The Christmas/Holiday RECIPES Thread

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

I'm attending an ugly sweater potluck tomorrow. I'm going to be doing a dessert. Would love any suggestions you have. Leaning toward a dessert recipe that...

• Includes use of a liqueur.
• Most likely includes chocolate, but not a dealbreaker

You guys preparing anything fun for holiday parties?

[miscorrections]

I'm making dark & stormy cupcakes for a lab party tomorrow. Just make a standard rum cupcake but throw some ginger in the batter and top with some little crystallized ginger bits. Boom. Easy.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

That does sound yummy. Unfortunately the other dessert chef is making cupcakes with crystallized ginger topping. But lots of good recipes on Bon Apetit's site.

[miscorrections]

If it helps, my other lab party recipe was chocolate cupcakes with peppermint frosting. You could do that with peppermint schnapps easy, and just top with mini candy canes.

[gaypalmsprings]

Here are recommendations for sweaters:

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

miscorrections - How'd your cupcakes turn out? I went with a recipe from Bon Appetit: Orange-Scented Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with Candied Blood Orange Compote. Played with the recipe a bit. Used Tangelos instead of Blood Oranges, used a random Italian Orange Liqueur instead of Grand Marnier (and quadrupled the amt the recipe called for) and doubled the amount of orange zest called for in the cake recipe. Also adorned it with golden yellow/orange rose petals. Turned out really well. Bad photo, but everyone liked it:

[amyzzz]

That looks too beautiful to eat.

[malcolmjamalawesome]

That looks too beautiful to eat.

Often said about my bunghole.

[miscorrections]

miscorrections - How'd your cupcakes turn out? I went with a recipe from Bon Appetit: Orange-Scented Bittersweet Chocolate Cake with Candied Blood Orange Compote. Played with the recipe a bit. Used Tangelos instead of Blood Oranges, used a random Italian Orange Liqueur instead of Grand Marnier (and quadrupled the amt the recipe called for) and doubled the amount of orange zest called for in the cake recipe. Also adorned it with golden yellow/orange rose petals. Turned out really well. Bad photo, but everyone liked it:

That looks and sounds really good. My cupcakes were a huge hit and included large quantities of rum. In retrospect I should've been more liberal with the candied ginger but I was worried because so many people are such fucking picky eaters.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Yeah, your cupcakes sound delish. I'm definitely doing something similar for another holiday party I have this week.

As for my cake, the execution was... less than perfect? Notice that filmy "crust" that appears on the top of the cake? That's not exactly flour. I kind of sort of forgot that I'd applied parchment paper to the bottom of the pan. So, there ended up being a layer of parchment paper between the cake and the glaze. Some guests were polite and just scraped the glaze off the paper and enjoyed the cake and glaze separately. Others ingested an entire slice of parchment paper and had no idea. I didn't realize my mistake until the next day. I hear it has some fiber content, so it's not all bad news.

[miscorrections]

Ha, that's pretty funny. I've definitely done stuff like that before. I'd still eat your cake, though. I love chocolate baked goods + orange.

[canexplain]

Does anyone know for sure or know how I can test and see if a G Forman grill gets hot enough set on high to deep fry a turkey? cr****

[malcolmjamalawesome]

Just put your hand on it.

[El.C.Dub]

Does anyone know for sure or know how I can test and see if a G Forman grill gets hot enough set on high to deep fry a turkey? cr****

does george foreman make deep fryers? Or are you using the foreman grill?

[canexplain]

does george foreman make deep fryers? Or are you using the foreman grill?

I am going to try and use the grill. It will turn meat black if you leave it on too long so I know it gets pretty darn hot but hot enough? I do have a large deep fryer but even at its size, it would only do 1/4 of a turkey at a time. That might work though because I was going to quarter the bird and do four different flavors. cr****

[amyzzz]

google?

[malcolmjamalawesome]

I am going to try and use the grill. It will turn meat black if you leave it on too long so I know it gets pretty darn hot but hot enough? I do have a large deep fryer but even at its size, it would only do 1/4 of a turkey at a time. That might work though because I was going to quarter the bird and do four different flavors. cr****

Aren't "grilling" and "deep frying" two drastically opposed things?

[El.C.Dub]

Yeah I doubt that a foreman grill would get hot enough to cook the turkey through. Careful with those deep fryers, make sure the bird is completely thawed. Or else this:

[canexplain]

Aren't "grilling" and "deep frying" two drastically opposed things?

Of course they are but if it gets the big pot full of oil hot enough, its does the job. One year I did it indoors on the stove so the idea is not off the wall. I don't want to do that again though because the chance of fire like the pic posted here. cr****

[El.C.Dub]

ohhhh I think I misunderstood. You want to fill a pot with oil and set it on your foreman grill to heat it? That doesn't sound too safe. And I don't think that will be hot enough.

[canexplain]

Dah, tnx Amy. One post said it can get up to 400 degrees. From a post on how to deep fry a turkey it says: cr****

Using the candy thermometer to determine temperature, heat the oil to about 325°F and no higher than 350°F. This usually takes between 20 to 30 minutes. Once the oil is hot enough, place the turkey in the basket or on the turkey hanger (follow instructions that came with your turkey frying kit) and slowly lower it into the pot.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Crystalized Ginger and Chile Pineapple Infused Cream Cheese Frosting. Merry Christmas!

[miscorrections]

That sounds amazing.

[RageAgainstTheAoki]

Thanks. It turned out pretty well, but I don't think I'm going to use Cream Cheese frostings again. Too much tang and the cream cheese flavor tends to dominate everything else. I had to add so much crystallized ginger and spices to the frosting just to get their flavors to come through.

Anyone baked with pop rocks before? I'm going to try making dark chocolate cupcakes today with dark chocolate peppermint buttercream frosting infused with pop rocks. Hopefully they still pop after sitting in frosting.