble your lasagna it helps to be organized about the quantities of each element that you will need for the layers. It is very frustrating to get to the last layer of your casserole and not have enough sauce for the top.
Lasagna With Spinach and Wild Mushrooms
Mushrooms enrich this classic spinach lasagna, a family favorite and a great do ahead dish. I like juicy wild mushrooms like maitakes or oyster mushrooms for this. I also prefer bunch spinach to the baby variety, because baby spinach can be a bit stringy when you cook it (however you will be chopping it and blending it into the ricotta here so perhaps that isn’t such an issue). Before you begin to assemble your lasagna it helps to be organized about the quantities of each element that you will need for the layers. It is very frustrating to get to the last layer of your casserole and not have enough sauce for the top.
Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole
This hearty mix of wild rice, creamy white beans and aromatic vegetables (spinach, leeks, fennel and mushrooms) makes a satisfying meatless main course or a very substantial side dish for Thanksgiving — and beyond. If you want to go all out, use some exotic mushrooms such as chanterelles, maitake (hen of the woods) or black trumpet, but a basic combination of cremini and shiitake mushrooms also works perfectly.
Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake
This vegan “cheesecake,” which is adapted from “Vegan Pie in the Sky” by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, may not fool everyone at the table, but it will definitely satisfy them. Silken tofu, cashews and banana make it extra creamy, while lemon juice and orange zest provide the tang you’d normally get from cream cheese. (Be sure to soak the cashews long enough; you want them to completely disappear into the batter upon blending.) This dessert can be made in a pie dish or a springform pan, but if you make it in a pie dish, keep an eye on the crust as it bakes; tent the cheesecake with foil if the edges are getting too brown.
Vegan Apple Pie
Dawn Lerman, a New York-based nutrition consultant and Well blog columnist, brought this recipe to The Times in the fall of 2015. It's a delicious sugar-free alternative to the traditional apple pie, and it's a cinch to put together.
Parisian Cookie Cake
A cross between an American chocolate chip cookie and a French shortbread, this treat was inspired by one created by François Perret, the pastry chef of the Ritz hotel in Paris and its patisserie, Le Comptoir. Chewy and crunchy, this cookie as big as a cake is as much fun to eat as it is to make. The base is sweet, tender and caramel-flavored from turbinado sugar. You also catch a bit of nuttiness: That’s the almond butter that’s mixed into it. It’s delicious and intentionally plain because all the excitement is on the top of the cookie, which is paved with chopped almonds and chunks of chocolate, dabbed with caramel and sprinkled with fleur de sel.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bundt Cake
This cake version of a peanut butter cup boasts moist devil’s food cake wrapped around a soft, peanut buttery cake core. The peanut butter cake batter will stay nicely centered if you enlist the help of a resealable plastic bag or pastry bag to pipe it into a ring in the middle of the batter, but you don’t need to be so exacting. If that feels too fancy, spooning it in will yield equally delicious results. The cake is nicely sweet on its own, but take it over the top by adding peanut butter and chocolate glazes. Keep the glazes thin so that they’re fluid enough not only to evenly coat the surface and run own the sides of the cake, but also so they combine and marble together to make Instagram-worthy swirls.
Spiced Amaretti
Mulled Cider With Cardamom, Black Pepper and Ginger
Traditional mulled cider is cozy and fragrant, but sometimes tastes a little too much like potpourri. In this version, toasted cardamom, allspice berries and black peppercorns provide sophisticated spiciness, while fresh ginger and citrus add fresh zing. It’s a subtle but noticeable makeover, resulting in cider that’s tangy and aromatic with a savory edge. If you want to spike it, don’t pour the whiskey into the pot with the cider; the alcohol will burn off over the course of an hour or so. Instead, let guests add whiskey to their own mugs. If you've got a slow-cooker, this recipe is for you.
Natalie Haughton's Chocolate Almond Crunch Cookies
A Spice Cookie to Share
The only thing better than a plate of cookies is one big cookie meant to be shared by everyone around the table. It’s the kind of dessert that will encourage your friends and family to linger at the table and to keep the conversation going. It’s a brown-sugar cookie redolent of ginger, honey, cinnamon and clove that carries the scent of the season and tacks between crisp and slightly chewy, between gingersnap and gingerbread. That it has ground coffee in it marks it as a sweet for grown-ups. It’s a roll-out cookie, but not a fussy one – any shape works and ragged is better than perfect. I usually sprinkle the cookie with sanding sugar, but you can drizzle it with melted chocolate or frost it, if you’d like. For extra fun, put out chocolate or caramel sauce (or both) and invite everyone to dip.
Mulling-Spice Cake With Cream-Cheese Frosting
The spices in this cake from “Live Life Deliciously” by Tara Bench (Shadow Mountain, 2020) are, indeed, those you’d use if you were mulling cider or wine. They’re the flavors of fall and winter, and especially of the holidays; that their aromas linger in the kitchen is a bonus. They’re warm and hearty enough to hold their own when blended with the cake’s apple cider and molasses (use an unsulfured brand, such as Grandma’s). The batter is very thin, but it bakes up sturdy, easy to cut and ready to be generously filled and covered with cream cheese frosting. The cake is lovely on its own, but it welcomes extras. Ms. Bench decorates hers with almond and candy Christmas trees, but a little crystallized ginger or chocolate is nice too.
