View Full Version : Specialty Christmas recipes
So what recipes do you have that you consider "christmas" food?
Whatever your recipe, baked ham, a special dessert or maybe a holiday drink, if it says Christmas to you, put 'er here.
This one was introduced to me by a danish trainee as absolutely essential to a good christmas celebration, and after trying it, I agreed.
Havre Grynf Kugler
Ingrediants:
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups oatmeal - use a food processor/blender to chop it up a bit
100g brown sugar
2 tblspn cocoa - try to get the best cocoa powder you can
2 tblspn vanilla sugar - (just add a few drops of vanilla extract/essance to about a cup of white sugar and mix it up well if you don't have vanilla sugar)
2 tblspn of orange juice
100 g butter - melted
mix all ingrediants together, then place the bowl into the fridge for about a half hour to let the butter solidify a bit again so the mixture is sticky. Then roll into balls about the size of jaffa's (approx 1 cm diam), ie bite-sized.
This recipe is so versatile, if you want a different flavouring, just change out the OJ for the flavour of your choice. The oatmeal means you can even claim it's good for you, all that fibre.:D
Serve for after-dinner chocolates along with your coffee or hot beverage of choice.
Merry Christmas.
There are three recipes that I've made that were submitted by others that are wonderful this time of year. The above recipe is the first, I'll add the other two in a minute.
Chocolate Fudge Cake
nmap
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This is an easy recipe, and the results are excellent!
Serve it warm - a big scoop of vanilla ice cream doesn't hurt either.
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When making the fudge icing, the only potentially challenging step is the heating of the cocoa mixture. It must be heated gently and stirred continuously to assure a smooth, glossy texture. Good luck!
Chocolate Fudge Cake (or Cupcakes)
BATTER:
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 beaten eggs, at room temperature
3 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup hot water
ICING:
4 tablespoons cocoa
6 tablespoons milk
1 stick butter or margarine
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
For batter: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-by-2-inch pan. (If making cupcakes, line muffin pans with 24 paper baking cups.) In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa. Add oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and hot water; mix well. Pour into prepared pan (or baking cups) and bake on the mid¬dle rack for 30 to 40 minutes, (about 25 to 30 minutes for cup¬cakes), or until a cake tester in¬serted in the center comes out clean.
Icing:
While cake is baking, make a paste of the cocoa and milk in a deep, heavy saucepan or in the top of a double boiler. Add butter and slowly bring the mixture just to a boil, stirring constantly. Immediately remove from heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat well until smooth.
Add chopped nuts.
Pour warm icing over the still-hot cake in the baking pan.
Makes 12 generous cake servings or about 24 standard cupcakes.
Shar
Apple-Spice Cake
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Apple-Spice Cake
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour (white)
4 apples (about 4 cups worth), I've used Fuji and Jonagold - peeled, corred and shredded
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp vanilla
Oven at 350. Sugar, butter first, then beat in eggs. Add dry ingredients then vanilla. Fold in the apples. Pour into oiled 9x13' baking pan. bake for about 40 minutes.
I've served this with cream cheese frosting, powdered sugar icing and we tried and butter-rum sauce too - all were pretty good depending on what you are after.
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I'm too far away from home and a good Norskie Lutheran Church.
No Lutefisk dinner for me this year - again.
My memere would make this during the day on the 24th and put it in the oven before we left to midnight mass. We'd come back to a hot and delicious (if not heart-healthy) meal of tourtiere and milk before calling it a night. I should probably go start the potatoes for tomorrow's pies.
Tourtiere
2 lbs lean fresh ground pork
1 medium onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium potatoes, cooked and mashed
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 large egg beaten
Brown the pork in a large skillet, add onion and garlic and cook until the onion is translucent. Remove from heat and add mashed potato and spices. Mix well until everything is blended. Mix in the egg and blend well again. Place entire mixture into a 9" deep dish pie crust and lattice the top with pie crust strips. Brush the top with beaten egg mixed with a tablespoon of water, Bake in 350* oven until nicely browned or about 1/2 hour. Serve slices with a large pat of butter on top.
... Remove from heat and add mashed potato and spices. ......
Looks yummy Razor. One question. Do you strain off the grease (or most of it)from the pork before adding the rest of the stuff?
Personal preference, Pete. Once you add the mashed potatoes, they tend to soak up any rendered fat.
Speaking of fat, there's another, similar recipe that's a Quebecois staple called creton (sometimes spelled 'couton') that makes a great sandwich spread. With creton, you definitely keep the fat in the mix, as it helps hold everything together.
Creton
• 2 lbs ground pork butt
• 2 heaping Tablespoons ground clove—add more or less depending on your taste.
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
Put meat in a large saucepan or stock pot. Mix in onions and garlic. Add cold water up to the level of the meat. Add the spices and mix well. The water level should be approx. 1/4 inch (no more) over the meat. Bring meat mixture to a boil, then turn down to simmer. Cook 1 1/2 hours with cover on then 1 1/2 hours without cover. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't burn. The level of water should reduce slowly during the cooking time. After making sure the majority of the water is gone, scoop creton into dishes (it should be the consistency of oatmeal). Press the top of the meat in each dish with a spoon to let any extra water and fat rise to top. Refrigerate for a few hours or more.
I cut slabs of this and eat it for breakfast as a sandwich on toasted pumpernickle with a slice of white american and mustard. Nothing starts your day like clogging the arteries bright and early.