[1] These festive pancakes with holiday seasonings taste great, even if you don’t stack them (photo © Zulka Sugar).

[2] Start with quality maple syrup and turn it into cranberry-maple syrup (photo © King Arthur Flour).

We love this festive pancake recipe for the holidays, from Zulka Sugar. It incorporates an array of holiday flavors: cinnamon, cranberry, orange and maple.

The pancakes and syrup are made from scratch, so it’s a weekend or vacation day recipe in our home.
 
 
RECIPE: ORANGE CINNAMON PANCAKES WITH CRANBERRY MAPLE SYRUP

Ingredients
 
For the Pancakes

 
For the Cranberry Syrup

Preparation

1. COMBINE the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and orange zest in a large bowl; whisk to combine.

2. WHISK the eggs in a small bowl, then add the buttermilk, orange juice and vanilla extract. Add the cooled melted butter and stir again to combine. Add the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. Let sit for 10 minutes.

3. MAKE the syrup: Combine 1 cup of the cranberries, the maple syrup, sugar, orange juice and lemon juice in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and let simmer for 2 minutes. When the cranberries start to pop open, use a spoon to smash some of them against the side of the pan.

4. COMBINE the cornstarch and a little water in a small bowl, just enough water to make the cornstarch liquid. Pour this into the syrup and bring it back to a boil for one minute. Add the remaining cranberries, turn off the heat and cover the pan to keep warm.

6. SERVE: Place a few pancakes on a plate with 1/3 cup of the cranberry syrup. Serve hot.
 
 
ABOUT ZULKA SUGAR

Zulka sugars are minimally processed from freshly-harvested sugar cane. They are not refined, which helps preserve the fresh flavor and natural properties of the sugar cane. You can taste the difference in a cup of tea.

Zulka makes granulated, confectioners’ (powdered/10x sugar) and brown sugars. Here’s more about Zulka.
  

Give the crudités some Christmas spirit. Top
photo courtesy Superhealthykids.com; bottom
photo courtesy MomEndeavors.com.

Recently we showed how to Christmas-ize your breakfast, lunch and dinner. But we saved the crudites for last.

At any holiday gathering, it’s a good idea to have a raw vegetable platter (the French term, crudités, pronounced crew-dee-TAY, sounds much more interesting), along with hummus or a nonfat yogurt-based dip.

But what can you do that’s special for Christmas?

Turn the crudités into a Christmas tree or wreath.

You can do it flat on a platter, or turn into a craft project with a styrofoam base: a cone for a Christmas tree or a ring for a wreath.

And, you can assign it to the kids for their contribution to the festivities.
 
WHAT TO BUY

Broccoli florets make the best base because they evoke an evergreen tree; but decorate your tree or wreath with:

For dessert, you can serve a low-calorie wreath or tree of fruit, like this fruit Christmas tree we featured previously.

But it’s only one of the many options that creative cooks have put together. Here are more designs for fruit Christmas trees.
  

Some people don’t know the delights of panettone and pandoro, Italian Christmas breads that are now in stores nationwide from. In Italy they’re Christmas and New Year’s staples, given as holiday gifts. Some Americans have adopted the tradition.

For years we had friends who’d receive them as gifts, then put them aside like so much fruitcake. We started a Panettone Rescue Mission, to take those panettones and return them as bread pudding or another dessert.

They’re delicious simply sliced and served with a cup of coffee or tea. But they adapt well to popular recipes.
 
 
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PANDORO & PANETTONE

Most regions of Italy have their own specialty Christmas sweet bread recipes. The three that are are imported to the U.S. include:

 
While a plain slice is delicious as is, pandoro and panettone can be turned into more complex dishes. Bauli, the major exporter to the U.S. of pandoro and panettone, has developed numerous recipes.

If you want to bake your own, there are plenty of recipes online.

[2] Panettone sliced into a shortcake.

* Baked French Toast With Custard: Recipe
* Eggnog French Toast: Recipe
* Pandoro Star-Shaped French Toast: Recipe
* Panettone French Toast With Mascarpone: Recipe
* Raspberry Jam & Hazelnut Spread Stuffed Panettone French Toast: Recipe

 
DESSERT

During the Renaissance, different European countries and regions within them created their own specialty holiday breads. When the bread was sweetened, the terms “bread” and “cake” were used interchangeably.

All are delicious with chai or other spiced tea like Constant Comment; or with a conventional black tea.

If you want to put some spirit into your snack, dessert or tea time, serve the Christmas bread with mulled wine (warm spiced wine) or with a sweet dessert wine, such as Spumante or Moscato.

 
Here are more Christmas breads, with beautiful photos.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

As we close in on Christmas, we like to “Christmas-ize” our food, adding red and green garnishes to everything from scrambled eggs (green and red bell peppers or jalapeños) to desserts (mint leaves and raspberries).

We have fun doing it, looking for a different red and green combination at every meal. For sandwiches, we plate the lettuce and cherry* tomatoes next to the sandwich for presentation purposes, providing a fork so everyone can move them to the sandwich without fingers. Instead of drab green pimento-stuffed olives, we garnish the plate with bright green Castelvetrano olives with strips of pimento.

