Homemade frozen yogurt is right up there with homemade ice cream, in terms of desserts that everyone should try making at least a couple of times. Technicolor Kitchen‘s Cherry Ripple Frozen Yogurt shows how easy and how versatile frozen yogurt can be. This easy to make frozen yogurt base features a swirl of a thick, homemade cherry sauce that definitely gives the yogurt the feel of something you’d find in a higher end dessert shop. This is the kind of recipe that you could also easily adapt to work with other fruits and flavors.
Spoon Fork Bacon‘s Rose Water Infused Glitter Cake is a stunning cake that is perfect for any celebration, from a festive New Year’s Eve gala to an intimate birthday party. The cake itself is flavored with rosewater, which gives it a delicately floral fragrance and flavor. The three-layered cake is frosted with a simple buttercream, which is covered with gold luster dust for a luminous look. As if that weren’t enough, gold-dusted fresh raspberries finish of the cake as edible garnish.
Another celebratory sweet comes in the form of the Champagne Marshmallows from Brave Tart. The champagne flavor in these homemade marshmallows comes from a champagne reduction, where the bubbly liquid is reduced to a strongly-flavored syrup before being incorporated. The champagne still doesn’t give these marshmallows a flavor as strong as a glass of champagne, but toasty and tart notes definitely make it into the candies and give them a grown up, festive flavor of their own. These might be best served with champagne, but if you want to slip them into a mug of hot chocolate instead, I say go for it!
Kokken 69 recently made some of the most unique cookies I’ve seen in a while after discovering them in Taiwan: YiLan Ox Tongue Cookies. These cookies are named after their vaguely tongue-like shape and are thin, brittle and almost cracker-like in consistency. The cookies are made with two doughs – a sweet dough and an oil dough – that come together to give them a flaky texture. They can easily be flavored with things like citrus, sesame and other ingredients, but even when made plain, these are versatile cookies that make a great, if unusual, snack.
It’s citrus season, and if you’re like me, you have a lot of lemons and oranges to work with. The Citrus Curd at From My Sweetheart shows just how versatile one simple recipe can be and gives several ideas of what you can do with this zesty, flavorful curd by turning it into three different desserts. The silky curd uses lemon, lime and orange in it that contributes to a well-rounded flavor that definitely stands apart from your standard lemon curd. A double batch will give you plenty of curd to experiment with and will give you a chance to come up with your own recipes that feature it as a main ingredient.
Holiday entertaining wouldn’t be the same without a variety of appetizers to nibble on before the main course of a roast or other hearty dish is served. Baking Obsession‘s Prosciutto Parmesan Puff Pastry Straws are an excellent choice if you’re looking for an appetizer that is crispy, buttery, cheesy and has a savory pork element to it. The straws start with puff pastry, which is rolled into long, thin twists around layers of parmesan and proscuitto. They look elegant and the flavors will keep you coming back for seconds and thirds (even if you’re not enjoying them at a party!).
Another recipe that is perfect for entertaining is Cheese Bikkies from Vanilla Garlic. The shortbread-like dough has butter cut into it to give the crackers a crisp and slightly flaky texture and it is packed with flavorful parmesan and cheddar cheeses. Once the dough is made, it is rolled into logs and chilled – just like slice-and-bake cookie dough is – so that the dough is easy to slice into perfect rounds for baking. The crackers are at their very best when they are fresh, so bake them off shortly before serving.
Butter cookies are versatile cookies that can be dressed up with all kinds of flavors. The Pecan, Vanilla Bean and Rum Cookies from Cannelle et Vanille are definitely dressed up for a party. These shortbread-like, gluten-free cookies look simple but have a lot of flavor to them. A whole vanilla bean is scraped into the cookie dough, which is enriched with pecan meal (finely ground pecans). A splash of rum gives the cookies a more grown up flavor, so you can easily bring these out after a dinner party and impress a crowd in spite of their simple look.
Citrus and Candy‘s Mulled Wine Hot Chocolate is an adults-only drink that clearly captures the spirit of the holiday season. Mulled wine is typically red wine that has been steeped with flavorful spices and is then served warm. For this recipe, rich, homemade hot chocolate is infused with cinnamon, anise, cloves, rosemary and orange before being spiked with red wine. The flavors blend together in an unexpected and lovely way, creating a warming drink that is ideal for celebrating with on a cold night.
Sugar Plum assures us that making homemade Almond Toffee is a much easier task than it sounds like it would be. Toffee is crisp, sweet and buttery, and while it can be good any time, it is even better when homemade because you can put your own little twist on it. This recipe comes with two variations. The first option includes sliced, toasted almonds and is topped of with swirls of white and dark chocolate. The other is a peppermint version, where the chocolate-covered toffee is topped with crushed mint chocolate cookies and bits of peppermint.
Many people debate the merits of a real Christmas tree over an artificial Christmas tree (I’m a real tree person, myself), but I don’t often hear people mention an edible Christmas tree. Teaspoon SF made a wonderfully festive Cupcake Christmas Tree to celebrate the holidays. The tree is adorned with green-frosted cupcakes that give it its color and studded with gold and red-wrapped chocolate candies that stand in for ornaments. A styrofoam cone provides the base for the structure, and when it is all put together, it is one tree that everyone can agree on – and enjoy!
