Anyone celebrating Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanzaa / Solstice / Festivus want to share recipes?

[Introversion]

I think we're going to order out for some of the meal, so I don't utterly exhaust myself. Maybe prime rib if I can find it for less cost than a kidney. Might make a lasagna, then, since The Kid doesn't like beef.

I usually make desserts. Haven't decided yet on most of that, but I think I want to make these cookies for sure. I may be the only one eating them, since I know Liz and The Kid don't really like anything like ginger cookies.

BEST Authentic Pfeffernüsse

These traditional German iced gingerbread cookies, or Pfeffernusse, will surely win you over and their flavor only gets better with age!

www.daringgourmet.com

I'll go through my cookbooks and find at least a cake to make. I have a to-die-for German chocolate cake recipe I haven't made in awhile.

 

[Silenia]

Baked apple wedges from the airfryer. ~15 minutes of work including prep, maybe 5 min of clean-up total, can be used as part of a savoury dish as easily as it can be used in a dessert, and use only a handful of ingredients.

I tend to use this (https://sandhyahariharan.co.uk/air-fryer-apples/) recipe, just adjust the stuff you add afterwards if you want to use them for a savoury dish. If you skip the cinnamon/sugar and go for nutmeg or cloves, they combine quite well with sour red fruits (cranberry, raspberry, redcurrant) and bacon on top of pork tenderloin medallions, for example.

Or for a dessert, just get shop-bought ice-cream, add some apple wedges, and if you like it some walnuts. Quick, easy, minimal clean up and no hard-to-get ingredients.

 

[CMBright]

Grandma always had ham balls and boiled shrimp. And sonbuckles*. I have yet to recreate her sonbuckles, little almond sugar cookies baked in tartlet pans, filled with what is essentially pecan pie filling.

*Cookie of Swedish origin, spelling is close approximation of pronunciation growing up. Actual spelling probably varies significantly involving dots over one or more vowels.

 

[Silenia]

*Cookie of Swedish origin, spelling is close approximation of pronunciation growing up. Actual spelling probably varies significantly involving dots over one or more vowels.

Surprisingly, no diacritics, just sandbakkels/sandbakelse.

 

[Silenia]

'nother recipe in the style "no difficult ingredients, not hard to make, fairly healthy, not a lot of clean-up":

Filled avocados.

Slice a bunch of avocados in half, keeping the skin on. Remove pits.

Scrape out avocado around the pit-hole. Up to you how much avocado you leave in there, I've done anything from "slightly widen/deepen the pit-hole" to "empty the entire skin". Just make sure the skin itself stays intact.

Dice and/or mash the avocado if you removed big chunks of it. Add a little mayonnaise, cream cheese, sour cream or yoghurt; a drizzle of oil; some lime or lemon juice; herbs/spices/salt to taste; and some diced whatever-you-like-with-avocado (smoked salmon, cooked shrimps, cucumber, tomato, chili or jalapeno peppers, etc.). Mix well.

Fill the pit-holes/skins with this mixture.

Top off with some slightly larger pieces of whatever you filled it with, and some fresh green herbs (cilantro, mint, chives or basil, depending on taste and what filling you used). Add some chilli flakes or fresh chilli if you like spicy. Sprinkle with a little additional lime or lemon juice.

Avocados tend to brown easily once exposed to oxygen, but if wrapped tightly in cling-film to reduce air exposure, they can be kept a few hours in the refrigerator without browning.

Additional bonus: easy enough to make multiple fillings to accommodate different tastes or food restrictions (well, as long as the issue isn't the avocado, at least ). Vegetarian variations are super easy; vegan variations are well-doable as long as you have a vegan substitute for mayo/cream cheese/sour cream/yoghurt.

Works well as appetizer or side dish, but also for lunch or post-dinner snack food. If you have more filling than fits back into the avocados, the leftover filling also makes for a nice spread.

