Holiday Baking

Christmas Morning Recipe Roundup

Christmas morning is special. Time to relax, time to enjoy family and friends. Why not celebrate with your favourite breakfast item? This Christmas Morning Recipe Roundup contains a few of our Urb’n’Spice favourites to inspire you. Happy Holidays everyone!

Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla

The Ultimate Breakfast Pastry – Bostock

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffeecake

You Might Also Enjoy:

Sausage and Egg Breakfast Burritos

Whole Grain Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Refined Sugar Free Muffins

A Frilly Frittata – An Italian Omelette

Good Morning Muffin

LEARNING TIPS:

Please CLICK the link above to access my Urb’n’Spice LEARNING TIPS, which are listed alphabetically on the Learning Tips blog post under the following subheadings:

Parchment Paper
Favourite Kitchen Tools: Spatula
Extracts: Vanilla Extract
Creaming
Oven Temperature Accuracy
Internal Thermometers
__________

If you try my Christmas Morning Recipes recipes, please leave me a comment below with your feedback. Happy Holidays!

Denise Paré-Watson

The Urb’n’Spice Chef

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Citrus Sand Cookies

By Denise Pare-Watson 12 Comments

Citrus Sand Cookies are one of my favourite cookies as they have an interesting sandy and crunchy texture. They are a sable type of cookie and are made with only a few ingredients: butter, sugar, flour and flavourings. I love these cookies because when time is limited, it only takes a few minutes to prepare the dough and chill it in logs until you are ready to bake them (this is an icebox style cookie). Once baked, they can be kept in an airtight tin and served with tea and coffee or as a compliment to a number of desserts such as crème brulée, panna cotta or ice cream. You must try these little cookies – they can be enjoyed for any number of occasions. They made great edible gifts, too.

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Ricciarelli – An Italian Almond Cookie

By Denise Pare-Watson 16 Comments

A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to be hired as the opening pastry chef of a new Italian restaurant. I say fortunate because I was given the freedom to introduce a dessert menu that would highlight Italian desserts, which are some of my favourites! Traditional Tiramisu, Panna Cotta, Zabaglione and biscotti cookies are always popular choices, however, I wanted to add menu items that were not as well known in Canada. That is why Ricciarelli was considered – An Italian Almond Cookie that soon became a customer favourite on the menu.

What appeals to me about Ricciarelli is that it is a rustic cookie with rugged edges and a light, crunchy texture. Another interesting aspect of why I included this cookie on the menu was that I have always adopted a no-waste approach to food preparation. Since there is always an abundance of egg whites left over in the fridge from the tiramisu and other menu items that required only egg yolks, I needed a way to incorporate the egg white surplus into my dessert repertoire; hence, the introduction of Ricciarelli, Italian Almond Macaroons, Amaretti and Twice Baked Meringue Cookie Crisps to the menu. I know that you will love this Ricciarelli recipe as much as my restaurant customers did! Ricciarelli is excellent with espresso or gelato, or just on its own.

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Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffeecake

By Denise Pare-Watson 2 Comments

This Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffeecake has become a tradition in my family and has been enjoyed every Christmas morning for nearly 40 years. Frankly, it is popular all year long and any excuse to make this family favourite is appreciated. The cake is a balance between a cheesecake and a coffeecake and is a welcome addition to any celebration.

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The Ultimate Breakfast Pastry – Bostock

By Denise Pare-Watson 6 Comments

Every one of us has probably had French Toast at one time or another. How would you like to learn about a stepped-up version? It is actually easier to make; an excellent make-ahead brunch option, and is so delicious that it will become a staple for your holiday breakfast menu. You will love Bostock (pronounced ‘bow-stuck’). It is also known as the “Better Than French Toast” breakfast pastry. It is offered at the best patisserie shops in Paris so it must be special.

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The Ultimate Breakfast Pastry – Bostock

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Vinarterta – A Vintage Recipe

By Denise Pare-Watson 8 Comments

Vínarterta: what is it? It is a very flavourful, seven-layered Icelandic cake – a vintage recipe from the 1800s. The cake consists of thin layers cookie-like dough, rolled out, docked and baked just until it starts to take on a bit of colour on the edges. The traditional filling is made from prunes. For many folks, using dried prunes is a surprising filling, but you have to trust me – this stuff is good! The prunes are infused with what is known as the warming spices cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. These spices elevate the taste of the filling to something that you just know will be wonderful. The colour of the pureed prune is such a rich hue of black-brown that it makes a spectacular show in between the layers of the Vinarterta cake.