You can also take the “cookie cutter” approach to savory foods, using your holiday cookie cutters to shape everything from bread (star- or Christmas tree-shaped toast or PB&J, for example). Or use the cookie cutters as molds to shape food (grains, for example) on the plate.

Here’s how we garnished three of our favorite foods: fish/seafood, pasta and sushi.

CHRISTMAS TARTARE

It’s easy to garnish any fish dish with pearls of green and red tobiko (flying fish caviar). But in this salmon and tuna tartare recipe, we shaped the tartare into Christmas trees.

You can make the tartare with fish or beef (here’s a beef tartare recipe), or make some of each for a nifty surf and turf first course. The cucumber-base version can be readily picked up from an hors d’oeuvre tray.

Ingredients

 
For The Tartare

 
Preparation

1. BLEND together olive oil, wasabi, sesame seeds, pepper and salt. Add fish and toss until evenly coated.

2. ADJUST seasoning as desired with additional wasabi powder, pepper and/or salt.

3. ASSEMBLE on cucumber and potato chip bases as shown in photo.
 
RECIPE: CHRISTMAS PASTA

You can make this dish with any pasta, but the curved tortellini and the cubes of cheese are a nice counterpoint.

You can blanch the greens or use them raw; you can serve the dish hot or at room temperature (like pasta salad).

Ingredients

TOP PHOTO: Tuna tartare Christmas trees; photo courtesy Bemka. SECOND PHOTO: Tortellini from Bella Sun Luci. THIRD PHOTO: Use red and green tobiko (flying fish roe) as a simple garnish; photo Melody Lan | THE NIBBLE. FOURTH PHOTO: Dried cranberries and pistachio nuts on a goat cheese log, at MoreThanHungry.com. BOTTOM PHOTO: Filet mignon with a red and green salad from Double Ranch.

1. COOK the pasta and blanch the greens, as desired. While the pasta cooks, cube the mozzarella. Have all other ingredients ready to add.

2. DRAIN the pasta. Return to the empty pot and add the other ingredients (except garnish), adding just enough olive oil to help bind the ingredients. Toss to blend. Taste, and add salt and pepper as desired.

3. PLATE, garnish and serve.

TOP PHOTO: An appetizer of sliced raw
scallops, topped with red spice and green
herb at cChicago. BOTTOM PHOTO: California
rolls stacked into a snowman at Genji Sushi.

You can add red and green garnishes to any fish dish, raw or cooked. In the photo of the raw scallop appetizer, it’s simply herbs and spices. Alternatively, you can pomegranate arils and pistachio nuts, drizzle red grape or cherry tomatoes with a green basil oil, or bell peppers, raw and diced small or cut into strips and sautéed.

 
RECIPE: CALIFORNIA ROLL SNOWMAN

The photo shows a non-edible scarf and hat. We’ve substituted edible versions in our recipe. We purchase the California Rolls at the supermarket or get take-out from our corner sushi bar.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

You can assemble a standing snowman by slightly flattening the bottom piece, or simply arrange it flat on a dark colored plate (for contrast with the white rice).

1. CREATE the face on the top piece: eyes, nose and mouth. Use the bit of carrot as an optional nose.

2. STACK three California roll pieces. For a standing snowman, use toothpicks to join the pieces.

3. ADD toothpicks as arms.

4. ADD optional “clothing”: red scarf and hat. For a hat, affix two crackers in a perpendicular fashion with cream cheese. If using a green onion scarf, blanch it in boiling water to make it easier to tie.
 

Check out all the different types of sushi in our beautiful Sushi Glossary.
 
*When tomatoes are out of season, cherry and grape tomatoes, raised in hothouses, have the best flavor.

Use your holiday cookie cutters to make these fun mint shapes from conventional peppermint candies. Photos courtesy Reynolds Kitchens.

We love the recipe developers at Reynolds Kitchen, who often surprise us with their creativity. Just by looking at the photos, you can see what they’ve done with an everyday bag of striped peppermint candies.

The result is like candy canes, but as Elle Woods would say, the shape is more funner.

It’s also funner to make them with mints in both holiday colors, red and green. Brach’s makes their striped Starbrite Mints in both colors, as well as a sugar-free red and white mint*.

So pick up the mints and get out every shape and size of cookie cutter that works for the holidays. Then, serve the mints:

 
We’d suggest making them as tree ornaments, but can’t figure out how to affix something so that they hang evenly. We tried making holes with an ice pick before the shapes fully hardened, but it wasn’t neat. Ribbon didn’t stick to the peppermint with the glues we had at hand.

Any other ideas?

RECIPE: HOLIDAY SHAPE PEPPERMINTS CANDIES

Ingredients

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with Reynolds Parchment Paper.

2. SPRAY oven-safe, metal cookie cutters with non-stick cooking spray, then place on the cookie sheet. Fill each cookie cutter with peppermint candies. Break the candies into smaller pieces to fill in the smaller areas of the mold (we used a meat mallet).

3. BAKE for 3–9 minutes until the candies melt into cookie cutter shapes. Remove the sheet from the oven and let the candy harden. Stretch the cookie cutter a bit to remove the candy.

 
TIP

This concept works for Valentine’s Day, too. Collect a bunch of heart-shaped cookie cutters.

 
*We haven’t tested the recipe with sugar-free mints, but guess that they’ll melt in a similar fashion to the conventional variety.