From cookies to candied nuts, this free Holiday eBook has everything you need for a homemade Christmas. Gluten-free options too.
Do your favourite Holiday traditions involve food?
So much of what is special about the season is tied to the taste, smell and sharing of food that is only prepared this time of year.
Food is part of what brings us together, and it’s at the root of our most meaningful generosity. From food bank donations to gathering around the table with friends and family, the act of sharing food does more than fill the belly. It connects us with others and feeds the soul.
If gathering around the table with family and friends makes your December sparkle I think you’ll enjoy our updated free Holiday eBook. It includes some of my favourite molasses cookie recipes and a selection of other homemade treats that are perfect for sharing.
This updated book also includes warming drinks and some new gluten-free Holiday treats (coconut macaroons and almond tuiles).
I hope that these recipes give you more ways to share during this season of giving and gathering.
Chocolate gingerbread bundt cake is a beautifully spiced Holiday cake meant for sharing.
If you’re in need of a dessert idea for a Holiday gathering chocolate gingerbread bundt cake is your answer. Beautifully spiced and with a firm crumb it’s the kind of cake that is easy to slice and travels well. Even better, it doesn’t need frosting. Just a sprinkling of icing sugar will dress it up enough and a generous drizzle of molasses toffee sauce will make it extra special.
I brought this chocolate gingerbread bundt cake to a gathering with friends over the weekend. We hadn’t shared a meal with them in years and this felt like the perfect cake to celebrate reconnecting with old friends. (One day soon I’ll share the recipe for soy-glazed salmon that they served as the main dish.)
If you didn’t already know, chocolate, spice and molasses are a lovely combination. This isn’t a chocolate cake, per se, but you can catch a hint of chocolate flavour in each bite.
The full tablespoon of ginger in this recipe is no typo and even with all of the spice this cake has a mild flavour.
This recipe is from a Sobeys recipe magazine (link at bottom of post).
Chocolate Gingerbread Bundt Cake Recipe
Ingredients
3 cups flour, spooned in
3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp. ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
½ tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
2/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups sour cream
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 or 10-in. bundt or tube pan and dust with flour.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves.
In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in molasses and vanilla.
Add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream (beginning and ending with the dry mixture).
Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 50 minutes to an hour, until a tester comes out clean when inserted into centre of cake and when the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Cool cake in pan for 10-20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack. When ready to serve, sprinkle over icing sugar.
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A decadent and easy chocolate tart recipe that tastes delicious warm or at room temperature.
Chocolate and molasses is a magical combination. Just a bit of molasses can intensify that taste of good, dark chocolate but it gives chocolate a nice balance too, adding flavour notes of it’s own.
This is a lovely pastry recipe and fairly easy to make. I made mine with half whole wheat flour for more flavour and because I love to tuck wholemeal flour into my baking.
This recipe is slightly adapted from Ricardo Cuisine. (I changed up the flour in the crust, added a bit of molasses and reduced the sugar in the filling.)
Easy Chocolate Tart Recipe
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 cup flour (can use half whole wheat)
2 Tbsp. icing sugar
½ tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
6 Tbsp. cold butter, diced
3 Tbsp. plain yogurt
Filling:
5 ½ oz (150 g) 70% dark chocolate, chopped
½ cup heavy cream (whipping cream)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp. Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
Instructions:
In a food processor pulse the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the butter and pulse until it’s pea-sized. Add yogurt and pulse until the dough starts to come together. Scrape onto a lightly floured surface and gather into a ball, kneading a few times if there is still flour to incorporate.
On a lightly floured surface roll out dough and fit into a rectangular tart pan or an 8” or 9” spring form pan. (If using a spring-form pan ensure the dough comes up the side 1 ½”.) Prick the dough with a fork and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bake tart shell for about 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Let cool slightly.
Filling:
While the tart shell is baking, melt the chocolate with the cream in a double boiler or in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water.
Remove from heat and whisk in the brown sugar, molasses and eggs. Stir in the flour and whisk just until incorporated.
Pour into the crust and bake about 12 minutes (until the filling is set at the edges but still soft in the centre). Don’t overbake.
