We went to Trader Joe’s yesterday. I came away with a nice stash of iced gingerbread, candy cane oreos and pfeffernusse. Yum. Granted I’m Jewish so I probably should be voting for Hanakah gelt. But I really can’t resist good gingerbread and those chewy red and white minty taffys they sell at the drug stores around here.
What are your favorites?
My grandparents always had chocolate covered cherry cordials when I was a kid so I always associate them with Christmas. Ditto the box of mini Peppermint Patties we’d get in our stockings.
Peppermint bark.
Presidents Choice Peppermint Fudge Crackle ice cream. I have two containers in my freezer thanks to the weekend’s shopping.
Chocolate Covered Cherries for me and I can’t find any this year yet. They are usually everywhere by now. I’m craving them badly.
White Trash Answer: Jack in the Box makes an amazing Egg Nog Milkshake… unfortunately it’s like 1000 calories so I don’t have them very often
Other Answer: Peppermint Bark, but only when made with quality ingredients (i.e. chocolate that actually contains cocoa butter)
Fudge. I must give away 99% of what I make, or I’d eat it all. We make a white trash kind of stuff where we put peanut butter between Ritz crackers and dip it in white chocolate or chocolate. They’re pretty tasty.
The commisary at the Sub Base in New London always gets a heap of Schmidt gift boxes, so we get one of them for the house if we end up not having time to crank out the cookies and stollen, and also some of the Asbach Uralt chocolate brandy bottles, and little marzipan fruits. We tend to have people drop by more frequently around christmas to exchange presents and we like to sit and have coffee and snacks.
If we bake, we make stollen, liebkuchen, pfeffernusse, springerle cookies, and spiced speculaas. Which reminds me I need to get the springerle roller out for next year since it is too late to bake them for this year.
My grandmother’s spice cake. I’ll be making a bunch of them this weekend as a matter of fact.
Every year Mom makes her Cape Breton Pork Pies. I think the original recipe calls for lard or something which is about all the pork in it, but the recipe is for these tooth rotting sweet bite-size date tarts with icing.
That and Grandma’s fruitcake.
I can’t wait to start baking this weekend.
Springerle. Marzipan.
Lebkuchen, stroopwaffels, my mother’s homemade mince pies, chocolate cherry liqueur cups, Quality Street and pepparkakor.
What, the Irish don’t really have traditional Xmas treats, we steal from those who do!
Christmas Fudge, Peanut Butter Cocoa Oats minute-no-bake- cookies. Hunky walnut gems, and kolack, apricot, date, nut, and poppy. Pfeffernuss and Peanut Hershey’s Kiss Cookies. Sometimes peanut Brittle. Pressed or form iced sugar cookies.
Chocolate Covered Cherries.
Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Cheesecake squares with walnuts.
Herman cultivated sourdough yeast starter spice cake with walnuts and pineapple- cream cheese frosting.
I demand recipes from those who make their own goodies!
Fruitcake (Yes, I can eat the whole thing)
Ginger snaps and bunuelos (aka cinnamon crispies).
It’s not Christmas without my mother’s chocolate walnut cookies. I’ve taken on the duty of making them since Mom passed away three years ago, but they’re not quite the same.