 

[Introversion]

Fruitcakes are always a thing that I want to like, but never have. I mean, fruit + cake. I like both halves by themselves; the combination should be good, yeah?

I'm going to be an optimist this year and try this recipe:

Really Good Fruitcake Recipe

Let us make the case that a Southern fruitcake recipe can actually be delicious.

www.southernliving.com

I mail-ordered the dried fruits, as no way would I expect to find them all locally. I do already have the equivalent-quality of Luxardo maraschino cherries.

I think the only change I'll make is to make a lemon drizzle for the top.

 

[Introversion]

Older daughter has pledged to bring buffalo-chicken mac & cheese and smoked wings, and local cheeses, yum.

 

[benbenberi]

I love fruitcake -- the good kind, that is. None of those revolting candied red and green and yellow objects in it, please! The fruitcakes I love best tend to be more like the Jamaican black cake -- very dark, full of dried fruit and rum (though brandy works well too). I"ve got a big bowl of mixed dried fruit (raisins, prunes, figs, dates, cherries, blueberries, apricots, & possibly some other things I've forgotten) currently marinating in liquor, which will become fruitcakes sometime this week. The recipe I use is in this article: https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/14/...s-a-passage-to-india-julie-sahnis-memory.html:

Modifications: I leave out the candied citrus, and use a much smaller amount of nuts, mostly pecans. Also some years it's rum instead of brandy. This is a rum year!

DARK FRUIT CAKE

1 lb raisins
1 lb currants
1 lb chopped dates
1/2 lb candied citron
1/4 lb each candied orange & lemon peel
1 c brandy (or rum)
1/2 lb glazed pineapple, chopped
1/3 lb each chopped cashews, almonds, & walnuts
1 1/4 c dark molasses
1 tsp mace
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
2 Tbsp cocoa
3 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 lb butter, at room temperature
1 lb dark brown sugar
8 large eggs
additional brandy for soaking

1. Mix raisins, currants, dates and candied peel.

2. Cover with brandy, cover and soak over night.

3. The next day, add glazed fruit and soak another 4 hours.

4. Add the nuts. Set aside.

5. Mix the molasses, spices and cocoa in an enamel pan and simmer 15 min. Set aside.

6. Line 3 round 9x3" pans with wax paper buttered on both sides.

7. Preheat oven to 225°. Sift flour and baking powder to blend. Set aside.

8. Beat butter till fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating another 5 min., till light and fluffy.

9. Add fruit and nut mixture and molasses.

10. Beat the eggs slightly to blend and add alternately with the flour mixture.

11. Pour into the prepared pans and bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 5 hours.

12. Cool in the pan for 1/2 hour before unmolding. Once completely cooled, brush with brandy. Stored in a brandy-soaked cloth, it will keep indefinitely.

13. Decorate with nuts and glaze with warmed, strained apricot preserves the day it is served.

Makes 3 loaves

 

[Introversion]

Yum, I’ll save that recipe, thanks!

There’s some similarities with the one I posted. She suggests soaking in a combination of bourbon and brandy, but in the accompanying video she says rum can be substituted for bourbon. This recipe uses only dried and fresh fruits, no candied. Maybe next year I’ll have a fruit-cake-off.

Ingredients​

Ingredient Checklist

• 1 cup chopped dried pineapple, from 1 (5.7-oz.) container
• 1 2/3 cup chopped dried mission figs, from 1 (9-oz.) container
• 2 2/3 cup dried chopped apples, persimmons, and peaches, from 2 (3-oz.) containers, such as Rind
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/2 cup bourbon
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup peeled and grated Honey Crisp apple
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest, from 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon orange zest, from 1 orange
• 1/2 cup orange juice, from 2 oranges
• 2/3 cup drained Luxardo maraschino cherries
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• Cheesecloth, for storing
• Bourbon, for storing

