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Christmas Sweets

Hil

(website)

Veteran

Following Sanet's thread about Christmas food, and Angie's comment about the desserts... I am obsessed with baking so this is a big deal!

So what are your sweet family traditions?

I grew up in a family that did not celebrate Christmas for religious reasons so I adopted my In-law's traditions wholeheartedly!

My MIL always used to bake a huge amount of biscuits in December. In her house it was shortbread, crunchies, Hertzog cookies (little jammie coconut things) and mince pies. My SIL and I have modified what we bake a little. We do shortbread, choc chip, cinnamon and ginger biscuits and then loads of mince pies. We love to have loads of these in our biscuit tins.

Normally the whole family sleeps over (used to be at the MIL's house, but now it's our house) on xmas eve. We do an easy breakfast - I buy a readymade dough the day before and leave it overnight. In the morning, I roll it out and spread liberally with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar and then roll up. Slice and place in a pyrex dish and pour over two cups of cream. Sprinkle with some more sugar and bake. Serve hot, with coffee after the gifts are open! So divine!!!!

Then for Christmas lunch desserts, we do a pavlova with summer berries, and a mango dessert and an ice-cream cake. My MIL always steams a Christmas pudding but in truth, only her and I actually like it.

The recipes for the puddings are here if anyone wants them:
http://www.food24.com/User-Rec.....g-20100204
http://www.nigella.com/recipes.....am-cake-77

There is normally way too much food, but since Christmases with my in-laws are large chaotic affairs with DH's siblings and their OH's and kids and always a few extras that had nowhere else for lunch, and the siblings staying over into boxing day, the left overs never go astray. We have decided that fruit pavlova and the mango dessert make a perfectly acceptable boxing day breakfast!

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33 replies

Latest reply was from AviaMariah

Anonymous

It isn't Christmas without Florentines, mince tartlets, ginger molasses cookies, and shortbread cookies. I also like making a Sugar Pie, but I can only eat a tiny sliver. I usually make butter tarts instead.

Emily

Veteran

Your Christmas sounds sweet and delicious!
My grandmother makes very delicious oatmeal shortbread cookies every Christmas. They are the roll, chill and bake variety, with chocolate sprinkles around the outside. We have Christmas pudding for dessert after dinner on Christmas day, but I've always found it too sweet, so I nab a couple of cookies from the container on top of the fridge instead.

Anonymous

Oh, how could I forget Sticky Toffee Puddings too!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Good grief. Now I feel like cake with my tea. Will be back to comment.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Oh yes, Hill. I will take a portion of everything you make for the holidays.

Mochi

Veteran

This is in no way connected with any Christmas tradition on my part (I'm Jewish, for one), but I'm making this Argentine-inspired dessert for a tango party this weekend:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2.....-de-leche/

Looks like Sugarcomaville, but hopefully good. Will report back.

L'Abeille

Veteran

Wow Hil I'm impressed at all the baking you manage to do in the heat! When I lived in SA my friends baked in July and froze it. I made (still do) a Red and Green fruit salad for Christmas Day breakfast--eg strawberries and honeydew melon, or Kiwifruit; I like to add starfruit (carambola) just because it looks so cool, even though the kids don't care for it, and one year I used a Santa Claus melon (more yellow than green) because, well!

Other than that, I used to bake our family's favourite fruitcake, which has just sultanas/golden raisins and pecans, and orange liqueur (it was SO good with Van der Hum when you could get it!) and shortbread, and sugar or gingerbread cookies for the kids to cut out. Mince pies I could buy anywhere so never learned to make them; now back in Canada I can't get them (the little tart kind) since Marks and Spencer left. The other favourites, though we don't make them every year, are Rugelach and Lebkuchen.

Anonymous

Oh, L'Abeille, little mince tarts are SO easy to make, seriously! You should make that your project this year

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Hill, do you use puff pastry or short cake pastry for the ready made dough?

Greg grew up eating Mince Pies in Cape Town, and Pick 'n Pay make the best. Better than Woolies and Marks & Spencer.

I love Rugelach. That makes me want to go back to Tel Aviv.

We grew up with Euro Xmas, as far as the sweets go, and I brought the tradition into our marriage. But I also married a South African, so we have a little South African spread too. Here's our holiday sweets list:

Stollen - most mornings for breakfast in Dec
Gevulde Speculaas (which my Papa brings from the Netherlands, although my Mama's homemade version was even better).
Crisp sugar cookies (the only cookies I bake)
Shortbread (sometimes)
Melk Tert
Lemon Meringue Pie with ginger biscuit crust (Greg makes the best lemon meringue pie, and nothing has come close to beating it).
Cadbury's chocolate biscuits, which I buy. They are flown in from the UK at Xmas time and I stock up for the month.