Easy Molasses Almond Tuiles – A festive golden cookie that’s lacy and crisp.
Molasses almond tuiles is one of those Holiday cookie recipes that looks fiddly and impressive but really takes little effort. The batter mixes up quickly and goes a long way (this recipe makes about 50 cookies).
When I was in high school and university my mom used to head off to New York City in early December with a group of friends. From the stories mom would tell about the decorations, it seemed like the most festive city in the world.
Mom loved to visit the specialty food shops and would come home with imported cookies that we couldn’t get at home. One of the treats she would bring us were cigar shaped cookies that were crisp and filled with chocolate. I loved the look of them on a plate and the crispy texture was outstanding.
The crispy texture of these cookies reminds me a bit of those special New York treats. It makes them irresistible, like potato chips.
Easy Molasses Almond Tuiles – A festive golden cookie that’s lacy and crisp.
Easy Molasses Almond Tuiles – A festive golden cookie that’s lacy and crisp.
Easy Molasses Almond Tuiles – A festive golden cookie that’s lacy and crisp.
Easy Molasses Almond Tuiles – A festive golden cookie that’s lacy and crisp.
My greatest challenge with this recipe was gathering enough suitable things to drape the warm cookies over until they had set. (I used my rolling pin and a bunch of slender vinegar bottles.) You can also create cigar-shaped cookies by rolling the just-baked tuiles around the handle of a wooden spoon.
Add molasses almond tuiles to your cookie tray or use them to decorate holiday cakes.
The recipe is adapted from a tuile recipe in the December 2016 issue of Canadian Living magazine.
Honey Molasses Almond Tuile Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp. Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Pinch salt
2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. sliced almonds
Instructions:
In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar, molasses, honey, lemon juice and salt. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved (2 min.). Remove from heat and stir in flour and almonds. Chill until firm (about an hour).
Preheat oven to 350 F and line large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using a teaspoon measuring spoon, scoop batter and roll into balls. Arrange on baking sheet about 3” apart.
Bake until golden and bubbly, about 8 minutes. Let cool until starting to firm up (about 90 seconds).
Using a spatula, lift cookies and drape over a rolling pin or slender bottles until firm. Or, roll soft cookies around a thick handled wooden spoon. If the cookies aren’t setting quickly lay them back on the cookie sheet and back for another minute or so. (Watch closely so they don’t burn.)
This moist, light textured and oh so easy pumpkin cake is just what October called for. It seems to suit the season of falling leaves and cooling days. Not heavy and not too sweet. Not bundled up in frosting.
The simple cream cheese glaze is the perfect foil for this cake.
Because the cake is so moist it doesn’t need a lot of icing (and we all know that sometimes cream cheese frosting can overwhelm a cake). That makes the drizzle just perfect.
And a drizzle is the easy way out for those, like me, who lack the skill and patience to frost a cake just right.
Of course there is no need to frost the cake. A dusting of icing sugar would suit it well and the simplicity of our easy pumpkin cake makes it great for snacking too.
Although I used fiddly mini bundt cake pans for my photographed version, this cake is really best suited to a simple tube pan.
The recipe was slightly adapted from Rose Reisman. On her website, The Art of Living Well, you’ll see she’s a master of creating healthy and nutritious recipes that are delicious too.
Easy Pumpkin Cake with Molasses Cream Cheese Glaze Recipe
Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease and flour a 9” tube pan.
In a large bowl beat the beat the brown sugar with the oil. Beat in the eggs then the molasses, yogurt, and pumpkin.
In another bowl whisk the flour with the spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and whisk until no lumps remain.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cakes starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.
Remove to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Gently remove from pan and let cool completely.
To make the icing:
Beat together the cream cheese, molasses, icing sugar and water. Set the cooled cake on a serving plate and drizzle the icing over the cake.
This little cupcake-style sticky pudding can be deceiving. Just when you think it’s looking very much like a regular cake with a lovely tender crumb you take a bite and go flying off to heaven. The texture is exquisite with the pureed dates and the flavour is incredible.
And that description comes before your douse the little puddings with warm toffee sauce.
