Holiday Recipes and Cooking Tips to Help You Make the Most of the Season

The holiday season doesn’t need to be stressful. Centerpiece-worthy roasts and impressive desserts need not be day-long affairs, and serving wine to your guests shouldn’t break the bank. The alternative isn’t to play it safe, either. It’s to cook and plan smart, letting bold ingredients and flavors do the work, just like they do year round here at Milk Street.

Whether it’s spiced wine that’s actually palatable or Christmas cookies with a savory bent, we’ve got a host of classic holiday recipes with a twist that will keep things interesting—and easy—this year. And we’ve got the tips to keep holiday parties stress-free, so you can actually enjoy yourself. Cookie swaps and Christmas dinner will be here before you know it, after all. Here’s a collection of our favorite holiday recipes, baking tips and more.

Holiday Recipes That Put a Spin on the Classics

Watch Milk Street TV's holiday episode to get a taste of the action:

Pro-Tips: Baking

Baking Times

Ever find yourself wanting to make a recipe that calls for a loaf pan when you only have an 8-inch square? Or needing to convert a 13-by-9-inch cake into muffins? We’ve tested cook times for a list of common baked goods—brownies, pound cake, quick bread and layer cake—to create a handy conversion chart. Print, bookmark, commit to memory.

(t) equals baking time specified for a particular recipe.

9" x 5" Loaf Pan8" x 4" Loaf Pan5 3/4" x 2" Loaf Pans*Muffin PanQuick Bread(t)(t) + 7 mins (t) — 7 mins (t) —28 mins Pound Cake(t)(t) + 10 mins (t) — 13 mins — 9" Round Baking Pan8" Round Baking Pan13" x 9" Baking Pan Muffin PanLayer Cake(t)(t) + 1 min (t) — 1 min (t) — 11 mins 8" Square Baking Pan9" Square Baking Pan13" x 9" Baking Pan***Brownies(t)(t) — 5 mins (t) + 5 mins —

*(using three mini-loaf pans)
**(doubling the recipe)

Baking Temperatures

You use your thermometer when cooking meat, so why don’t you use it when you’re baking? Temperature is a reliable way to tell if your baked goods are done—more reliable than visual cues or time in many cases. Here is our chart with ideal temperatures for common baked goods, from Parker House rolls to yellow layer cake.

Type of FoodTemperatureEnriched American-style breads (such as Parker House rolls) 195°F Rustic European-style bread (such as crusty French loaves) 210°F Quick breads and muffins 195°F Biscuits 205°F Cheesecake 150°F at the center, 170°F about 1 inch from the edge Yellow layer cake 190°F Chocolate layer cake 210°F Angel food cake 205°F Sponge cake 205°F Creme anglaise 180°F

A Tip for Beating Egg Whites

Whether you’re folding whipped egg whites into cake batter (as in this festive Chocolate, Prune and Rum Cake) or cookie dough (hello, unconventional holiday cookies), London-based baker Claire Ptak of Violet Cakes has a suggestion: Underwhip you egg whites just slightly. They’ll be more elastic that way, able to withstand the heat of the oven without breaking, and they’ll more easily incorporate into batter. For more, read here.

For Better Baking, Break out the Bitters

To reinvigorate or bring out new depth in your basic baked goods this season, try adding a dash of bitters, Portland, Maine-based Briana Holt recommends. The baker and owner of Tandem Coffee and Bakery adds bitters to everything from fruit pies to whipped cream, sticking with well-known Angostura and Peychaud’s bitters, but also using more unusual varieties like pine or molasses. For more, read here.

Pro-Tips: Beverages

Tastier Hot Chocolate

We discovered the key to better hot chocolate on a trip to Oaxaca, and it isn’t what you think... (Hint: Put the milk down.)

Better Spiced Wine

For spiced wine that's not cloyingly sweet, we make a concentrate, which helps us control the sweetness, by the glass. The sugar and alcohol also preserve the drink for weeks, meaning a batch can last throughout the season. Get our recipe here.

Brighter Cocktails

We all know salt brings out the flavor in food, so why not add a pinch to cocktails? Try it in a French75 at your holiday party and you’ll instantly taste the difference:

Smarter Wine

Don’t stress over which wine to buy, and how much to spend. Follow a few key pieces of advice when choosing your bottles—for starters, don’t let the centerpiece dictate the wine, put multiple bottles on the table and end with a bang. And when in doubt, go with Beaujolais. Read more of our pointers here.

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