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5 holiday desserts from around the world

What’s the best part of travelling? For me, it’s about the local culture, including the unique foods. This holiday season, you don’t need a passport to experience any of these international cultural traditions. North American holidays are known for turkey, stuffing and an assortment of sweet and sticky pies, but what are some other holiday desserts you can find around the globe?

Women’s Post showcases five unique and decadent international desserts from different cultures that are bound to impress guests at your next holiday party:

Phillipines- Pinoy Fruit Salad

Filipino food is amazing! While known for their glazed Christmas ham or desserts like halo-halo, during the Christmas season one of the most popular sweet treats is fruit salad. Yep, fruit salad, but this isn’t any random fruit salad. Normally, Filipino fruit salad, sometimes called Pinoy fruit salad, takes one can of fruit cocktail mixed with heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk. You can also find versions with coconut meat, coconut milk, jello, tapioca pearls or added pineapple. Talk about easy, creamy and delicious.

France -Buche de Noel

This dessert might look familiar to some North American homes. Buche de Noel or Yule Log is a traditional sweet treat found in France and French-influenced countries during the Christmas holidays. It is made using a classic sponge cake coated in chocolate buttercream and rolled in chocolate shavings to resemble an actual log.

England- Christmas Pudding

Christmas pudding, Christmas pudding ! What’s Christmas without some traditional Christmas pudding, especially if you’re from the U.K. Also known as plum pudding, this dessert is usually served after Christmas dinner and is made using a mixture of dried fruit,spices, molasses. There are no plums in the actual pudding, but lots of raisins. The pudding is often steamed for approximately three hours. Many people often soak the fruits before hand in Brandy  and once the pudding is done it is splashed with more alcohol. This helps to preserve the pudding for almost up to one year,

Guyana- Black Cake

Similar in look to the christmas pudding, this cake is made using minced dried fruits that have been soaked in cherry brandy or rum The fruits are mixed with flour, eggs and sugar, spices and molasses or browning. Once baked, the cakes are generously soaked in rum. This Christmas treat can be found in many Caribbean islands including Jamaica and Trinidad. Black Cake or Caribbean fruit cake are also popular at weddings and is said to bring prosperity and luck.

Australia- Pavlova

Even though it’s technically summer in Australia during the Christmas holidays, this doesn’t mean that Australians can’t indulge in a refreshing Christmas- summer dessert treat. This popular meringue- like dessert is named after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova after she toured New Zealand and Australia in the 1920’s. Pavlova is made using egg whites, sugar, and cream, but it has a firm and crunchy exterior and a delicate inside. This dessert is usually served on Christmas day.

What are your favourite global holiday desserts? Comment and indulge!

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Holiday Baking: empire cookies

In between the chocolate and heavy desserts this holiday, why not try these sandwich empire cookies? This recipe is one of my all-time favourites. Not only do they have a hint of almond in the icing, but the jam centre really balances everything out. They are also relatively easy to make, and look impressive to guests. It’s a refreshing change to the typical sweets passed around on Christmas Eve.

Here’s what you need:

cookie

1/2 cup butter

1 to 1 1/2 cup of white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/8 teaspoon baking soda (1 teaspoon if you use granular sugar)

Filling and icing

Raspberry jam

1 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons of hot water

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

candied cherries or candied fruit

Photo by Robin Hood

The base is a simple sugar cookie recipe. You can use this one or follow your families instructions. Start by creaming together the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. It’s best to use an electric mixer, but if you don’t have one, make sure the butter is really soft. Then mix together the rest of the dry ingredients together, and pour into mixer gradually as you stir until dough is formed. If you have to, use your hands for the last bit of mixing, making sure to kneed the dough until it forms a ball.

You will be using a rolling pin to roll out the dough, so you may want to split the dough into two to make it easier.

Roll out the dough until relatively thin. Remember this is a sandwich cookie, and the thicker the dough, the bigger the cookie (and the fewer it will make). Use a cookie cutter to create shapes. I like to use a circle, but any shape will do! Place on greased baking sheet or a sheet with parchment paper. Cook for 10 minutes in the oven, at 350 degrees F. Take them out and let them cool.

This cookie has numerous steps. I like to bake the cookies one day, and then put them together the next. Make sure you set time aside for this recipe!

Once the cookies are cool, it’s time for the jam filling. Take your jam and a knife, and spread it on one side of the cookie, preferable the flat side. Take another cookie and place it on top, flat side down so it makes a macaroon-looking shape. Let sit until the jam settles.

In a bowl, mix the icing sugar, almond extract, and hot water together. Put icing on the top cookie, spreading it into a circle. Make sure to have the candied fruit easily accessible. After icing a row of cookies, stop and place a single piece of candied fruit in the centre of the cookie. Complete the row. Then, move on to the next row and repeat. Let the icing harden. This may take a few hours.

And voila! Empire cookies! Enjoy!

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