Really, you might as well start with dessert on an evening when you’re serving Sticky Toffee Pudding. It’s so satisfying that I can’t see a need to eat anything else afterwards.
This recipe makes more than a dozen little puddings so you’ll have some left over. Another option is to bake them in little bread tins and cut them in slabs before serving, which I have done to great effect.
Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and flour muffin tins.
Add the dates and water to a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer for two minutes.
In a large bowl, cream butter brown sugar and vanilla.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the molasses and beat well.
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in three additions and mix until smooth.
Puree the date mixture in a food processor or blender. Stir in the baking soda then add to the batter.
Spoon batter into well-greased and floured muffin tins and bake for about 18 – 20 minutes at 350 F until the center is just firm.
Let cool slightly before removing from tins. These have a delicate crumb so remove them carefully. (Don’t worry if the bottoms look a little messy. Once they’re coated in toffee sauce they’ll look lovely.)
Serve warm with Toffee Sauce drizzled over. Or you can place them in an oven proof dish, pour over half of the sauce and warm at 350 for 15 minutes or so.
Gingerbread, pumpkin and molasses. Has there ever been a tastier trio?
Thanksgiving is our pumpkin carving weekend. It’s a family tradition up at our cottage with my children and all of my nieces and nephews. The kids (many of whom are now in their 20s) do the carving and the parents drink wine. It’s a great afternoon.
We’re also busy preparing supper so by the time the carving is complete we’re all set to sit down to our Thanksgiving feast.
When the last piece of pumpkin pie has been eaten and it’s good and dark outside, the great pumpkin lighting begins. It’s an impressive sight to see that many intricately carved pumpkins clustered together out on the deck, flickering in the autumn scented breeze.
From pie to the great pumpkin carving fest, pumpkin is very much a part of our Thanksgiving weekend.
That’s why this pumpkin gingerbread will be a great addition. Flavoured with classic gingerbread spices and a note of nutmeg this gingerbread combines all that I love about pumpkin pie and gingerbread – lovely texture and a beautiful spice blend. The candied ginger sprinkled on top makes it extra pretty and adds a little more sweet heat.
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
In another bowl, mix the pumpkin purée, melted butter, sugar, molasses, 1 Tbsp. of the candied ginger, eggs, and water.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients, mixing gently just until combined.
Place the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle top with remaining 2 Tbsp. of candied ginger.
Bake for about an hour, until a skewer poked into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then run a knife around the edge of the loaf to loosen. Invert the pan to remove the loaf. Cool completely before cutting
Do you have any cookie recipes from your childhood that can transport you back in time?
This recipe does that for me. The smell of these cardamom scented gingersnaps baking makes me feel like I’m about five years old again, and nibbling one takes me back to the kitchen table, a few days after Christmas, drinking hot chocolate out of big red Christmas mugs.
The reason why I recall eating them after Christmas is because this is a giant recipe. I always cut it in half but my mom would make the full batch. That’s nine whopping cups of flour. She’d stay up half the night rolling, cutting and baking, and if it wasn’t for the fact that these are so delicious, she would never have bothered.
It’s the cardamom that does it. There is something about the scent of cardamom that makes me think it should have a place in history right alongside gold, frankincense and myrrh.
There are no eggs in this recipe and it includes whipped cream. Don’t let that throw you off. The texture of the dough is lovely to work with and the crispiness of the cookie can’t be matched.
These cookies are lovely in their simplicity. Use your favourite cookie cutters and cut holes in the cookies before baking if you’d like to hang them on the tree.
Cardamom Scented Gingersnaps
Recipe can be halved
1 ½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. ground ginger
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ground cloves
1 ½ tsp. ground cardamom
1 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks
9 cups flour (lightly spooned in)
1 Tbsp. baking soda
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Beat together butter and molasses.
Beat in sugar and spices.
With a wooden spoon fold in the whipped cream.
Whisk together flour and baking soda then add to creamed mixture in three additions.
Mix until just combined.
Refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.
Scrape dough onto a lightly floured surface, divide in half.
On a very lightly floured surface roll to ¼” thickness. Cut into Holiday shapes.
Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 5-6 minutes. Watch closely.
