Christmas
1676 recipes found
Bacon Fat Gingersnaps
The former New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn is also an accomplished home baker. (Not many of us food writers are also sleek fashion plates, so her kitchen prowess is all the more impressive.) This recipe is based on Swedish ginger cookies, a Scandinavian-American tradition in her hometown, Coshocton, Ohio, but it is also the cookie equivalent of a Chanel suit: updated, modern, but ultimately a familiar take on a classic. The flavors are truly remarkable, with a robust and smoky-salty undertone that sets these apart from other gingersnaps. Make bacon for breakfast a couple of weekends in a row, strain the fat into a container, and refrigerate: you’ll soon save up enough for a double batch.
Grammy’s Spice Cookies
This recipe for spice cookies came to The Times from Claire Will of San Francisco after a callout for favorite holiday recipes. At first, it seemed rather plain Jane, but the hefty dose of ground cloves (3/4 teaspoon) was what lured me into testing it, and I have to admit I was skeptical. I was soon a believer. Of the five kinds of cookies I served to a group at a holiday party, those crisp-edged, soft-centered beauties were the first to vanish. One friend texted on his way home, “send recipe for spice cookies a.s.a.p.”
Cardamom Butter Crescents
The egg whites in the batter keep these buttery shortbread-like cookies crumbly and light (and provide a place for all those spare egg whites you accumulate during holiday baking). The cardamom flavor is pronounced, so use the freshest cardamom you can find. These are also perfect for gift-giving, since they’ll keep practically forever, or at least 3 weeks stored airtight at room temperature.
Spiced Salt
Caramel Cheddar Popcorn
There’s a sweet and salty allure to eating caramel corn and Cheddar popcorn in the same bite, but popcorn purists can keep the two flavors separate. Either way, a giant tin of homemade fancy popcorn is the gift that everyone wants and no one thinks to ask for. And it’s a lot less expensive to make yourself than it is to buy. The popcorn will last stored airtight at room temperature for up to two weeks.
Sautéed Scallops With Crushed Peppercorns
Sweet, meaty sea scallops are best in winter. Buy “dry-packed” fresh scallops — anything else has been doused in preservatives. This quick-cooking dish gets a boost from three types of peppercorns: green and black (both true pepper), and rose (not really pepper — they are the fruit of a different plant — but peppery nonetheless, and pretty, too). Crush the peppercorns in a mortar or grind very coarsely in a spice mill.
Rice Pilaf With Golden Raisins
Mexican-Style Atole
Atole, a hot, corn-based drink popular in Central America, provides warmth and comfort when the chilly weather hits. This Mexican-style version, from Veronica Ruiz, a home cook who grew up in Mexico City and immigrated to the United States in the 1990s, is made with milk, cinnamon, piloncillo (pure cane sugar) and masa harina, a finely ground corn flour also used to make tamales and tortillas. You can find strawberry, coconut, chocolate and many other flavor variations of atole, but this one is rich and satisfying, and allows the corn flavor to shine.
Spicy Dried Fruit Dessert Sauce
One of Julia Child’s holiday tips to the readers of Parade, where she wrote a recipe column from 1982 to 1985, was to “spiffy up” store-bought mincemeat with grated apple and liquor, then heat it in a saucepan to make a rich, fragrant sauce. This is a fine idea, but almost as easy is mixing up a batch of mincemeat (minus the meat) at home. The cook can control the balance of sugar, citrus and spice and also use up all the half-empty containers of dried fruit that seem to end up lurking in kitchen cabinets. This “recipe” is entirely flexible; feel free to add orange zest, walnuts, apricots or whatever you like. The sauce will be equally good on pumpkin or sweet potato pie, ice cream or baked apples.
Date and Walnut Cookies
This recipe comes from “Treasured Recipes Old and New 1975,” a community cookbook by the Schuyler-Brown Homemakers Extension in Iowa Falls. It was contributed by Wilma Miller, who credits the recipe to her great-aunt. Ms. Miller wrote that the original recipe called for two pounds of walnuts, but that she prefers it with pecans “and not that many.” That makes sense. Mixing in even a pound of nuts requires the arms of a sturdy farm wife. The recipe yields enough for an entire church supper.
Salted Cocoa-Hazelnut Cookies
These are a classic slice-and-bake cookie, ripe for improvisation. Not into hazelnuts? Pistachios, almonds, even chocolate chunks are great here. Don't worry too much about getting the perfect cylindrical log; the dough should even out most imperfections as it bakes.
