Favorite Holiday Foods
Since I have the year off of hosting Christmas and we’re not formally exchanging gifts with DH’s family I’m thinking I should contribute liberally to the selection of cookies and candy that we all graze on when we get together at Christmas. I haven’t settled on recipes yet. I thought it would be fun to hear what recipes make the holidays for you! A few favorites and possible candidates for this years list are below:
For me now, it isn’t Christmas without pepperkakor - an orange scented ultra thin and crispy gingerbread-like cookie. This wasn’t a regular on the table of sweets at Grandma Irma’s house, but it occasionally popped up at our church’s holiday gatherings. I’ve been making them almost every year for a good share of my time here in Colorado.
This is another Swedish cookie. It is a recipe I got out of my personal baking bible, The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas. They are called Citronsmakåger and are lemon cookies that are a bit cake-like in texture. I’m contemplating going in the orange direction with a dark chocolate glaze/frosting. They are really simple and quick, a nice trait for holiday baking. Especially after the rather intensive pepperkakor that needs rolled out so thin and cut.
This is another from Ojakangas’ book - Kanelkakor or Cinnamon Dreams. I think what I like so much about these Swedish cookie recipes is their often liberal use of flavorings, be it spices like cinnamon and ginger and cardamom or strong citrus. It means they often get away with a more moderate amount of sugar. That too is a welcomed thing on the sweet table - sweet, but not too sweet! If memory serves these are quite quick to pull together as well.
Lefse is another thing I *have* to have during the holiday season. For those who are unfamiliar with it, it is much like a flour tortilla, but it is made from potatoes. Growing up in Minnesota we ate it slightly warm with butter and a sprinkling of sugar. I’m told it is eaten a multitude of ways in the Scandinavian countries, including in place of a hot dog bun. I’ve branched out some and had Nutella on it (yum!) and sometimes brown sugar rather than white. Or a mix of yogurt and brown sugar or lingonberry preserves. The kind I can get here isn’t as good as the stuff I grew up eating, but it works. I have all the equipment to make it myself, but so far I haven’t. It is a time intensive process as you cook one round at a time on a special iron and I think it is pretty delicate to handle the dough and such. But one of these years I’m gonna put on my big girl pants and give it a go!
I’d also like to give my aunt Karen’s chocolate covered caramels another go. So far at a mile high I haven’t had much luck. The first batch many years ago were not quite hard candy, but not far from it. Since then I think I’ve been afraid of them being too hard and have undercooked them. We’ve also in the past made rosettes, another time suck sort of project. I loved them, but they went “stale” by the next day which made me really sad. I think we must have done something wrong (wrong oil temperature?) as I know the ones I ate in Minnesota were not made the same day I ate them. We do have two sets of irons so both DH and I could fry one which made for shorter work. If I were still in Minnesota I’d like just buy them, but I’ve not found anyone who carries them around here.
Your turn! What foods make your holiday?
