The time has come to make your holiday grocery list and check it twice. (But seriously, check it twice before you head out to the store…there’s nothing worse than realizing you’re one ingredient short mid-cooking.) Whether you’re in charge of the holiday pies this year, are stumped on a kid-approved breakfast for Christmas morning or are baking cookies for Santa, we’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled a handful of tried-and-true holiday recipes from issues past, all written by Kayla Butts, into one place for your convenience.
COOKIES FOR SANTA
Pecan Shortbread Cookies, Ginger Snaps & Key Lime Macaroons
Each year, the day before Christmas, all of our girls get into the kitchen with me to make cookies for Santa Claus. Baking these Christmas Eve treats is one of their favorite holiday traditions. The kids choose the types of cookies and work in the kitchen together making them in batches, with holiday music playing. When the girls were smaller, we kept it simple with a batch of chocolate chip cookies. But as they have grown, their tastes and cooking skills have flourished with them.
This year, we let them choose the varieties by selecting a few key ingredients as a starting point. A bag of shredded coconut and some fresh limes became these lovely Key Lime Macaroons. A huge bag of pecans was the genesis of the Pecan Sandies. The chocolate came from bags of white and dark chocolate chips one of our girls found. Check out the full recipes >>
CHRISTMAS MORNING BREAKFAST
Cinnamon Hand Pies & Partridge Nests
My biggest “bah humbug” on Christmas morning is leaving the merriment to put together a last-minute Christmas morning breakfast that I haven’t had a chance to think about before that very second. Not this year! This year, we’re making a new tradition where we get to continue the fun of Christmas together, as a family, in the kitchen. If your family is anything like mine, enticing them to desert their new toys is no small feat.
We need a menu as fun as an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. A salute to a childhood classic, these cinnamon hand pies are portable and will surely satiate the kiddos. With the partridge (nests) in a pear tree, you can tailor this sheet pan meal to your tastes: use sweet potatoes, substitute gruyere or prosciutto. Check out the full recipes >>
TRADITIONAL HOLIDAY BREAD TO SHARE
Christopsomo, Norwegian Julekake & Pan de Jamon
Bread is easy to take for granted. Maybe it’s because baking bread has been around since the dawn of civilization or because lower-quality, generic varieties are so widely available. And yet, those fresh, pillowy loaves formed by hand and proofed on a window sill are something else entirely.
There aren’t many simple pleasures in this world as enjoyable as warm, homemade bread. This includes artisan Christmas breads learned from family elders, who learned from their elders, and so on. Recreating these time-honored recipes pays homage to the traditions and generations before us. Check out the full recipes >>
HOLIDAY PIES TO IMPRESS
Key Lime, Chocolate Meringue & Coconut Creme Pie
Pie season is in full swing. We pick at the sweet potatoes, tolerate a serving of turkey and move the green bean casserole around on our plate, making sure to save room for dessert — the pie. Fruit pies, cream pies, chocolate pies, nut pies … we all have our favorite. (And let’s be honest; cheesecake’s a total misnomer. It’s just cheese pie.) Here are three delicious holiday dessert recipes to impress at your next event. Check out the full recipes >>
