Holiday Desserts
 

You can't spell Holiday dinners without the sweet thing at the end. So what is your favorite?

I'll try to list things in categories so it doesn't get too specific. Otherwise I'd have to list 6 dozen desserts and I don't feel like doing it.

For the sake of sanity, yes, you may combine choices (i.e., for example if you must have vanilla ice cream with your cheesecake covered in chocolate fudge drippings, you would choose 3 boxes).

Since my family tends to not sleep much during the holidays, I think coffee would have to be my favorite 'dessert', and adding in a bit of cognac, irish cream, or whatever booze is on hand is pretty much a prerequisite.

I used to drink profuse amounts of coffee in my day to day life, but now the holidays are pretty much the only time I do that anymore. Hence, coffee and booze get equal parts of my vote, for giving me the strength to stay awake for longer than normal periods of time and letting me participate in the most holiday activities as is humanly possible.

My family has never been one to make large homecooked meals at the holidays; in fact, it's something of a tradition to grill hamburgers on Christmas. Nevertheless, in recent years, we've gone the catered route, getting meals from Heavenly/Honeybaked Ham. Those meals come with pies, so I look forward to a tasty apple or pecan pie for dessert.

Recently pulled out of the oven brownie with icecream on top and then fudge ontop of that.

Yeah.
Or change the brownie for an apple gallette or something. All and all, its fucking delicious.

I've been trying to make vegan brownies lately, with no luck. They either cook weird too fast/too slow in certain parts or just turn out completely wrong. I thought I could just substitute the fake egg junk for the part where you need real eggs, but it doesn't work. Fail =[

Vegan. :rolleyes:

Just make food like God intended, with lots of animal parts.

I'm not the vegan, my boyfriend is. I just happen to be vegetarian.

You'd be surprised how delicious vegan desserts can be! There are certain times when I prefer the vegan equivalent to the regular. Cookies for one example.

Why does it make a difference if you're on holiday? I tend to eat the same kind of desserts at home as I do on vacation.

I suppose so. It's just a matter of perspective. My mom only made creme puffs during Christmas, I've only eaten pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving events, and I generally tend to stay away from chocolate cakes (the really rich, gooey kind) unless it's a special occasion.

I myself personally just don't eat desserts that often (especially on a college budget!), so visiting family and friends is just one of those opportunities, which generally tend to be around the holidays.

I apologize for the biased opening, but I thought "describe your favorite desserts" had already been done.

Cinnamon rolls. Raisin butter tarts. Magic bars. Chocolate truffles. Shortbread....

...I can feel the pounds already! :)

Let's see...
Cookies, Pumpkin pie,apple pie, pecan pie, chocolate cake & red velvet cake.

Sweet chocolate covered Jesus can you teach some of them to a friend of mine. He's a vegan and always tries to get us to try his vegan dishes, and they're all terrible. Now i have nothing against veganism, my whole family's vegetarian except for me (odd how that happened) and my sister went vegan for a while. I've eaten plenty of vegan dishes at various restaurants over my lifetime, and they've been good. The stuff this guy makes is a new level of terrible.

My grandma starts her Christmas baking and shopping in September (no joke) We eat Christmas cookies well into july every year. So in some respects it's nothing new or special for me come christmas time, but i guess the freshly baked ones taste better than the ones she freezes, lol.

It's not so much deserts i look forward to at Christmas. My mom and dad make the cookies i look forward to most, but nothing compares to the various entres and appetizers that my grandmas make for Christmas parties and family gatherings. So i voted i'll just have thirds or whatever.

Voted for "nuts".

Because, heh, nutz. Chocolate is nice, too, though.

My mom is Swiss-German, so I get my fair share of European baking, especially over the holidays. There's too many different types of cookies to name, but they're all so delicious!
And how could one forget gingerbread? We always make a gingerbread house, and have a pot of apple cider brewing on the stove during the holidays. It makes me happy just thinking about it.

