Christmas dessert

[Joni]

I am bringing one of the desserts ( for about 15 people, am sure someone else is bringing one). I LOVE dessert! Am thinking of the chocolate mousse cake from last year Fine Cooking Holiday. Last year I did two different trifles -- a lemon blueberry one and then a dark cherry pastry cream with almond cake -- both were terrific..but thought I should do something else this year. What is everyone else making?

[McDuff]

Steamed persimmon pudding

[sandra]

Buche de Noel

[GSBravo]

Crepes, strawberry & blueberry. Which should be interesting, as I've never made crepes before.

[HeatherM]

A variety of truffles & cookies. My standard contribution to the family Christmas.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Topfenpalatschinken. Americanized version:Austrian Sweet Cheese-filled Crepes with Custard

[Larry]

I'm making the cranberry lime tart, peppermint chocolate ice cream cake, and perahps the ginger cake, all from the December Gourmet or Bon Appetit, don't remember. There will be the essential yearly fruitcake and cookies too.

[Jaymes]

Ain't Christmas down here without my Bourbon Pecan Pie.

[edsel]

Ain't Christmas down here without my Bourbon Pecan Pie.

Jaymes, I tried out a slight variant of your recipe at Thanksgiving. I used maple syrup rather than bourbon (half the family crowd loves bourbon but the others just hate it. I used Lyle's Golden Syrup rather than Karo just 'cause I'd never tried it and thought it might be interesting. The pies turned out great.

Oh, and the pecans were from my Aunt's trees. I still have enough pecans to try another batch at Christmas. Maybe I'll sneak some bourbon into one of the pies this time.

[kthull]

I'll be giving that eggnog tiramisu from Bon Appetit a shot for Christmas. I was excited to see that recipe because I love eggnog flavor and like to find different takes on it each year. I was going to do an eggnog bread pudding until I saw that one.

That plus a host of cookies, some new and some old standby's. Around here, there are before and after Christmas dinners too...for those I'll be trying the Schwartzwalder torte from Gourmet and the lemon chiffon with cranberries from Bon Appetit.

[Flattop]

Haiupi bread pudding. Did it for a Restaurant Concept class presentation (Selling a Tiki bar concept) today and it went over big. Needs some tweeking, but it was good.

[Ling]

bread pudding (made with croissants), boubon pecan pie, some sort of cheesecake, some bar cookies, and 3-4 varieties of christmas cookies. fudge and peanut brittle if i have time.

edit: oops, forgot i'm also making truffles.

sugar overload...yummmmmmm

Edited December 12, 2003 by Ling (log)

[Dana]

Creme Brulee

My family would probably divorce me if we didn't have it.

[jackal10]

Christmas Pudding with Brandy Butter, followed by Mince Pies, of course and

the traditional "13 deserts".

They are

1-"Pompe à l’huile" (olive oil flat sweet bread),

2-the black (representing evil) and

3-the white nougat (representing good),

dried fruits named "the four beggars" (LES QUATRES MENDIANTS) carrying the color of religious orders:

4-Walnuts symbolize the Augustans ,

5- Dried figs symbolize the Franciscans,

6- the Carmelites are symbolized by the almonds and

7- raisins stand for the Dominicans. Then come

8-dates (the sacred fruit from Egypt),

9- oranges or quince comfits or other home grown fresh fruits from store

10- apples

11-pears,

12-grapes and

13- mandarins.

Edited December 12, 2003 by jackal10 (log)

[helenjp]

Sigh...well..it just HAS to be Japan's traditional Christmas cake -- a shortcake with fresh strawberries. This year a chocolate cake and maybe chocolate ganache too.

Christmas pudding is too much on top of strawberry shortcake, so I make it early and we have a Twelfth Night pudding instead.

Also, we have a full-on Japanese-style New Year, and there's only so much cooking a body can do!

[helenjp]

Sigh...well..it just HAS to be Japan's traditional Christmas cake -- a shortcake with fresh strawberries. This year a chocolate cake and maybe chocolate ganache too.

Christmas pudding is too much on top of strawberry shortcake, so I make it early and we have a Twelfth Night pudding instead.

Also, we have a full-on Japanese-style New Year, and there's only so much cooking a body can do!

[TrishCT]

My mother in law makes a very traditional Christmas (suet) pudding with hard sauce, we have a selection of Christmas cookies which are great and I'll be bringing a box of the Godiva G bonbons.

This year I am adding to the mix my own original creation which I call Peach Melba Trifle. So far, it exists only in my mind. I don't have the ingredient measurements exacted because this will be my first time making it.... The catch is that after it is assembled it needs to be eaten fairly soon and not saved for later.... It contains vanilla ice cream, chambord moistened sponge cake, prosecco moistened spongecake, sweetened raspberries, peaches, whipped cream, and crushed almond biscotti. Served with prosecco. We shall see....

[magnolia]

I'll be giving that eggnog tiramisu from Bon Appetit a shot for Christmas. I was excited to see that recipe because I love eggnog flavor and like to find different takes on it each year. I was going to do an eggnog bread pudding until I saw that one.

That plus a host of cookies, some new and some old standby's. Around here, there are before and after Christmas dinners too...for those I'll be trying the Schwartzwalder torte from Gourmet and the lemon chiffon with cranberries from Bon Appetit.