Aylenish Rugelach With Orange, Walnuts and Cinnamon
Once upon a time, good Jewish housewives (known as balaboostas in Yiddish) all knew how to make pastries like strudel, rugelach and schnecken from scratch, using a cream-cheese-enriched dough supposedly stretched thin enough that you could read the newspaper through it. This was a day’s work, but with the arrival of good-quality puff pastry on the market, modern bakers can quickly (“aylenish” in Yiddish) produce this close cousin: a sweet, fragrant filling of nuts, spices and dried fruit wrapped in rich dough. Orange marmalade gives a tart undertone (and the faintest suggestion of a Christmas fruitcake), but apricot or raspberry jam are also considered classic.
Roasted Pork Tenderloin With Ginger And Golden Raisins
Marinated Cheese Rounds with Whole Spices
Goat cheese is no longer the trendy dairy avatar that it was in the 1980s, but it deserves to be rediscovered. The fresh cheese can be chalky, but in this recipe, the rounds are softened in olive oil for a week, giving them a lush, spreadable texture. Cheese and oil both absorb the taste of bay leaf, black pepper, rosemary and lemon, and the pink peppercorns add crunch, perfume and festive color.
Whole Roasted New York Strip Loin
Roast beef for a holiday dinner or festive occasion is easy and impressive. There are many cuts to consider, from the pricey tenderloin and standing rib to the more affordable rump roast. A whole strip loin, also know variously as New York strip or Kansas City strip — usually cut into steaks — also makes a great centerpiece. Served with roasted potatoes and parsnips and horseradish sauce, it is the quintessential Anglophone meal.
Winter Fennel Slaw With Candied Walnuts
Fred’s Peanut Butter Cookies
Fried Oysters With Salsa
Dutch Hot Chocolate
Rich Chocolate Cookies
This recipe for the chocolate cookies was sent to The New York Times several years ago by Mari Pfeiffer, a reader in California; it’s from the cookbook “Great Cookies,” published in 2003 by the author and teacher Carole Walter. The cookies are imbued with deep flavor from the combination of cocoa powder, unsweetened chocolate and espresso powder. Decorate them with royal icing. “Other icings — buttercream, melted white or dark chocolate or ganache — would take away from the cookie’s simple yet amazing flavor,” said Ms. Pfeiffer, who often cuts the dough into letters to spell out seasonal messages.
Honey-Roasted Peanut Thumbprints
A peanut butter and jelly sandwich in cookie form, these nostalgic treats are just as appealing to grown-ups as they are to kids. Using a combination of honey-roasted and salted peanuts gives them a sweet-salty complexity, while a shot of citrus zest adds brightness. Feel free to substitute other jam flavors for Concord grape. But don’t use jelly: It’s too thin and will melt right out of the cookies as they bake.
Coquito Ice Cream
It’s not Christmas in a Puerto Rican household without coquito, a deeply creamy coconut and rum cocktail. Coquito recipes vary widely, but most include coconut milk, coconut cream, rum and sweetened condensed milk. Some have egg yolks, some don’t. Others skip the cinnamon in favor of nutmeg. This adaptation, inspired by an ice cream sold at Torico Ice Cream in Jersey City, N.J., skips the evaporated and condensed milks, which can weigh down a batter. Instead, it gets sweetness and heft from egg yolks, coconut cream and just enough sugar. Alcohol can also make freezing ice cream tricky, so rum extract steps in here for the traditional white rum, keeping it boozy without affecting the texture.
Chocolate Ice Cream Profiteroles
Profiteroles are among the most irresistible desserts. They are essentially dolled-up cream puffs, usually drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with chopped nuts. Adding dark chocolate ice cream catapults them heavenward, to everyone’s delight. More romantic recipes, from dinner for two to chocolate for all, can be found here.
Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
Making any ice cream at home is simple once you master one very important step: knowing when to stop cooking the custard. It should be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Test it by drawing a line with your finger. The edge of that line should stay straight for a few seconds without dripping. If you are at all nervous, keep an ice bath near the stove. That way you can plunge the pot into the water and stop the cooking quickly if it comes close to curdling. The recipe includes an optional bittersweet chocolate swirl that adds a sophisticated edge to this refreshing ice cream, but purists can feel free to leave it out.