Any way, that's tradition. We throw in a few different things each year too.

(And it is tradition that I make South African bread & butter pudding for Thanksgiving Day dessert. Our hosts have been requesting it for years and I oblige each time).

Mochi

Veteran

"South African bread and butter pudding"

(This may be the first time in YLF history for *plonk* to transpire in a non-fashion context)

anne

Veteran

Angie posted the recipe for it on YLF a few years ago Mochi! I'll try searching for the thread)

I like to do Gingerbread men/ biscuits. And DH"s family often want coconut ice (though I kind of hope not this year as it is SOO tempting!)

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

And here's the recipe, Nancy. I typed it out 4 years ago for YLF as per the request:

http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....er-pudding

anne

Veteran

Oh you beat me to it Angie!!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Hah, Anne. You are a true YLF Golden Oldie.

L'Abeille

Veteran

Slight hijack here: Ceit, how do you make the sweet, buttery short crust ? It's not the same as our Canadian pie crust.

also, Angie, I just may show up at your house for breakfast in December... Our church is planning a dinner for St Nicholas Day, and I'm trying to explain Spekulaas cookies...

Hil

(website)

Veteran

Ooooh - I've never eaten rugelach or gevulde spekulaas! I will have to get my bestest dutch friend to rectify this!

I agree with Ceit that mince pies are dead easy to make, but I actually prefer the shop bought ones and I would be inclined to agree with Angie that Pick'nPay make the best mince pies (but woollies make the best hot cross buns - which make an amazing bread and butter pudding!)

And speaking of bread and butter pudding - one of my favourite things to do, once Christmas is over, is buy Panettone on sale and make a bread and butter pudding out of that. So delish!!!

Mochi- those brownies look amaze-balls! I am saving that recipe!

Angie - I use a basic white bread dough... I generally find it in the bakery section of the supermarkets. We use it for pizza bases or for Vetkoek but my favourite use for it is this cinnamon bun. I guess it is closest in nature to a Chelsea Bun with a caramel sauce.

Anonymous

Oh Panettone! How could I forget that....I decided one year I wanted to learn how to make it. What a glorious year!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Ah. Thanks, Hil. I will try to find the same thing this side. Agreed. Woolies make the best hot cross buns. Nothing in the US comes close to that perfection. And high five - I also prefer store bought mince pies - maybe we are spoiled with the glorious ones Pick 'n Pay makes. That crunchy sugary topping is divinely unique. Ceit, we'll have to sample yours too.

L'Abeille, how fun that you celebrate Sinterklaas. I love speculaas. One of my faves.

Making bread & butter from Panetone is a brilliant idea. I use sweet brioche this side.

Oh yes. And I'm making orange scones with white chocolate bits for Thanksgiving Day tea, which we will have at home to kick off the festivities.

I love holiday sweets so much. What a fun thread.

Diana

Veteran

This thread is making me SO HUNGRY. I actually don't bake much (although for whatever reason a lot of people think of me as a good baker?) but now I really want to go home and bake something.

Ceit (or anyone else) do you have a good recipe for sticky toffee pudding?

ETA: I feel like I should share a recipe. I am really particular about my scones (I think most american ones are too cakey and not biscuit-like enough) so here is my recipe for them:

Diana’s English Cream Scones

This makes a flaky English-style biscuity scone. If you prefer an American style cakey
scone, you can replace ¼ cup of the cream with an egg and add a bit more sugar.

2 c. all-purpose flour

¼ c. granulated sugar

1 T. baking powder

½ T. cream of tartar

½ t. salt

6 T. cold butter, cut into pieces

3/4 c. heavy cream (can substitute milk, but the scones will
be less rich and will go stale faster)

½ c. dried currants or other flavorings* (optional)

extra cream or milk for brushing tops

Makes 8 scones.

Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of
tartar, and salt. Cut the butter
into the flour mixture using a pastry blender, two knives, or a food processor
until the largest pieces are the size of peas. Stir in the currants.
Pour in the cream and mix until just combined (the dough will be very
crumbly). Turn the dough out onto
a lightly floured work surface, and knead it a few times just until it forms a
ball; try not to overknead. Press
the ball into a disc about ¾ inch thick.
If you have time, you can wrap the disc in saran wrap and put it in the
fridge to rest for an hour or so; this supposedly makes the scones
flakier. When you are ready to
bake, preheat the oven to 425° F.
Use a sharp plain round cutter to cut rounds out of the dough – make
sure you press straight down with the cutter and do not twist. Gather scraps together and continue to
cut out circles. You can also form
the dough into a square and use a sharp knife to cut it into eight
triangles. Put scones on a baking
sheet and brush the tops with cream.
Bake for approximately 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes before
serving with clotted cream or jam.

