One of the best holiday activities is to bake desserts, and while family and friends hunt for a sweet treat, making delicious holiday-themed desserts is a sure way to stay busy and fill your house with the smell of fresh-baked cookies and desserts all month long. These are my top five holiday recipes to bake, with tried-and-true treats sure to be crowd-pleasers.
Peppermint bark:
A Christmas classic, peppermint is truly the flavor of the holidays, with peppermint bark providing an upper tier to candy canes that will satisfy any craving for a peppermint dessert. One of the seasonal classics I love is Trader Joe’s peppermint bark, but I love it even more when we make it from scratch. Typically a blend of crushed-up candy canes and white and dark chocolate, peppermint bark is a quick and easy dessert that’s perfect for snacking around the holidays and, for me, is one of my favorite ways to appreciate the childhood nostalgia of candy canes in an even more delicious format.
Peanut butter cookies with Hershey Kisses:
I’m not sure if this is a widely appreciated winter dessert, but I know this is my family’s favorite way to make a sweet cookie with a holiday twist, and it will appear in our ovens without failure year after year. I think peanut butter has a year-round flavor that is perfect for desserts, especially cookies. Still, with a Hershey’s Kiss placed in the center, it elevates the cookie to a delicious swirl of peanut butter and chocolate as the Kiss melts in the center. Though perhaps a year-round dessert, I love making this around the holidays, and it has become ingrained with the holiday spirit.
Sprinkle cookies:
Nothing speaks more of the holidays than holiday colors baked into deserts. Sugar cookies with plenty of sprinkles will forever be one of the best and easiest ways to commemorate the holidays. With seemingly endless amounts of sprinkles to choose from, these cookies will always be unique and a perfect way to get in the holiday spirit. Sugar cookies are easy to make, keeping well both on the counter and in the freezer, and decorating them with red and green sprinkles or snowflakes will always serve as an element of the holidays.
Fruit pies or galettes:
As an alternative to many traditional holiday desserts containing overly sweet ingredients or loads of chocolate, fruit pies or galettes are ideal options. Fresh amounts of fruit will always pair well with sweet pie crust, and though a little more difficult to make than some other recipes, with a premade mini pie crust, fruit pies aren’t too burdensome to bake. They’re sure to impress relatives and friends, not to mention delicious and a needed break from other holiday desserts.
Seven layer bars:
Likely my favorite from this list, seven-layer bars (or magic dream bars) are guaranteed to appear around the holidays in my family. A delicious layering bar of coconut, chocolate, and butterscotch chips featuring a graham cracker crust, these bars are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Seven-layer bars are ooey-gooey perfection that will always be a holiday classic for me.
Baking is one of the most delightful methods to create a fresh aroma and provides a delicious treat perfect for the holiday season. Any one of these five desserts is the perfect way to bring holiday cheer into your kitchen and life.
