Recipes Holidays + Events 12 Days of Holiday Treats By Food & Wine Editors Updated on December 5, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Photo: © Stephanie Foley Who needs a partridge in a pear tree when there's Pear Sticky Toffee Cakes with Miso-Caramel Sauce? We've put together 12 days' worth of fantastically festive holiday treats sure to please both the naughty and the nice, as well as Santa himself. We've got classic bûche de Noël with meringue mushrooms that's a perfect finale for Christmas dinner, plenty of cookies to fill your holiday platter, and stocking-worthy confections. Read on to take on 12 days of Christmas baking. 01 of 12 Roll-and-Cut Sugar Cookies © Quentin Bacon The dough recipe here is ideal: durable enough to withstand rolling and rerolling, yet soft enough to cut neatly. The cookies themselves are extremely versatile. They can be simply sprinkled with sugar and baked; or, after they’re baked, they can be decorated with royal icing or sandwiched with jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Get the Recipe 02 of 12 Bûche de Noël with Mascarpone Cream and Dark Chocolate Ganache Photo by Antonis Achilleos / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Kay Clarke Bûche de Noël is the ultimate winter celebration cake, and this one is a cut above the rest. Mascarpone stabilizes the whipped cream filling so that it can be chilled overnight without weeping. Slivered toasted almonds stirred into the ganache frosting give it a “tree bark” look and add contrasting texture to the silky filling and tender cake. Meringue mushrooms add an extra wow factor; these can be made a few days ahead. Get the Recipe 03 of 12 Vanilla Crescents © Quentin Bacon Incredibly, these light, crispy, and fragrant crescent cookies require only five ingredients to make. A snowy dusting of powdered sugar dresses them up appropriately for your holiday dessert tray. Get the Recipe 04 of 12 Pear Sticky Toffee Cakes with Miso-Caramel Sauce Greg DuPree "When the weather turns colder and I start planning for the holidays ahead, this spoonable sweet is everything I need in the dessert department," says Gail Simmons. "In addition to the traditional dates, I like to add chopped pears to the batter, where they cook down as the individual cakes bake. I add miso to the toffee, which lends a salty savoriness that may sound gratuitous but exceeds expectations." Get the Recipe 05 of 12 Best-Ever Nut Brittle © Tina Rupp Former F&W executive food editor Tina Ujlaki adapted this crunchy, buttery, slightly salty brittle from a recipe by pastry chef Karen DeMasco. When her children were younger, Tina would make it as a holiday gift for their teachers. Get the Recipe 06 of 12 Fudgy Grasshopper Sandwich Cookies Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Thom Driver Two tender chocolate cookies are sandwiched around minty white chocolate ganache with streaks of dark chocolate to create a swirling chevron pattern. They’re soft and tender with an icy, fudge-like center that lives up to its grasshopper name. Get the Recipe 07 of 12 Chocolate-Almond Saltine Toffee © Tina Rupp Pastry chef Nicole Plue was intrigued by a recipe she discovered for matzo covered in toffee and chocolate. But she knew she could improve it by using crackers instead of matzo for a hit of salt. Now the saltines, slathered with buttery toffee and bittersweet chocolate, are a favorite on her petit four tray. Get the Recipe 08 of 12 Chocolate Pecan Pie with Bourbon Photo by Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen This pie from pastry chef David Lebovitz is everything you want in a holiday dessert. The all-butter piecrust is a cinch to throw together thanks to your food processor. A nip of sweet, caramel-scented bourbon adds depth to the traditional super-sweet filling; chocolate levels it up with its rich texture and just a hint of balancing bitterness. Get the Recipe 09 of 12 Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies © Ditte Isager These marvelous Christmas cookies combine chocolate with spicy gingerbread. "I was tired of basic gingerbread," says Matt Lewis of Brooklyn’s Baked about why he created these cookies. The answer is clear: "My connection to chocolate is really deep," he says. An added benefit of these cookies is that the supple dough is very easy to work with. Get the Recipe 10 of 12 Roasted White Chocolate and Coffee Truffles © Christina Holmes Pastry chef Belinda Leong made many kinds of ganache during her time at the venerable Pierre Hermé pâtisserie in Paris. Here, she slow-roasts white chocolate, which adds an enticing caramel flavor to the super-creamy ganache filling in her truffles. Get the Recipe 11 of 12 Gingerbread and White Chocolate Mousse Trifle © Chris Court This trifle is three desserts in one: mousse, gingerbread, and caramel. Each part is delicious on its own, too. A garnish of pomegranate arils and crystalized ginger slices makes it even more festive. Get the Recipe 12 of 12 Cranberry and Orange Pavlovas © Stephanie Foley Pastry chef Wendy Boys unconventionally flavors this Australian dessert with vanilla and fresh oranges, and then — in another break from tradition — tops it with cranberries and mint. Get the Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit