Christma Recipes

A showpiece Christmas coconut layer cake with tutti-frutti filling loaded with pecans, candied cherries, golden raisins, and coconut, then frosted with almond whipped cream. Holiday baking at its finest.

Buttery drop cookies loaded with oats, vanilla milk chips, flaked coconut, and macadamia nuts. Sour cream keeps them soft and chewy. Makes 5 dozen for the holiday cookie swap.

When I was little my mom and dad had lots of parties especially at the holidays. With upwards of 70 people the easiest thing to serve was punch. This is Mom's concoction. The guys love it too. See Dreamsicle Punch too.

A delicious side dish for your Thanksgiving dinner.

This delicious dish is made with dried fruit, sweet cherries, juicy apples and seedless grapes.

Cheesecake pumpkin pie layers a graham-pecan crust with a creamy pumpkin-cream cheese filling spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Hybrid Thanksgiving showstopper.

Buttery crescent cookies with ground nuts, chilled overnight, then shaped into half moons and rolled hot in powdered sugar. A traditional Christmas cookie with crumbly shortbread texture.

Prize pumpkin pie made with sweetened condensed milk for an extra-silky custard. Brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg pack the spice. The classic Thanksgiving slice, made richer.

What's for dessert at Christmas day? How about some homemade candy cane ice cream? It's made of low-fat milk, egg yolks and crushed candy cane. It's creamy and silky, crushed candy cane adds some crunch and minty sweetness. Don't have to pay high price for hagen daz, this is as good as hagen daz, and it's lower fat.

Cranberries and pears are a great pair. They make this deliciously fruity filling, and it tastes great with the buttery and flakey pastry. It's as delicious as an apple pie.

Pumpkin cheesecake with a buttery graham cracker crust, a cinnamon-and-nutmeg spiced pumpkin filling sweetened with maple syrup, and a glossy maple-walnut topping. The Thanksgiving dessert that outshines pumpkin pie.

Mocha nut butter balls with instant coffee, cocoa powder, pecans, and butter, rolled in powdered sugar. A melt-in-your-mouth Christmas cookie perfect for holiday tins.

A glazed Christmas ham brushed with apricot-sherry glaze, warmed with cinnamon and star anise, and crusted in brown sugar, served with a crisp, fresh fennel coleslaw in a herby yogurt dressing. A festive feast pairing.

Cherry and almond Christmas cake: maraschino cherries, apricots, ginger, and almonds macerated in amaretto and brandy, baked into a lighter apple-puree batter, then soaked in more amaretto. A boozy, fruit-packed festive cake that keeps for a month.

Sparkle cookies rolled in red and green sugar for a festive Christmas look. Made with cookie mix, almond extract, and cream of tartar for a soft, tender bite. Makes 4 dozen.

Baked squid with garlic-anchovy capellini, the Italian-American Feast of Seven Fishes star reimagined for the home oven. Crispy crumb-coated calamari over silky anchovy-garlic pasta, all in 30 minutes.