Directions​

• Step 1
  Place pineapple, figs, apples, persimmons, peaches, golden raisins, cinnamon stick, bourbon, and brandy in a large bowl; stir to coat fruit in liquid. Cover and let stand at room temperature 24 hours, stirring once every 8 hours. Discard cinnamon stick.
• Step 2
  Preheat oven to 300°F. Spray 2 8.5x4.5-inch loaf pans with baking spray; line pans with parchment paper, leaving a 2 inch overhang on the two long sides. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside. Place butter in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat butter on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add sugar to butter and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture to mixer bowl; beat on low until just combined, about 30 seconds.
• Step 3
  Remove mixer bowl from mixer. Fold in zests, juice, cherries, pecans, and soaked fruit mixture. Batter will be very thick. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of each fruitcake comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
• Step 4
  Place pans on a wire rack to cool completely, about 2 hours. Remove fruitcakes from pans. Slice to serve, or if storing, dampen cheesecloth with bourbon and wrap fruitcake tightly with cheesecloth, then wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 month, changing cheesecloth once a week. To store for a short period of time (less than 1 week), wrap tightly with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator.

 

[CWNitz]

My favorite bredeles! They're various little cookies you're supposed to eat during December, while waiting for Christmas for those who don't know. There are a lot of recipes, from buttery cookies to mini-jam pies, and obviously every family has theirs.

So, anyway, the Leckerlis:

Ingredients

• 300 g flour
• 300 g honey
• 130 g almonds or hazelnuts
• 50 g candied orange or lemon peels
• 0.5 teaspoon crushed cloves
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 0.5 teaspoon ginger
• 1.5 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 7g baking powder

For the icing​

• 130 g powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons kirsch or rum

Preparation

• Heat the honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until it boils gently. Remove the pot from the fire.
• Roughly chop the almonds, mix with the flour, candied orange peel, baking powder, salt and spices.
• Mix the flour mixture with the honey mixture.
• Let the dough rest for the night in the fridge.
• Flatten until you have a 2-3 cm thick dough
• Preheat the oven at 220°C.
• Cook for 15 min.
• When cold, mix the powdered sugar and kirsch, then spread over the leckerlis. Cut into small rectangles.

 

[Autumn Leaves]

I have my personal favorite and my best-tried cookie recipe. It has nothing whatsoever to do specifically with Christmas (or any other holiday), but winter holiday season is the one time when I always bake these cookies.

(And that's the first time I attempt to actually translate a recipe...)

So -

MAYONNAISE COOKIES

Ingredients:

200 g butter
200 g mayonnaise
1 egg
1 glass sugar
3.5 glasses flour
2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
0.5 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
butter for preparing the tray

Preparation:

1. Get the butter softened at room temperature.
2. Mix the butter with the mayonnaise. Add the egg, the salt, the sugar, the vanilla sugar, and mix carefully again.
3. Add the flour and the baking powder, mix again.
4. Preheat the oven at 200°C.
5. Put parchment or foil on a baking tray, rub it with butter. Place small cookies on the parchment, roughly an inch away from each other. Bake in the preheated oven until they turn golden-yellow, 15-20 minutes (if you can't bake all of them at a time, and I never can, the following portions will take shorter to bake).

 

[Introversion]

Did you know that you can freeze au jus gravy? I didn't! I just put a batch in ice-cube trays in the freezer for Xmas Eve. Perfect, I can zap some cubes in the final minutes that day.

We're going with marinated steak tips rather than prime rib. Cheaper, plus a better choice for the guests -- some prefer well-done to the rare/medium-rare we do for ourselves.

