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Christmas recipes: cakes, cookies, roasts and festive bakes

Christmas cakes and cookies, kulkuls and rose cookies, stollen, roasts and warming alcohol-free drinks. (138 recipes)

Buñuelos colombianosCheese and cassava fritters

In December, Colombian families gather for the novena de aguinaldos, nine evenings of prayers and carols before Christmas, and the reward afterwards is a plate of hot buñuelos with a bowl of natilla. These little golden balls are made from crumbly cheese, cassava starch and cornflour, fried until they puff and roll themselves over in the oil. They are crisp outside, airy and cheesy inside. Chef's tip: start the oil only warm, around 150 °C; buñuelos fried too hot crack open and stay raw in the centre.

35 minColombianSnacks & StartersGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

UzvarDried fruit drink

Uzvar is the dark, smoky-sweet drink brewed from dried apples, pears and plums that closes the Holy Supper on Ukrainian Christmas Eve, Sviat Vechir, where it is one of the twelve meatless dishes alongside kutia. In villages across Podillia and the Carpathians the fruit is dried in the oven or over smoke in autumn, which gives uzvar its distinctive campfire note; market stalls sell ready-mixed bags in December. It is drunk warm in winter and chilled in summer, and is naturally vegan when sweetened with sugar instead of honey. Chef's tip: simmer gently, then let it steep for several hours; common mistake is boiling it hard, which turns the fruit to mush and the drink cloudy.

30 minUkrainianDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

KutiaWheat berries with poppy seeds

Kutia is the first dish tasted on Ukrainian Christmas Eve, once the first star appears in the sky: a bowl of whole wheat berries mixed with ground poppy seed 'milk', honey, walnuts and raisins. Families in Lviv, Ternopil and the villages of the west traditionally throw a spoonful at the ceiling for luck and set a bowl aside for departed relatives, and the head of the house greets the evening with it. It is eaten at room temperature, sweet, nutty and chewy, and the spoon must touch every guest's plate. Chef's tip: soak and grind the poppy seed until it turns white and milky; common mistake is using it whole, which leaves kutia gritty and grey instead of creamy.

120 minUkrainianDesserts
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Barszcz czerwony (Christmas Eve beetroot broth)Clear beetroot soup

Barszcz czerwony wigilijny is the clear, ruby-coloured beetroot broth that opens the Christmas Eve supper in most Polish homes, from Warsaw to Wrocław. It is not the thick vegetable soup of Ukraine but a sipping broth, sweet, sour and earthy, sharpened with beetroot kvass or lemon and deepened with dried forest mushrooms; on 24 December it is served with tiny mushroom dumplings called uszka, and through winter people drink it from mugs alongside a croquette. It is fully plant-based, as the Wigilia table traditionally is. Chef's tip: once the beetroot is in, never let the soup boil hard; a bare simmer keeps the colour bright, and boiling turns it a dull brown.

90 minPolishSoupsVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

MakowiecPoppy seed roll

Makowiec is the poppy seed roll that sits on almost every Polish Christmas Eve and Easter table; in Silesia and Lesser Poland poppy seeds stand for plenty in the year ahead. A soft, buttery yeast dough is rolled around a thick, black, honey-sweet filling of ground poppy seeds with raisins, walnuts and candied orange peel, then baked and glazed so each slice shows a tight spiral. It takes time, but the process is calm and the roll keeps for days. Chef's tip: grind the soaked poppy seeds two or three times, until they look grey and pasty; whole or once-ground seeds give a gritty filling that falls out of the slices.

135 minPolishBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

ChampurradoThick masa hot chocolate

Champurrado is a chocolate atole, the thick, hot corn drink Mexicans have drunk since before the Spanish arrived. Masa harina is whisked into water and milk with Mexican chocolate (stone-ground with sugar and cinnamon) and piloncillo, a dark unrefined cane sugar, and cooked until velvety and spoon-coating. It is drunk on cold mornings with tamales or conchas, and above all during Día de Muertos and Christmas posadas. Chef's tip: always dissolve the masa harina in cold liquid before it meets the hot pot, and whisk constantly once it's in; dumped into hot milk it seizes into lumps.