*Some ideas for flavorings: any kind of dried fruit, any
kind of chopped nuts, candied ginger + lemon zest, dried cranberries + orange
zest, small chocolate chips + orange zest, cheddar cheese + chives, parmesan
cheese, chopped fresh (or dried) herbs.
Obviously, for savory scones, omit the sugar.

Anonymous

Do I ever!

Delia Smith does a superb one: http://www.deliaonline.com/rec.....with-pecan

Diana

Veteran

Ooh, thank you! They look amazing.

rebekahphoto

Veteran

mmm! all your sweets sound amazing! This year I would like to make some mince pie, as I never have

I love to cook & bake! My DH was a baker for 10+ yrs, last summer we built a wood fired oven at my parents & he taught my father to bake, which is not helping the waistline much, but oh so good....

We combine our mexican & scandinavian/german heritages for our sweets. For the holidays, we always have stollen on christmas, as well as other Scandinavian treats like krumkake and lefse with butter & cinnamon sugar! Fresh lefse is so good! I also make German pfeffernsusse cookies--they are spicy sweet and so good with warm glogg. DH also loves to bake brioche & used to make panettone at the bakery.

We always make sweet tins to share as well for christmas, and in them include fudge, mexican wedding cookies, gingerbread, chocolate truffles & other treats. DH & my father also bake hot cross buns, but that is mostly at easter, DH has lots of fun making many traditional breads for each of the holiday meals!

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rachylou

Veteran

We don't have any particular x-mass sweets, but Thanksgiving - it has got to be Libby's canned pumpkin pies. My poor mum has to make them for me, my brother, and her brother. It's got to be mum.

Sadly, we can't get the pie-dough sticks anymore. I guess that was because they were pure trans-fat or something, lol.

None of that from scratch stuff for us. Lol. And I'm a baker. We do panettone at the bakery... oh I take it back, we do have a sweet for x-mas: stollen

Duh!

Anonymous

Oh heavens! such lovely recipes! I always love mince pies, and Christmas pudding. I like Cadbury's chocolate biscuits too Angie Me and DH adore Christmas pudding with Birds custard. In fact we like it so much that each Christmas we buy loads of puddings when they are on offer and have it until march!!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Rachy, pumpkin pie is about the only thing I refuse to eat - along with mammals and a blanket of melted cheese. Since you love it so much, I hope you have lots of it - specially made by your Mama.

High five, Diane. Birds custard is delish. I love it hot and extra sweet. Those cadburys chocolate biscuits are heavenly. I love the orange flavoured ones in the foil wrappers best.

Diana, I love, love scones with butter and marmalade. Must try your recipe,

Ceit, Greg loves sticky toffee pudding, so he's coming over to have it at your house.

rachylou

Veteran

Lol. No pumpkin for Angie. Hehe.

Hil

(website)

Veteran

Ahhhh yum! Thanks for the recipe Diana - I'm always searching for a good scone recipe. Scones with jam and cream are simply the best treat!

Rebekah - last week I made a tres leches cake for a party. It was amazing!

One of my best friends is married to a New Yorker and she does a pretty good pumpkin pie for their Thanksgiving in South Africa celebration. It's not one of my favourite textures but it's tasty and her husband loves it.

DianeG - I like the way you think - stock up when the stuff is on sale!!!

All this talk of sticky toffee pudding made me think of the other best ever pudding... Angie - does Greg love a Malva pudding?

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

He does, Hil. It's me who is not the fan. Poor Greg never gets those desserts because I don't make them. I'll send him over your way with melk tert in hand.

Rachy, I quite like pumpkin when it's roasted and sweet.

Carla

Veteran

Drool! German traditions growing up, so 3 kuchen for am consumption on Christmas Day! My favourite was a yeasty one with dried fruits that was baked in a cast iron bundt pan.

I'm a mad baker and when the boys (2) are home it is like feeding the mongol hordes. Christmas always includes Holiday Spice Cookies (my signature cookie!), Empire Cakes (my late MIL recipe for DH), traditional sugar cookies, Millionaire's Shortbread, PB balls (with rice crisps to keep them light), and a cake like puffy ginger bread. I leave the cookies to the men, and treat myself to fruit cake. I've got to score a Shriner's every year, they are the best!

We also eat a lot of mandarin oranges, and I pick up a crate of grape fruits for the Holidays. We peel and eat them like oranges.

I've got Bird's in the cupboard and make runny custard for apple crisp and peach cobbler. #1 son lived on the stuff when he had his wisdom teeth out.

I only take tiny servings, but boy-oh-boy are those servings delish!

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