Menu we'll provide:

• Marinated steak tips
• Garlic mashed potatoes
• Lasagna
• Butternut squash (Liz has a nice recipe with pumpkin-pie spices, heavy cream & butter)
• Spicy corn (pan-fried in whizzed-up jalapenos, onions, and lemon juice -- OMG, we love this!)
• Buttermilk biscuits
• Gravy (au jus + canned beef gravy from the store)
• Pfeffernusse cookies
• Fruit cake (new recipe I wanted to try)
• German chocolate cake (killer recipe; I don't generally prefer chocolate cakes, but this is to die for)
• Peppermint bark (I do a two-layer of dark & white chocolates; my son loves it)
• Beers
• Wines
• Sodas
• Various snacky stuff like jalapeno-stuffed olives and spicy pickles

Guests are threatening to bring even more foods, so abdominal explosions are a risk.

First year that my son's fiancee will be with us. Hope we don't all scare her too badly.

 

[Introversion]

Fruitcakes (this superb recipe, with tons of diced dried fruit soaked for a day in bourbon & brandy)
are in the oven.

Next up, making the filling for this divine German chocolate cake recipe. I’m normally not a huge fan of chocolate cake, but I’ve made this one for years and it’s quite lucious.

Pfeffernusse dough has been chillin’, will bake the cookies today, frost them tomorrow morning.

Today will also roast diced sweet potato for this chili cheese sweet potato recipe, which can go in the fridge and be reheated to serve tomorrow.

And will make this loaded brocolli cauliflower salad recipe today, as it wants to be served cold.

That just leaves making these for tomorrow:

1. an adapted version of this mashed potatoes casserole recipe (will peel & run the cooked potatoes through a ricer rather than leave them chunky)
2. this cheese and bacon rolls recipe
3. a recipe from an Indian cookbook called “spicy corn” — sweet corn, diced japapenos, onions whizzed into pulp in the food processor, and lemon juice.

Trying to stage things so I’m not too exhausted when family arrives for dinner tomorrow.

 

[Unimportant]

The cookie recipe from my mother, who got it from my dad's mother, who got it from her mother IIRC. Known in our family as "pecan butterballs".

Cream 1 cup (~220 g) softened butter. Mix in 1/4 cup powdered (icing) sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract. Mix in 2 cups flour. Stir in 1 cup very finely chopped nuts (original recipe called for pecans; I've subbed walnuts for years; I tried Brazil nuts this year and they got a big thumbs-up).

Roll into little balls (or, this year, I made little logs -- easier to take a bite from) that will be a one or two bite cookie. Place on baking sheet (I use baking paper). Bake about 15 minutes at 350/180 until the edges are just getting a bit of colour. Cool on a rack. Roll in powdered (icing) sugar.

Very simple but very rich and, in my experience, very very popular. They will feature at the end of today's meal.

 

[Woollybear]

I suppose we're making pasta tonight. Most years it's Hat Soup (tortellini in brodo) which is a holiday and celebratory soup, but that's an all-day affair, so probably just linguine tonight.

1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3 eggs

Mix, mix, mix, roll, roll some more, slice, hang to dry, cooks in 3 minutes.

Sauce is any of your choice.

 

[Unimportant]

I suppose we're making pasta tonight. Most years it's Hat Soup (tortellini in brodo) which is a holiday and celebratory soup, but that's an all-day affair, so probably just linguine tonight.

1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3 eggs

Mix, mix, mix, roll, roll some more, slice, hang to dry, cooks in 3 minutes.

Sauce is any of your choice.

My friend texted me that, in a fit of madness, she bought a 10 kg (about 22 pound) bag of semolina flour. She's bringing half of it for me today. Oh, boy, I foresee a lot of pasta making in my future! Happily I have an excellent little pasta machine, and an even more excellent tiered pasta-strand-hangy-uppy-thing.

I just stuck my head out the window and yelled to the chickens, "Lay more eggs! Lay more eggs!"

Can a bird flip da Birdie the bird?

 

[starrystorm]

Neapolitan cookies

 

[Unimportant]

Neapolitan cookies

Oh, they're so pretty!

 

[dickson]

Here's a recipe I got from my mother. It's a fruitcake-like caky cookie, that I adore. The recipe as given puts you at risk of making seven dozen cookies, but it's a risk I'm glad to take.