20 minMexicanDrinksGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

LebkuchenSpiced gingerbread cookies

Nuremberg has been the German capital of Lebkuchen since the Middle Ages, when the city sat on the spice trade routes, and at its Christkindlesmarkt the stalls are piled with them every Advent. The finest kind, Elisenlebkuchen, contain almost no flour: they're made mostly of ground nuts, candied peel, eggs, sugar and a warm spice mix, baked on thin Oblaten wafers so they stay soft and chewy inside, then glazed with chocolate or sugar. They keep for weeks in a tin and get better as they rest. Chef's tip: bake them only until just set; a common mistake is baking until firm, which makes them dry and hard by the next day.

50 minGermanBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Natilla colombianaPanela and cinnamon milk pudding

Natilla is the firm, sliceable Christmas pudding of Colombia, stirred on the night of the alumbrado (7 December) and through the novenas, and always shared with buñuelos. Milk is infused with cinnamon, sweetened with panela (unrefined cane sugar), thickened with cornflour and finished with grated coconut and raisins, then poured into a dish to set. It is dark gold, caramel-scented and soft, a bit like a firm flan. Chef's tip: stir without stopping once the cornflour goes in, scraping the corners of the pan, or lumps and a scorched bottom will form.

40 minColombianDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

TourtièreSpiced pork and beef pie

Tourtière is the meat pie of Quebec, served after midnight mass at the Christmas Eve réveillon and through the holidays, from Montreal to the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region (where a deep, layered version is also called tourtière). This dish contains pork. Minced pork and beef cook slowly with onion, a little potato and warm spices — cinnamon, cloves, allspice and savory — then are baked in a flaky double crust and served with ketchup or fruit chutney. The mistake is a wet filling that makes the bottom crust soggy; cook it until the liquid has almost gone and cool it before filling. Chef's tip: a grated potato in the filling soaks up the juices and holds the slices together.

120 minCanadianBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

PernilRoast pork shoulder

No Puerto Rican Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) is complete without pernil, a whole pork shoulder rubbed with a pounded paste of garlic, oregano and black pepper, left in the fridge overnight and roasted low for hours until it falls apart. This is a pork dish. Families fight over the cuerito, the crackling skin on top, and the meat goes with arroz con gandules, salad and more rice the next day. The usual mistake is smearing the marinade over the skin: the garlic burns and the skin never crackles, so push the paste into slits and under the skin, and keep the skin itself dry and salted. Chef's tip: marinate for a full 24 hours if you can; the garlic and vinegar soak right into the meat.

360 minPuerto RicanMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

SatsiviChicken in cold walnut sauce

Satsivi is a dish of the Georgian New Year table, prepared in homes across western Georgia, Imereti and Samegrelo, a day ahead so it can be served cold at the long supra feast on 1 January. Poached chicken is covered in a thick, ivory walnut sauce scented with garlic, fenugreek, coriander and marigold petals and sharpened with vinegar. It is rich and fragrant, eaten with cornbread (mchadi) or fresh bread. Chef's tip: blend the walnuts with a little warm stock until they release their oil; this gives the sauce its silky texture.

105 minGeorgianChickenGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

BigosHunter's stew with sauerkraut and pork

Bigos, the hunter's stew, is cooked in huge pots across Poland for Christmas, New Year and the long winter, and every family insists theirs is best on the third reheating. Sauerkraut and fresh cabbage stew for hours with pork shoulder, smoked kiełbasa and bacon, dried wild mushrooms, prunes, juniper and a splash of red wine; it is a pork dish through and through. The wine contains alcohol; for an alcohol-free version use 100 ml apple juice with 1 tbsp cider vinegar. Serve with rye bread or boiled potatoes. Chef's tip: taste the sauerkraut first; if it is very sharp, rinse it once in cold water and squeeze it dry.