Do you have favourite Holiday recipes that you make year after year? I’d love to hear all about them.
One more thing…
If you’re in search of family-friendly food that’s easy to prepare, healthy and tastes good, then sign up to receive blog posts by email. We’d love to send you our monthly newsletter too. It includes cooking tips, menu ideas, featured recipes and more. Here’s the link to subscribe.
These chocolate gingerbread cut-out cookies have an intense chocolaty flavour but aren’t too sweet, making them perfect for decorating and sandwiching with icing.
I grew up baking cut out cookies with my mom and then we’d paint them with a simple milk and icing sugar frosting. My brothers, sisters and I would spend half a day at the kitchen table with bowls of tinted frosting, red and green sprinkles and little silver balls, decorating dozens of cookies and listening to Roger Whittaker’s Christmas album. To this day the song Darcy the Dragon takes me back to the kitchen table in the house where I grew up.
I still love painting Christmas cookies and my kids consider it a sacred Holiday tradition so there is at least one day before Christmas when we all sit down to an afternoon of painting, usually with a few friends.
My kids are masters of the one-tonne cookie, a cookie that is so loaded with icing and sprinkles that you need a spatula to lift it off the table and onto a plate to dry.
Whatever you bake for the Holidays, you’ll notice that it’s not so much the finished product that creates the memories, but the whole process…
For me it’s digging out the cookie cutters, and having my kids by my side at the counter as we roll, press and lift the cut-outs onto the cookie sheet. It’s the sweet and spicy smell of the house when the cookies are in the oven and the giggles in the kitchen as we paint and sprinkle away.
This chocolate gingerbread cut out cookies recipe is a new take on gingerbread cut-out cookies. They have an intense chocolaty flavour but aren’t overly sweet, making them perfect for decorating and sandwiching. The dough is soft and barely needs flour for rolling. If you want the cookies to be harder just bake them a little longer.
In a medium bowl whisk the flour with the cocoa, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl beat the butter with the brown sugar until fluffy.
Beat in the egg, then molasses, then melted chocolate.
Add the flour mixture in three batches, incorporating well between additions.
Scrape dough from bowl and divide into three equal pieces. Pat each piece into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until chilled.
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about ¼” thick. (You really won’t need much flour.)
Place cut-out cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake at 350 F for about 7 minutes.
This lovely dough is a cinch to mix and roll:
One more thing…
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A nicely spiced chocolate ginger cookie that’s great for everyday but can be dressed up for the holidays. I wasn’t intending to write a post today but I can’t resist sharing this recipe that molasses fan Emily sent me yesterday.
It’s for chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies, from the Queen of Cookies herself, Martha Stewart.
I was down to the wire yesterday putting teacher gifts together when this recipe landed in my inbox. I didn’t get a chance to mix them up until late last night so I cut some corners in the method. (Chill dough for 2 hours? Nix. Form into balls and refrigerate for 20 minutes? Nix). It was 10:00 pm when the flour hit the bowl so as soon as everything was combined they went in the oven. I even managed to stay awake long enough to dip them in melted chocolate.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.
In another bowl beat butter and grated ginger.
Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.
In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water.
Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture.
Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture.
Mix in chocolate
Chill if you have time
Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; roll in granulated sugar.
Bake at 325 F until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes.
Cool and dip in melted chocolate.
Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies
One more thing…
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A homemade cookie mix for a classic molasses cookie with a delightful orange twist.
A homemade cookie mix makes a delicious gift.
I love giving delicious gifts. And I like practical gifts too, the sort of thing that’s not going to get tucked in a closet and forgotten about. That’s where homemade edible gifts come in handy. With all of the bustling of the holidays and friends popping over, it’s great to have a sweet treat that’s easy to pull together in a snap.
I’ll fess up — I don’t have great stamina for shopping so it’s easy for me to fall back on homemade gifts. I’d much rather spend the day in the kitchen than the mall, especially when I have cookies like these in the oven. Scented with holiday spices and oprange zest, your house will smell festive and delicious when these orange spice molasses cookies are baking.
If you’re giving a jar of these cookies as a gift, don’t forget to include the full recipe with the instructions.
