How to Cook Dishes for Christmas and the New Year
The festivities leading up to the New Year are a great time to pamper those close to you with tasty and unusual treats. For example, you can make them a Christmas tree with chocolate stuffing, snowmen made of marshmallows, unusual cookies, and more.
5-Minute Crafts compiled a list of simple and original recipes for Christmas and New Year’s Eve dishes.
Recipe #1: a Christmas tree with chocolate stuffing
1. Roll out the puff dough, cut a circle out of it, and place it on some baking parchment. Place a triangular piece of chocolate on top.
2. Arrange the chocolate pieces on the dough in the shape of a Christmas tree the way it’s shown in the photo.
3. Cut off a triangle part of the dough on the top of the chocolate tree.
4 and 5. Make several cuts around the tree the same way it’s shown in the photo.
6. Fold the dough in the shape of a corner at the top of the tree by placing one piece of dough over the other.
7. Fold the dough into a chocolate Christmas tree the way it’s shown in the photo. Brush it with egg yolk.
8. Sprinkle the tree with chopped nuts and confectionery sprinkles.
9. Bake in the oven at 350°F for about 10 minutes.
10. Bon appetite!
Recipe #2: puff pastry trees
1. Take a layer of puff pastry.
2. Cut it into equal strips with the help of a dough-cutting wheel.
3. Fold each strip in the shape of a Christmas tree, making the bottom part wider and the tops more narrow.
4. Pierce each tree with a wooden skewer.
5. Brush each tree with egg whites.
6. Sprinkle with sugar and ground cinnamon on top (you can also sprinkle some of the trees with pastry poppy seeds).
7. Bake the trees in the oven at 390°F for 10 minutes.
8. Stick the finished product into the chocolate candy, which will play the role of a stand. Put all of the trees with stands on a dish and sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
Recipe #3: glazed gingerbread
1. Get a ready-made gingerbread cake.
2. Cut out future gingerbread with the help of cookie-cutters.
3. Evenly pour a white glaze over part of the gingerbread pieces.
4. Cover them with confectionery sprinkles.
5. Decorate the Christmas tree-shaped gingerbread pieces with green confectionery glaze.
6. Decorate all the gingerbread pieces using confectionery sprinkles and glaze. Let the glaze dry well.
Recipe #4: marshmallow snowmen
1. Take marshmallows and sweet breadsticks.
2. Place 3 marshmallows on one breadstick.
3. Make legs and arms for the soon-to-be snowman out of breadsticks.
4. Draw on eyes and a mouth with the help of a confectionery glaze. Make the snowman’s nose out of the dough or marzipan sprinkles.
5. Place the snowman on a cup of hot coffee or cocoa. Bon appetite!
Recipe #5: “snowmen” cookies
1. You’ll need ready-made cookies, marshmallows, and confectionery glaze.
2. Using confectionery glaze, draw the snowman’s eyes and mouth on the marshmallows. Make the nose out of pastry sprinkles.
3. Abundantly apply white glaze to the cookies.
4. Place the snowman’s head on the glaze before it dries.
5. After the glaze becomes dry, draw the snowman’s arms, a scarf, and buttons with the help of a confectionery pencil.
6. Bon appetite!
Recipe #6: glazed candy cookies
1. Take some dough and glazed chocolate candies. Keep a part of the candies intact, and chop the rest into tiny pieces.
2. Separate a small piece from the dough and dip it in the chopped candy.
3. Mix the dough so that the candy spreads evenly.
4. Place 3 whole candies on each cookie.
5. Place baking parchment on a baking sheet and place the cookies on top. Bake them in the oven until they’re ready.
6. Bon appetite!
Recipe #7: gingerbread Christmas trees
1 and 2. Roll out gingerbread dough and cut 4 Christmas trees out of it with the help of cookie-cutters.
3. Cut out a strip on the top part of 2 Christmas trees, and on the trunk part of 2 other trees (the way it’s shown in the photo). Bake in the oven at 350°F for 15 minutes.
4. Contour the trees with green confectionery glaze.
5. Draw on tree decorations.
6. Assemble a 3D tree by connecting the pieces together. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Recipe #8: Christmas tree cookies
1 and 2. Take a layer of puff pastry and cut out stars of different sizes from it.
3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment, place the stars on it, and bake them in an oven preheated to 350°F for 10 minutes.
4. Squeeze the chocolate glaze from a pastry syringe onto the largest star.
5. Place a smaller star over it.
6. Assemble a tree from the stars and sprinkle it with powdered sugar.
Recipe #9: cookies with a layer of jam
1. Roll out some shortcrust pastry.
2. Cut out the future cookies with the help of large cookie-cutters.
3 and 4. Cut small holes with the help of smaller cookie-cutters in half of the big cookies. Bake them in an oven preheated to 350°F until they’re ready.
5. Sprinkle the cookies with small holes with powdered sugar.
6. Apply jam (raspberry, cherry, or apricot) on the second half of the cookies that don’t have smaller holes in them. Place the cookies with holes over them.
Recipe #10: snack snowmen from eggs
1. Cut off the “bottom” of a hard-boiled and peeled egg.
2. Remove the top of the egg with a teaspoon so that the cut is rounded.
3. Pierce 2 pieces of boiled carrot with a wooden skewer.
4. Place the second boiled and peeled egg over the rounded cut of the first egg.
5. Pierce both eggs with a wooden skewer with the carrot on its end. The carrot will serve as the hat of the future snowman.
6. Take a plastic cocktail stick and use it to make the snowman’s eyes and holes for buttons.
7 and 8. Take a black olive and keep piercing it with the cocktail stick by slightly pressing it. Eventually, you will cut out small pieces from the black olive that will play the role of the snowman’s eyes and buttons.
9. Insert the olive pieces you just made into the eyes and buttonholes on the snowman.
10. Place the snowmen onto a plate sprinkled with salt. Use a carrot to make their noses and pieces of bacon to make their scarves. Bon appetite!