240 minPolishMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jansson's temptationPotato, onion and sprat gratin

No Swedish Christmas table, from Gothenburg to Luleå, is complete without a dish of Janssons frestelse, and it often comes back at Easter and midsummer too. Matchsticks of potato and soft onion are baked in cream with Swedish-style spiced sprats (labelled ansjovis in Sweden), which melt into the sauce and season it with a salty, sweet-spiced depth rather than a fishy taste. It is rich, so a spoonful sits beside ham, meatballs and pickled herring rather than being a main course on its own. Many people go wrong by buying Mediterranean salted anchovies; they are far saltier and the gratin turns harsh, so look for the sweet-cured sprats in Scandinavian shops. Chef's tip: cut the potatoes into thin sticks rather than slices; the starch on their many edges thickens the cream as it bakes.

75 minScandinavianFish
by KrazyBadal 0 views

HallacasStuffed corn parcels

Hallacas are Venezuelan Christmas. In December whole families gather around a kitchen table in Caracas, Maracaibo or the Andes to make dozens at once: one person cleans banana leaves, another spreads the annatto-tinted corn dough, another adds the guiso (a stew of pork, beef and chicken) and the garnishes, and someone else ties the parcels. This is a pork dish. The guiso is traditionally finished with red wine; for an alcohol-free version use the same amount of beef stock with a tablespoon of red wine vinegar. They are eaten with pan de jamón and chicken salad from Christmas Eve to New Year. The common mistake is spreading the dough too thick, which makes heavy, stodgy parcels; it should be thin enough to almost see the leaf through it. Chef's tip: make the guiso a day ahead and chill it, so it is firm and easy to portion.

300 minVenezuelanMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

KinderpunschHot spiced fruit punch

At every German and Austrian Christmas market, from Nuremberg to Vienna's Rathausplatz, the stalls selling Glühwein also sell Kinderpunsch: a steaming, alcohol-free mix of fruit tea and juices with cinnamon, cloves and orange, served in the market's own decorated mugs. Children love it, but so do drivers and anyone who just wants something warm to hold on a cold evening. It takes 20 minutes at home and makes the whole house smell of Advent. Chef's tip: keep it just below a simmer; boiling makes the spices bitter and dulls the fruit flavour.

20 minGermanDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

StollenFruit Christmas bread

Dresden has baked Christstollen for more than 500 years, and every December the city holds a Stollen festival with a giant loaf paraded through the old town to the Striezelmarkt. The loaf's shape, folded over and dusted white, is said to show the Christ child wrapped in swaddling cloth. It's a rich, dense yeast bread, heavy with butter, raisins, candied peel and almonds, brushed with melted butter straight from the oven and buried in sugar. It's baked weeks before Christmas and sliced thinly through Advent. Chef's tip: wrap it tightly and let it rest for at least a week before cutting; the flavours ripen and the crumb turns moist.

120 minGermanBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sorrel drinkHibiscus drink

Sorrel is the drink of a Jamaican Christmas: in December the markets fill with the red flowers (the calyces of a hibiscus), and every home brews a big batch to share. They're steeped with lots of fresh ginger, pimento and cloves, then sweetened, giving a deep ruby drink that's tart, spicy and refreshing over ice. Many families add a splash of white or dark rum for the adults. Chef's tip: be generous with the ginger and let it steep overnight. A long, cool steep pulls out the colour and a fiery ginger bite without the bitterness of over-boiling.

30 minJamaicanDrinksVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Eggless Christmas cake

An eggless Christmas cake: sultanas, raisins, currants, cherries and peel are soaked overnight in apple juice, then baked with nuts, pumpkin seeds, lemon rind, ginger, cinnamon and a splash of brandy or rum. Start the day before.

110 minBritishBaking
by KrazyBadal 0 views

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