Gluten-Free Hazelnut Cheesecake With Salted Caramel Glaze
Pasteles
Most of the components for pasteles, a traditional Puerto Rican holiday dish, can be made a day or two in advance, then brought to room temperature for assembly. You can prepare the masa ahead, and freeze it for up to several months. Pasteles can also be cooked right away, refrigerated for a few days or frozen in zip-top containers for several months. Some use only green bananas or green plantains – which are unripe, firm and very green – for the masa; some add potatoes or pumpkin; some add yuca, also known as cassava, and others use only yuca. If you can’t find one or more ingredients, use what you can find. Lucy Ramirez adds pork gravy to the masa (other cooks may add milk or oil) and makes sure there’s a little pork in every bite of the pastel. Traditionally, pasteles were fully wrapped in banana or plantain leaves before being wrapped in parchment paper or foil. Today, many cooks use a piece or strip of banana leaf to give each pastel the nutty flavor of the leaf. Serve them with a side of hot sauce or ketchup. Click here to learn how to assemble the pasteles.
Clementine Cake
This dessert, loosely based on a Sephardic orange cake, uses whole clementines, peels and all, for a flavor rich in citrus. The cooking time may seem long, but much of it doesn’t require much attention from the baker. And the first step, reducing the fruit, may be done ahead of time.
Ginger-Apple Upside-Down Cake
Cranberry Sauce With Pinot Noir
Some of the best wine on the planet comes from Oregon, and with this recipe Jenn Louis, the chef behind Lincoln Restaurant and Sunshine Tavern in Portland, has found a way to weave it into the Thanksgiving feast: as a boon companion to cranberries. “Many deep red wines, or port, can overwhelm the punchy berry,” said Ms. Louis. “Instead, Oregon pinot noir keeps the cranberry sauce bright and clean.” The recipe here doesn’t hold back; it is shot through with allspice, cloves, peppercorns, rosemary, cinnamon, vanilla and honey, in a mix that calls to mind the rusticity and abundance of the Pacific Northwest.
Marilyn Monroe’s Stuffing
In the 1950s, a Hollywood star was not expected to squander her talents (or risk her manicure) chopping onions. But this recipe, scrawled by Marilyn Monroe on letterhead from an insurance company, suggested that she not only cooked, but cooked confidently and with flair. It bears the mark of the Bay Area and influences of Italian cooking, possibly picked up from her marriage to Joe DiMaggio at San Francisco City Hall in 1954. It is also a fussy, complicated affair -- but do not let that stop you. The result (almost 20 cups' worth!) is handsome, balanced and delicious.
Cold Candied Oranges
Slowly poaching fresh, firm seedless oranges in a light sugar syrup is a simple yet magical kind of alchemy. You still end up with oranges, yes, but now they are glistening jewels — cooked but juicy, candied but fresh, bitter but sweet — that make an uncommonly elegant and refreshing dessert after a heavy winter meal. These cold candied oranges keep up to a month in the refrigerator, and any that are left over can be delicious with thick yogurt in the morning, or beside a cup of mint tea in the afternoon. But in every case, they are most bracing and most delicious when super cold.
Pulled Turkey With Jus
This stripped-down, built-for-flavor recipe, adapted from “Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling” by Meathead Goldwyn, is for people who don’t brine, forgot to brine or didn’t leave enough time to salt a bird and leave it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. It keeps the white meat moist and boosts its flavor with a rich, simple jus of stock fortified with soy sauce and deglazed pan drippings. The idea comes from Southern barbecue pit masters who shred or chop the meat from a pork shoulder and wet it with vinegar, black pepper and maybe a little tomato. The turkey is roasted slowly to keep the meat fibers from seizing up, and the breast meat is shredded or sliced so thin it falls apart. The meat is then dunked in the jus and served in a dish deep enough to hold both meat and liquid. The thigh meat and legs can be served alongside on a separate platter. The next day, the jus-soaked meat and a little cup of extra jus make for a perfect turkey French dip.
Savoy Cabbage With Cider, Bacon And Carrots
Butterflied Leg of Lamb With Lemon Salsa Verde
One of the joys of a butterflied leg of lamb is that it satisfies lovers of rare and medium-well meat at the same time. This is because of its uneven thickness. When you spread the meat out and roast or grill it at high heat, the thicker parts stay pinker than the thinner bits. Everyone ends up happy. Here, the meat is seasoned with cumin, lemon, chiles and plenty of fresh herbs, and is served with a mixed-herb salsa verde perked up with preserved lemon. It makes a particularly zesty main course for any large gathering. If you would rather grill the lamb, go right ahead. It will take about 12 to 17 minutes per side when grilled directly over the coals or flames.
Pear Upside-Down Cake
Whole Roast Suckling Pig
A whole roast suckling pig is quite special. No other feast food of the holiday season cooks so easily, and presents so majestically. With its mahogany, crisp skin and its sticky-tender meat, people thrill to be at the party where this is on the buffet. Measure your oven, and be firm with your butcher about the pig’s size, so you can be sure it will fit — most home ovens can easily accommodate a 20-pounder. Then, just give the pig the time it needs in a low and slow oven for its meat to reach its signature tender, succulent perfection, while you clean the house or do whatever it is you do before a special party. For the last 30 minutes, ramp the heat of the oven all the way up to get that insanely delicious crackling skin.