Many other fillings can be used, including seasonal apricot filling and raspberry filling. My daughter and I were discussing making a version with all three fillings in one cake. I think that this could be my next cake challenge. I would be tempted to make the layers even thinner so that I could experiment with the different coloured fillings.

Vinarterta with Apricot Filling

In culinary training, we were introduced to many cultural desserts in Baking and Pastry Arts, and this cake was one of the classic cakes we discussed during our lessons. It is delicious! I had forgotten all about this cake until my neighbour mentioned to me that she had in her possession her grandma’s vintage recipe for Vínarterta and that she had always wanted to try making it.

We spent a lovely morning making the cake together using the vintage recipe. As far as she knew, her grandmother’s recipe had sadly not been made by anyone in the family since her passing in 1978. She told me that her grandmother’s parents came to Canada in the 1800s and her grandmother was born in Canada. I am sure that there are great stories about baking this Icelandic recipe and many more dishes in their kitchen – I would have loved to be a part of that. I felt that making this cake using her recipe was a great way of honouring her grandmother. And besides, I love baking using vintage recipes.

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32 Classic Homemade Candy Recipes by Food Bloggers of Canada

By Denise Pare-Watson Leave a Comment

RECIPE ROUNDUPS

Time to play in the kitchen with 32 Candy Recipes from Food Bloggers of Canada, including a recipe from UrbnSpice, called Dark Chocolate Truffles. Have fun!

Here is the link to making your own candy today!

32 Classic Homemade Candy Recipes by Food Bloggers of Canada

If you would like to try your hand at making some of my easy Dark Chocolate Truffles, here is your link:

Dark Chocolate Truffles by UrbnSpice

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Holiday Cookie Roundup by Food Bloggers of Canada

By Denise Pare-Watson Leave a Comment

RECIPE ROUNDUPS

Recently, the Food Bloggers of Canada had a call-out for Holiday Cookies. You are going to have fun with this recipe roundup of 40 cookies. I am thrilled to say that one of my cookie recipes was chosen as part of this Holiday Cookie Roundup. I had a bit of food fun in the kitchen with a very young child and he was thrilled to help out the colourful Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Variation. I hope you will enjoy browsing through this roundup of amazing cookies from Food Bloggers of Canada and have some fun baking this holiday season. Please visit the bloggers and tell them how much you enjoyed their recipes.

You want cookies? We've got cookies! 40 different kinds in our FBC Holiday Cookie Guide – 40 recipes from classic…

Posted by Food Bloggers of Canada on Saturday, December 10, 2016

Here is a photo of the Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Variation. Bake with a young helper – believe me, you will have just as much fun as the little one. I give you step by step details in the recipe.

Vanilla Bean Poppers - Christmas version | urbnspice.com

Lay the cut Vanilla Bean Poppers on their side on a parchment lined tray and bake according to the directions given in the recipe below

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Vanilla Bean Poppers

By Denise Pare-Watson 6 Comments

The Inspiration of Urb’n’Spice Series

This is a recipe that I had so much fun creating. My challenge was first, to come up with a cookie using cream cheese, and second, a cookie that could also be made gluten-free, if necessary, without any difference in appearance or quality. Cream cheese makes any baked item very tender and rich tasting, so I knew that this was going to be a good cookie. I also liked the idea of making cookies so tiny that they could be mistaken for candy drops. Eureka! Success! Everything I wanted to achieve in my little cookie challenge became a reality – my little cookies became so popular that I was confident entering my recipe into a competition for edible gifts. I call the cookies Vanilla Bean Poppers because they are delightful delicate little cookies that are so irresistible you will keep popping them in your mouth – literally!

These cookies are lots of fun to make with children. Even very young children will love helping you roll the dough into long rope-like snakes before you cut them into small pillows or balls. The little ones will love giving these cookies to their teachers. I also make tons of these teeny, tiny cookies during the holiday season and put them in pretty jars or beribboned cellophane bags to give away as hostess gifts. And, for further food fun, I made variations of the same cookies: Urb’n’Spice Rainbow Poppers and Vanilla Bean Poppers – Holiday Food Fun Version.

Urbnspice Vanilla Bean Poppers

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Holiday Baking

RECIPE ROUNDUPS

RECIPE ROUNDUPS

The Inspiration of Urb’n’Spice Series