A croquembouche is a French dessert consisting of a pyramid of choux-buns bound with threads of caramel. It’s sometimes served instead of a wedding cake or as a treat at other parties. It’s become popular also to make a croquembouche to look like a decorative Christmas tree.
A sausage roll is a savoury pastry snack which is popular in Britain and in the Commonwealth nations. They’re commonly sold in retail outlets such as supermarkets and bakeries. The mini, or cocktail, versions are often served hot or cold as buffet or party food.
A sausage roll consists of a tube of sausage meat enclosed in puff pastry and baked.
Not Delia makes cocktail sausage rolls
Panettone is a type of sweet bread loaf which originated in Milan, Italy. It’s often found at Christmas, New Year and other celebrations in Southern Europe and Latin America.
It’s pictured on the left above, with stollen on the right.
Panettone takes a long time to make as the dough is cured, in a process similar to that for making sourdough bread. The proving takes several days. Traditionally, the cake contains contains candied citrus fruit such as oranges and lemons as well as dry (not soaked) raisins.
It’s typically served in wedges with a sweet hot drink or a sweet wine or liqueur, eg amaretto.
Cranberries are little red berries with a bitter flavour. They grow wild on shrubs throughout Northern Europe and North America, but their cultivation is a major commercial operation in some American states and Canadian provinces.
They have a high nutritional content and are believed to be valuable for their health-giving properties.
Because the berries are so bitter, about 95% of the harvest is processed into juice, sauce or other condiments. They are also available dried and sweetened, as shown in the photo above.
Cranberry sauce is the traditional accompaniment to the Christmas turkey in the UK and elsewhere, and at Thanksgiving dinners in the United States and Canada.
A Bakewell tart is a confection originating from Bakewell, a town in Derbyshire, England. Historically, it was served at any holiday occasion. Nowadays one could eat them on any day, usually with a cup of tea. Commercial versions are easily available.
The tart consists of a shortcrust pastry shell, topped with a layer of jam, another of frangipane, and a topping of flaked almonds. The tart itself could be a large round, or a tray bake, which is then sliced into portions, or – as shown above – made into little, cup-cake-sized portions.
The Bakewell pudding predates the Bakewell tart and the latter is thought to be a 20th century alteration. The Bakewell pudding has a flaky pastry shell according to Mrs Beeton, although the pudding’s earliest record, by Elizabeth Acton in 1845, makes no mention of pastry.
Eggnog is a rich, chilled, sweetened, dairy-based alcoholic beverage. Traditionally it’s made with whisked egg yolks, sugar, cream and brandy, rum or bourbon. The egg whites are whisked until foamy and added just before serving.
It’s often drunk at celebrations, especially Christmas. It’s commercially available premixed but it’s also easy to make at home.
See also Advocaat and Zabov All’uovo which are traditional Dutch and Italian eggnogs respectively.
Advocaat is a Dutch eggnog, made from egg yolks, sugar and brandy. It’s a rich and creamy drink with a custard-like flavour. The drink has a low alcohol content, typically between 14% and 20% ABV.
In Dutch its name is short for advocaatenborrel, the ‘lawyer’s drink’, from advocaat, ‘advocate, lawyer’, and borrel, ‘drink’.
Advocaat was the main ingredient in the cocktail “Snowball” which was popular in the 1960s. Nowadays eggnog is more typically served at celebrations, eg Christmas.
See also the Italian version which is called Zabov Ull-uovo.
Brussels sprouts are like miniature cabbages which grow in multiple rows on a thick central stalk.
The sprout is obviously a brassica, but it’s anybody’s guess when somebody mutated it from its original cabbage. I believe sprouts originated in Belgium, where they were sold in markets as early as the 13th century (they didn’t appear in England or France until the end of the 18th century). But most Belgians believe sprouts to be Italian in origin. We know that sprouts were mentioned in Belgian market regulations in 1213. The earliest French record I can find is an order for a wedding feast of the Burgundian court in the 15th century. We have no English recipes until the 19th century.
Source: Gregg Wallace, Veg – the greengrocer’s cookbook
Many people associate Brussels sprouts with Christmas, it’s certainly a winter veg. They’re best between October and March in the UK. Many people, especially children, dislike sprouts because of their bitter taste. Perhaps this explains the British tradition of boiling them to death. It’s sometimes joked that October is the time to put the sprouts on to boil for Christmas. It’s fair to say that they’re an acquired taste. However, modern varieties have been bred to reduce the bitterness, and are often sweet and nutty, so if you have unhappy memories of eating sprouts as a child, it might be worth your while to give them another try.
Another traditional British thing was to cut a cross in the base of the sprout. This will also lead to a mushy sprout. Instead cut the larger ones in half vertically. Sprouts should ideally be served with a bit of bite still in them. Three or four minutes boiling should suffice. Serve with a knob of butter.
The tops of the plants can also be eaten. They’re just like cabbage leaves after all – cook them as you would spring greens.
Christmas dinner made easy
Gravadlax, also known as gravlax, is a Scandinavian dish consisting of fresh, raw salmon fillet marinated with salt, sugar and dill. Once cured, it’s sliced thinly. It originated as a means to preserve fish in the days before refrigeration. The fish was prepared with salt and dill and then buried in the ground. (‘Grav’ is Swedish for ‘grave’ or ‘pit’. ‘Lax’ is Swedish for ‘salmon’.)
These days it can easily be made at home in the fridge. Using beetroot in the cure has become fashionable and gives the salmon an interesting colour. The Not Delia website has a delicious take on this using a fresh orange, honey and soy sauce.