Orange Spice Molasses Cookies in a jar
These cookies would be especially good on a snowy afternoon alongside a cup of hot chocolate, or may be a cup of chai tea. Recipe adapted (ever so slightly) from www.best-cookie-jar-recipes.com
Ingredients for Jar:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Grated zest of one orange (about 1 Tbsp)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/3 cup dried cranberries
Instructions for Jar:
Place brown sugar in 1-quart jar and pack down firmly and evenly.
In medium bowl, combine flour with baking soda, orange peel, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and allspice.
Stir well to mix.
Spoon flour mixture over brown sugar, pressing down with each addition.
Place cranberries over flour mixture and press down to fit all in jar.
Place lid on jar to close.
Ingredients for baking:
1 egg
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sugar for rolling (optional)*
Instructions for Baking:
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Empty contents of jar into large mixing bowl.
Add egg, butter, molasses and vanilla.
Beat on low speed or by hand until dough is thoroughly blended.
Drop by rounded teaspoonful onto parchment lined cookie sheet.
Or form into balls and roll in sugar if you prefer more of a crackle top cookie.*
Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until set.
Makes about 3 dozen.
Looking for more homemade gift ideas? Try these recipes:
If you’re in search of family-friendly food that’s easy to prepare, healthy and tastes good, then sign up to receive blog posts by email. We’d love to send you our monthly newsletter too. It includes cooking tips, menu ideas, featured recipes and more. Here’s the link to subscribe.
A classic holiday cut-out cookie with a wholesome whole wheat twist. The perfect cookie for baking and decorating with kids.
My mom has an amazing collection of cookie cutters, both old and new. Most are from long before I was born, some had been my grandmothers, and a few are newer designs that I bought her as gifts.
I always loved the cookie cutter drawer in our kitchen. I associated it with the best holidays of the year, since that’s the only time the cookie cutters came out.
My earliest baking memories are of making Christmas cut-out cookies that we’d then paint with tinted frosting and hang on the tree. We’d nibble away at them over Christmas and finish them off only when the tree came down. By then they were hard, a little stale, and in my memory, delicious.
The tradition has continued with my kids, although the cookies hardly last long enough to even be hung on the tree. Plus we have a big dog.
This gingerbread cookie recipe came with a moose-shaped cookie cutter I bought in Maine sometime in the early 1990’s. It was from the Purple Puma Cookie Company. Not sure if they’re still in the business of packaging cookie cutters with recipe cards and spice packets but I was a sucker for their designs.
The recipe didn’t include spices (because they came in a packet) so the spice blend is my own.
Whole Wheat Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
½ cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned in
1 cup whole wheat flour*, spooned in
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp allspice
1/4 tsp each, nutmeg, cloves
* This recipe lends itself well to stone ground flour which is more nutritious and flavourful.
Instructions:
In a large bowl mix butter and sugar until creamy.
Beat in egg and molasses.
Add lemon juice.
Sift together dry ingredients and gradually add to creamed mixture.
When flour mixture is fully incorporated gather dough into a ball, cut in half and pat into two disks.
Chill for one hour.
To bake:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to ¼” thick and cut into shapes.
Bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 8-10 minutes or until golden around the edges.
Simple icing:
2 Tbsp. soft butter
1 cup icing sugar
1-2 Tbsp. milk or cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
In a medium bowl mash the butter and add about half of the icing sugar. Mash them together for a bit then add 1 Tbsp. of milk and the vanilla. Mix well then add remaining icing sugar and more milk as needed. This icing should be a little runny for easy decorating.
Mix dough until blended well:
Pat into two disks and chill:
I like to roll mine fairly thin (1/4 inch) so they hold their shape well.
To decorate, make a simple frosting of icing sugar and milk:
Start with 1 cup icing sugar and 1 Tbsp of milk. Mix well and add more icing sugar (or milk) as required to get a spreadable consistency.
One more thing…
If you’re in search of family-friendly food that’s easy to prepare, healthy and tastes good, then sign up to receive blog posts by email. We’d love to send you our monthly newsletter too. It includes cooking tips, menu ideas, featured recipes and more. Here’s the link to subscribe.
