Seasonal Christmas Treats

Christmas is the time for giving and what could be better than something baked with love, fresh straight out of your own oven? While cookies are all the rage during the season, holiday loaves are just as popular and are a welcome variation to the deluge of cookies that we get. Loaves are usually more flavor and have an extra dimension of warmth and flavor compared to cookies, and packaged correctly, they make for extra elegant holiday presents. Other pastries and cakes are also very popular and have become tied to the seasonal tradition of Christmas. Holiday loaves are popular the world over, and here are a few Christmas traditions to get your sweet tooth, and oven, started.

One of the most popular Christmas loaves is the stollen. This is a German bread-cake packed with generous portions of dried fruits (like raisins, berries or currants), candied fruits and nuts. It's called the Christstollen during and holidays and the ingredients make for a wonderfully colorful and festive loaf. It was first made in Dresden, Germany during the 15th century and has gained popularity ever since. This variation of a fruitcake has little sugar in it, and is usually infused with spices like cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Usually, it's shaped in an oval and dusted with powdered sugar on top, making for a very elegant present.

The Christmas Yule log is a pastry created in commemoration of the tradition of burning the yule log during the season. Originally a pagan tradition, the burning of the Yule log was an important ritual in celebration of the solstice for the Druids and Vikings, and it would be kept burning for many days, after which a part of the Yule of log would be kept to be burned in the following year's celebration. In Europe, it became customary for a log to be carried into the house amid the festivities and burned on Christmas Eve, accompanied by prayers and sprinkled with salt, wine and oil. With the passing of time, the Yule log became a centerpiece of the Christmas feast table, embellished with fresh greenery and candles. Today, it is made in various parts of the world as a cake, called the bûche noel, an elaborate pastry creation that is shaped and frosted to look like the traditional Yule log.

The eggnog is another Christmas tradition popular in America with its origins rooted in Old Europe. It's traditionally a drink of rum and eggs, and it is said that in Europe, it derived its name from the word "noggin", which referred to a small wooden barrel used to serve up drinks at taverns. In Europe, a drink similar to eggnog would popularly be served in taverns, but using wine instead of rum. The modification of the recipe is an original touch of New England settlers, where the spicy and warming drink caught on during the winter. By the 1800s, eggnog became a very popular holiday drink, often served cold during parties and social gatherings. It has also taken center stage in many holiday traditions across America, especially in the East Coast, where the drink is popularly taken during the Christmas season and on New Year.

In the Netherlands, the Kerstkrans, or Dutch Christmas ring, is a holiday pastry made in the shape of a Christmas wreath. It's a white bread, or a puff pastry, molded into a circular wreath, and filled with candied cherries, candied fruit peels, apricot preserves, and almond paste, and frosted with white icing. The Kerstbrood is a traditional Christmas loaf also baked by the Dutch, filled with almond paste with tangy hints of citrus.

There are many variations of Christmas loaves throughout the world, often accented and differing by the flavor preferences of the regions they come from. A traditional Finnish Christmas loaf is a very dark colored bread from the use of molasses, with hints of sweetness and tart sourness. It can also be infused with different spices like anise, ginger and caraway. A julekage is a traditional Danish Christmas loaf, quite similar to the German stolen, with nuts, candied fruits, raisins and spices.

The panetonne is an Italian Christmas bread and during Christmas, it is customary for each member of the family to take a slice for good fortune. Many romantic stories surround the origins of this bread. Legend has it that the bread was invented by a Milanese nobleman who disguised himself as a baker and created the bread, to impress the father of the woman he loved, who was by trade, a baker. Another legend has it that the panetonne was invented by a nun named Ughetta. Living in a poor convent, she fashioned this bread out of the little raisin, sugar, butter, and candied fruit she has so that she could celebrate Christmas with the other nuns in the convent. She drew a cross on top of the loaf with a knife, as a gesture of blessing it. Whatever its origins, the panetonne was a huge hit and till today, it's a strong Christmas tradition on many Italian tables.

Kourabiethes are traditional Greek Christmas shortbread cookies. Traditionally shaped like mounds of sugar and made with almonds, they are usually served during Christmas and New Year's celebration.

Seasonal Christmas treats have a way of making the holidays seem every bit warmer and more special for us all and thanks to these many Christmas traditions, we can fill up every inch of empty space on our tables with a sweet holiday treat.