I'm with Helloween, too often dessert is overrated and ending enjoying the main course instead. Especially homemade suppers. I typically make pretty good homemade dishes and desserts require precision baking which I wasn't quite too fond of.

I rock with ANYTHING chocolate.... sometimes I get WAY too addicted and I have to pay for it.... Lots of Basketball coming my way starting in January...

Well every year for my birthday/Christmas we have pies instead of cake.



3 16" pumpkin pies. I keep one of those solely for myself. :P

This is technically thread necromancy, Angelus, but I will let it slide since the holidays are approaching once more. Just be mindful of resurrecting old topics without a damned good reason.

And for the record, I'm into peanut brittle. I usually make several batches each year and have begun experimenting with different recipes like peppermint molasses, banana nut, and cashew-pear. You need to be careful though, since the introduction of different ingredients can seriously affect the crystallization properties of cracked sugar. I've had some pretty bad outcomes with stuff like cocoa powder and dried cherries.

But it's my hope that I'll eventually perfect the process enough to have a dozen quality recipes that I can consider marketing in the future. I don't think anyone has cornered the market on brittle yet.

To be fair Crash, this thread's been on the top page for a YEAR. Considering GFF doesn't have much to talk about food apparently, I think it's only a minor offense, no?

That peanut butter sounds outrageous by the way.

I didn't give him an infraction, since I was aware of the thread's visibility. He just got a small warning to be careful about it.

Christ, I'm not Styphon.

I'm definitely getting ideas for a wicked Christmas dinner. :)



(I really wasn't trying to cause trouble. I've been thinking food all day and with the holidays and all I"m getting ideas. Sorry.)

Right.

So, about that brittle Crash--can you use Torini syrup as a flavoring agent? I am intrigued and thinking I might make my own as holiday gifts this year. Does it do well with chocolate?

I don't know, honestly. It's a definite possibility, though it does depend upon what chemicals are in the individual syrup. There's a rather narrow window during which specific ingredients must be added before the sugar slurry recrystallizes, and before the baking soda is added. The soda is the catalyst, but is somewhat reactive with other ingredients, I've found.

But my first inclination is to say that Torini syrups should work since they're liquid and generally sucrose based. I'd avoid the sugar-free ones, since I have no freakin' clue what aspartame will do to the blend. Start with a pretty basic flavor, like vanilla or strawberry and see how that works. Most brittle recipes demand vanilla extract anyhow, so Torini should function similarly.

Chocolate has not yielded the best of results, in my experience. Cocoa powder doesn't blend well, and melted chips affect the consistency of the sugar so that it dries too firm and doesn't break. But perhaps the Torini syrup will work as long as it doesn't contain too much actual chocolate.

Also, salt really fucks things up too. So if you use any nuts, make sure they're unsalted.

Ever considered using a high quality chocolate syrup, Crash? I'd assume that would avoid the problem of the chocolate changing the consistency.

Ah, I'm a nut for pumpkin pie, just about anything chocolate, and cookies <3 We have pumpkin pie every year, so Thanksgiving is a treat.

It's crossed my mind, but I don't know if it's the medium or the nature of chocolate itself that causes the problem. It may simply be an incompatible substance. Unfortunately, the only way to definitively find out is to prepare a batch as normal and see if it works out. I'm not entirely crazy about wasting materials on a last-ditch grab at getting it right. I'm not even 100% convinced it'd taste proper if it did come out properly, it's always just been something I've done for the sake of experimentation.

I'm more inclined to attempt the Torino solution, as that's a substance that's much closer to simple syrup than chocolate syrup is.

Just as a curiosity--how would it taste if you prepared the peanut brittle with just whatever syrup or sweetener you had, and just dip it in chocolate when the brittle's done?

Yeah, that'd definitely work. I've seen it recommended in a few books.

Cool, thanks Crash! Been looking for some good holiday gift ideas. :) It'll be perfect for my boyfriend's grandfather since he loves peanut brittle and is a total sucker for chocolate.