There is no other season when digging out cherished family recipes is more welcome. In a time when your inbox gets a daily influx of menu ideas for speedy suppers, or the latest super food to boost your morning smoothie, the holidays are the perfect reason to return to your cooking roots. Our editorial team recently dug into their recipe boxes to share these seasonal favourites.
Christmas Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce
Crystal Murray
“Christmas pudding is largely associated with traditional British cuisine,” Crystal says. “My family has a strong Scottish heritage with names like MacDonald, Robertson, and Hayman thrown in the mix, but the basic ingredients of this quintessential Christmas dessert also made their way over the Highlands and into the hearts and to the celebratory tables of the clans.”
She continues, “I was a teenager before I gave much thought to how our Christmas pudding was made. Like most aspects of my childhood Christmas, things just magically appeared. I learned that the pudding was actually steamed in a can in a big pot of boiling water. I’m not sure where the can came from or what it originally contained, but it is the same can that has been used year after year.”
Nuts and Bolts
Trevor J. Adams
“I recall around age 8 or 9 watching my mother sit down a tray of egg salad sandwiches at a church event, alongside three identical trays,” Trevor says. “‘Hmm, we could be more creative,’ she observed. Ever the helpful son, I kept that in mind when I bought her Christmas gift, and found a little vanity-press cookbook with a name like 100 Ambitious Snacks & Appetizers!
As it emerged, most of the recipes were ludicrously ambitious (‘Who the heck has foie gras?’ sighed Mom), but Nuts and Bolts, the DIY version of store-bought Bits & Bites snack mix, became a Christmas favourite. Customizable, scaleable in huge quantities, and a great gift. Making it always marked the start of our family’s holiday season.”
He also notes that this is the original recipe from the early 1980s, a more salt-loving era, so most everyone who makes it puts a spin on it: “Look at it as a starting point.” You may wish to substitute unsalted nuts or swap seasonings for less salty versions, such as garlic powder for garlic salt, or add paprika, a few twists of pepper, maybe a dash or two of hot sauce. A little maple syrup or sugar takes it in a sweeter direction.
Newfoundland Snowballs
Jodi DeLong
Of this easy no-bake recipe, Jodi says, “Friends of mine in my hometown of St. John’s, N.L., used to make these delicious stovetop treats around Christmas, and set them out on bone china plates in their living room. I didn’t get the recipe back then, and the recipe my mother made was somehow very different and not, in my mind, up to snuff. Mum’s were more like a macaroon, crumbly and tasty but without the ooey-gooeyness of my friend’s snowballs.
“A few years ago I discovered the correct recipe on Barry Parsons’ Rock Recipes website (rockrecipes.com), and found out the secret to making those chewy delights is to boil the butter, sugar and milk without stirring for five minutes. That may make some people worry, but I’ve never had them stick. I like to make these for fundraisers for my local cat rescue society, to take to gatherings with friends, and gift to people who need a treat. They also freeze like a dream — if you have any left to freeze, that is!”
If you use gluten-free oatmeal, the snowballs are safe for people with gluten issues.