Traditional Christmas Cookies
1 cup fruit cake mix
1 1/2 cup raisins
1 cup dates cut in pieces
Soak these in 1/2 cup wine overnight
1 cup walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups butter or margarine
Cream these three well
Add two eggs and beat well
Add 1/2 cup strong coffee with 1 tsp baking soda
Add 4 cups flour
1/2 tsp each cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice
spoon drop on cooky sheet
Bake in moderate (350) oven until brown

 

[Unimportant]

Here's a recipe I got from my mother. It's a fruitcake-like caky cookie, that I adore. The recipe as given puts you at risk of making seven dozen cookies, but it's a risk I'm glad to take.

Traditional Christmas Cookies
1 cup fruit cake mix
1 1/2 cup raisins
1 cup dates cut in pieces
Soak these in 1/2 cup wine overnight
1 cup walnuts
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups butter or margarine
Cream these three well
Add two eggs and beat well
Add 1/2 cup strong coffee with 1 tsp baking soda
Add 4 cups flour
1/2 tsp each cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice
spoon drop on cooky sheet
Bake in moderate (350) oven until brown

Oooh! My partner loves fruitcake but, yanno, can't exactly eat an entire fruitcake on her own. But she can eat cookies.... I need to try this!

Can you clarify exactly what "fruit cake mix" is?

 

[dickson]

Oooh! My partner loves fruitcake but, yanno, can't exactly eat an entire fruitcake on her own. But she can eat cookies.... I need to try this!

Can you clarify exactly what "fruit cake mix" is?

It’s something we in the states can get in the local supermarket. If memory serves, it has diced candied orange peels and the like. Cubed preserved fruit intended for fruitcake. Waxy consistency, but not terribly sweet. Hope that helps.

 

[Unimportant]

It’s something we in the states can get in the local supermarket. If memory serves, it has diced candied orange peels and the like. Cubed preserved fruit intended for fruitcake. Waxy consistency, but not terribly sweet. Hope that helps.

Is it a mix of dried fruit and citrus peel, or solely citrus peel? (We have, as categories: 1) dried fruit; 2) chopped candied citrus peel; and 3) those weird-ass glace red and green cherries that are totally not cherries.)

ETA: what is the texture like? Wifey tells me that much of the attraction of fruit cake is the texture, which is not something I can in any way grok.

 

[dickson]

Is it a mix of dried fruit and citrus peel, or solely citrus peel? (We have, as categories: 1) dried fruit; 2) chopped candied citrus peel; and 3) those weird-ass glace red and green cherries that are totally not cherries.)

ETA: what is the texture like? Wifey tells me that much of the attraction of fruit cake is the texture, which is not something I can in any way grok.

It’s a mix, more dried fruit than embalmed cherries .

The texture is cake-like with a bit of crunch from the nuts. The fruity parts are moist as much as they are chewy. Like fruitcake, only nicer.

 

[Chris P]

I'll be doing a fairly basic beef roast with veggies (recipe), in a Dutch oven over an open fire in our fire pit. However, today it is literally the coldest day I've ever experienced in this area (6 F/-14 C!) so doing it in the oven rather than outside has its appeal.

I'm torn between making either a brown soda bread (like this one) or a no-knead bread (such as this) to go with it. I wanted to make an orange olive oil cake (yum!) be we have been eating like a garbage truck for the last couple weeks on Christmas goodies, so I think we have fruit for dessert.

 

[Chris P]

I suppose we're making pasta tonight. Most years it's Hat Soup (tortellini in brodo) which is a holiday and celebratory soup, but that's an all-day affair, so probably just linguine tonight.

1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3 eggs

Mix, mix, mix, roll, roll some more, slice, hang to dry, cooks in 3 minutes.

Sauce is any of your choice.

I bought a pasta machine thingy at a garage sale this summer, and promptly forgot all about it. I might have to unforget about it one of these days and give it a try.