Homemade eggnog is definitely part of my holiday tradition, both traditional uncooked eggnog and creamy cooked varieties. I’ve never tried a chocolate ‘nog before and LA Fuji Mama’sChocolate Egg Nog sounds like a delicious variation on this holiday classic. The drink replaces part of the milk in standard egg nog with some strongly flavored hot chocolate. The resulting drink has a hint of cocoa, a more subtle egg flavor and a lot of holiday spirit. It also might appeal to more people who like the idea of eggnog, but aren’t big fans of the more traditional recipes.
The Peppermint Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake from Beantown Baker is a showstopping dessert. A classic cheesecake is studded with cubes of homemade brownies that give each slice a good dose of chocolate and a stunning mosaic look. As if the brownies didn’t add enough chocolate, this cheesecake also has a chocolate crumb crust and is topped with a shiny layer of chocolate peppermint ganache that hides the cheesecake’s fun design until it is sliced.
Fruitcake may take the brunt of some holiday jokes, but a good fruitcake can actually be quite tasty. It will be even tastier if there is a little chocolate involved. Spoons n’ Spades shares a recipe for Chocolate Fruitcake that might change your mind about this particular holiday dessert. The moist cake is loaded with dates, raisins and dried cranberries and is seasoned with coffee liqueur, orange zest, cocoa powder, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and honey. Like most fruitcakes, there is a thin batter that holds all of the filling elements together. It’s rich, complex and definitely not your average fruitcake.
If you like lemony desserts, then including limoncello from time to time is a natural progression from just using lemon juice. The liquor has its own unique flavor and can be a terrific addition to things like the Limoncello Pound Cake w/ Meyer Lemon Curd Filling & Goat Cheese, Thyme and Limoncello Icing that I breathe therefore I am… hungry baked up. This cake has several components that are all good on their own, but even better together. The cake itself is a pound cake with both lemon juice and limoncello in it, and the homemade lemon curd filling is also spiked with lemoncello. The glaze is the most unusual component because it includes goat cheese along with the lemon elements, but that creamy and slightly tangy cheese adds a subtle flavor that works beautifully with the lemon and provides a hint of savory balance to the cake.
Whisk and Whimsy‘s Yogurt Coffee Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze is just the type of recipe you’ll want to take to a holiday brunch. This is partly because the cake is a delicious one, but also because the beautiful cake is large and ideal for serving a big group of people – especially if some of those people might want seconds. Greek yogurt in the buttery cake batter keeps the cake moist and also adds a subtle tang, which contrasts nicely with the sweet streusel and glaze.
Melt in your mouth pecan sandies are a favorite cookie of many people, but Sing for Your Supper put a twist on the classic to make Coconut Pecan Sandies, which might be even better. This cookie dough is a slice and bake dough, so it can be prepared in advance and sliced whenever you’re in the mood for some freshly baked cookies. The cookies have cinnamon, pecans and lots of shredded coconut in them, so they have a great mix of flavors. They’re good for any occasion, but also make a lovely addition to a holiday cookie tray.
The Orange Scented Russian Teacakes that Carly Klock recently baked are another excellent holiday cookie option that is laced with pecans. These round cookies – also known as snowballs – have a very tender, shortbread-like texture. They have plenty of finely chopped pecans, as well as just enough orange zest to give them a good citrus flavor. They’re rolled in confectioners’ sugar after baking for some additional sweetness and to give them an attractive finished look.
Linzer cookies are typically made with two cookie rounds, one of which has a windowpane cut-out, sandwiching a jam filling. The Secret Life of a Chef’s Wife put a nontraditional spin on a batch by baking Lime Linzer Cookies. These cookies have a zesty, homemade lime curd for their filling that gives them a bright flavor and a very unusual (for linzer cookies) color. These cookies take a little more effort to assemble than your typical cookies do, since the dough must be rolled out, sliced and have the windowpanes also cut out, but the finished product is beautiful and these are a great choice for entertaining.
Thai iced tea is made with strong, black tea that is generously sweetened with sweetened condensed milk. It’s creamy, sweet and can be downright addictive. The Thai Tea Fudge from She Simmers converts this popular drink into dessert. The white chocolate based fudge is flavored sweetened condensed milk, then it is divided and a portion is flavored with Thai tea. The two flavors are layered – just like the drink is before serving – and allowed to set. The finished product captures the look and flavor of the iced tea.
Molasses is the main player in the Spiced Apple Molasses Cake that Happy Yolks recently baked. It’s nice to see molasses used as the centerpiece of a cake, rather than being covered up by spices and other ingredients. The cake is still a spice cake, however, and the cinnamon, cloves and fresh ginger in the batter make for a well-rounded and flavorful cake. The cake is also generously studded with apple chunks that add moisture and break up the dark spiciness of the cake a bit. The finished product needs no frosting and is perfect when served with a hot mug of coffee.
Kitchen Simplicity‘s Eggnog Sugar Cookies don’t have any eggnog in the batter. The sugar cookies get their eggnog flavor from the addition of nutmeg and rum to an otherwise plain sugar cookie base. These two flavors are so associated with eggnog that they really do give the cookies an eggnog-like smell and taste. You’ll get the best flavor in these and other recipes that use nutmeg by using freshly ground nutmeg.
To get into the Christmas Spirit, a batch of Santa Hat Cookies from Domestic Fits might do the trick. These cute cookies start with a round sugar cookie base. Each one is topped with a strawberry then decorated with cream cheese frosting until it looks remarkably like a little Santa hat. The result is adorable, and the post also includes some nice reminders about donating to those in need this holiday season.