WOuld you mind abridging the Bon App recipe & posting it here? I can't buy it in the UK & nobody I know is going to the US / returning in time. I love eggnog and really want to make something eggnoggy for Christmas. I'm thinking of ice cream too...so any eggnog ice cream recipes would be most welcome (though come to think of it, the last time I tried to make an ice cream with alcohol in it, it didn't work even though I burned off all the alcohol... )

[MobyP]

I'll be giving that eggnog tiramisu from Bon Appetit a shot for Christmas. I was excited to see that recipe because I love eggnog flavor and like to find different takes on it each year. I was going to do an eggnog bread pudding until I saw that one.

That plus a host of cookies, some new and some old standby's. Around here, there are before and after Christmas dinners too...for those I'll be trying the Schwartzwalder torte from Gourmet and the lemon chiffon with cranberries from Bon Appetit.

WOuld you mind abridging the Bon App recipe & posting it here? I can't buy it in the UK & nobody I know is going to the US / returning in time. I love eggnog and really want to make something eggnoggy for Christmas. I'm thinking of ice cream too...so any eggnog ice cream recipes would be most welcome (though come to think of it, the last time I tried to make an ice cream with alcohol in it, it didn't work even though I burned off all the alcohol... )

Maggie - there's a magazine shop off portobello road (opposite Christopher's deli) that does the US cooking mags (Saveur, Gourmet etc) if you're ever in the area.

[rickster]

Bon Appetit recipes are posted in Epicurious.com. Is this the eggnog tiramisu one? It says on the site its from the December 2003 issue.

Tiramisu Eggnog Trifle

[GSBravo]

Christmas Pudding with Brandy Butter, followed by Mince Pies, of course and

the traditional "13 deserts".

They are

1-"Pompe à l’huile" (olive oil flat sweet bread),

2-the black (representing evil) and

3-the white nougat (representing good),

dried fruits named "the four beggars" (LES QUATRES MENDIANTS) carrying the color of religious orders:

4-Walnuts symbolize the Augustans ,

5- Dried figs symbolize the Franciscans,

6- the Carmelites are symbolized by the almonds and

7- raisins stand for the Dominicans. Then come 

8-dates (the sacred fruit from Egypt),

9- oranges or quince comfits or other  home grown fresh fruits from store

10- apples

11-pears,

12-grapes and

13- mandarins.

Can you either tell me more about this, start another thread explaining it, or point me to where I can find more information on this?

I'm into the whole story behind the story thing with foods- who, what, where, when, why. And this "13 traditional deserts", while not something that would go over well at the shanty, sounds interesting.

[kthull]

Yes rickster...that's the one. I also did the eggnog creme brulee last year (also on the site) and it was out of this world. And I adapted an eggnog ice cream recipe into an eggnog cheesecake the year before...really tasty with a butter rum sauce.

I'll making some mascarpone in a few minutes and hope to whip up a test version of the trifle tomorrow. I'll be making my own ladyfingers today too.

Question on the chocolate leaves...I have a relatively-young lemon tree at home, but the leaves aren't quite big enough and it might look a little naked if I steal 40 or more leaves from it (in all, I'd be making three trifles). What could I use in it's place? Fake leaves? I can't see them giving the right vein to the chocolate. Can lemon leaves be purchased at a florist? Or for that matter, are there other safe leaves that I might be able to buy from a florist?

Thanks! I only see great reviews on epicurious.com...I'll be sure to post my comments here as well.

[Mabelline]

Suet pudding with hard sauce. Pecan pie. Boston creme pie. PRALINES. Turtles. A huckleberry-rhubarb pie. This year I'm using a suggestion from an absolutely winning Brit cookbook I found in the library to use my crockpot to steam the pudding in. That was so obvious I nearly slapped myself. Matter of fact, I'm going to try the first one overnight. What luxury.

[sandra]

I'll be giving that eggnog tiramisu from Bon Appetit a shot for Christmas. I was excited to see that recipe because I love eggnog flavor and like to find different takes on it each year. I was going to do an eggnog bread pudding until I saw that one.

That plus a host of cookies, some new and some old standby's. Around here, there are before and after Christmas dinners too...for those I'll be trying the Schwartzwalder torte from Gourmet and the lemon chiffon with cranberries from Bon Appetit.

WOuld you mind abridging the Bon App recipe & posting it here? I can't buy it in the UK & nobody I know is going to the US / returning in time. I love eggnog and really want to make something eggnoggy for Christmas. I'm thinking of ice cream too...so any eggnog ice cream recipes would be most welcome (though come to think of it, the last time I tried to make an ice cream with alcohol in it, it didn't work even though I burned off all the alcohol... )

Maggie - there's a magazine shop off portobello road (opposite Christopher's deli) that does the US cooking mags (Saveur, Gourmet etc) if you're ever in the area.

Also Harvey Nicks has allt he American magazines, on the fifth floor with the food and wine.

[Joni]

Am thinking of changing my mind now..that eggnog tiramisu trifle does look good...instead of ladyfingers...should I do pound cake or a genoise?? I don't really like ladyfingers and prefer to bake something else.