The holiday season is approaching and as someone who loves to bake (and eat) all kinds of goodies, it is the prime time for sweet treats. Personally in the kitchen, I like to stick to classic, simple recipes that can be easily adapted to different preferences. Here are some of my favorite holiday treats.
- Reindeer Noses: Talk about simple! All this requires is a flat pretzel, square or circle shaped, a Kiss or Rolo Candy, and M&Ms. All this recipe requires is placing the candy on the pretzel, melting it, placing an M&M on top, and then cooling in the fridge. They are so easy and such a great size to snack on. To make them more or less Christmas themed, buy different colors of M&M.
SEE RECIPE: https://www.food.com/recipe/reindeer-noses-489926
- Christmas Crack: The Christmas spirit of this treat is really just in the name. This recipe produces a delicious caramel and chocolate cracker. It requires saltine crackers, butter, brown sugar, chocolate chips/chopped chocolate, and vanilla extract. Similar to the reindeer noses, it involves one step stove top, one step in the oven, and one step in the fridge. To adjust to the holiday of your preference, you can once again add seasonally colored M&Ms during the chocolate portion of the recipe.
SEE RECIPE: https://www.savoryexperiments.com/easy-butter-toffee/
- Cinnamon Bread: I gave this bread as part of my gifts last year and it was a definite hit! It is a no yeast bread, which eliminates the hardest part of baking bread. The base bread requires cinnamon, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, eggs, milk (regular or dairy free), and vegetable oil. It is super easy and you can make all kinds of variations to the recipe to adapt it for your needs. Wrap in cute packaging and give as a gift or just enjoy yourself!
SEE RECIPE: https://julieblanner.com/christmas-gift-idea-easy-cinnamon-bread/
- Snowball Cookies: These are the most traditional holiday cookies you could imagine. They require butter, powdered sugar, salt, vanilla extract, flour, and pecans/walnuts. You can make all kinds of substitutions with these cookies and they are sure to give you a buttery, melt-in-your mouth flavor that we could all use around the holidays.
SEE RECIPE: https://kristineskitchenblog.com/butter-snowballs/
- Cranberry and Orange Muffins: To me, the holidays scream cranberry and orange. This flavor combo is so tasty and could really be put into all kinds of goodies: breads, muffins, cookies, cake, and more! The recipe I selected is a muffin recipe because muffins are already single servings and they would be amazing at any point during the day. Cozy up with some tea and a muffin and enjoy your holiday!
SEE RECIPE: https://www.glorioustreats.com/cranberry-orange-muffins-delicious-recipe/
The holidays can be a stressful time for everyone involved. One thing I find that helps me stay in the spirit is baking and enjoying yummy foods. This holiday season I encourage you to find time to taste some of these treats whether with family, friends, or alone! Happy Holidays!