DELICIOUS Holiday Desserts!

tried and tested + printable + adaptable to your table

Hello my friends,

My friend Amber and I spent a large part of November in Southern Spain on a photography workshop. Time and time again, I reached for the salty cheeses with quiche jelly… for the plates of thinly sliced ‘jamon’… for the roasted peppers with flaked sea salt. Amber, on the other hand, reached for pastries and desserts. I know there are at least two types of people in this world…

… those who would choose sweet over salty, and salty over sweet.

I’m assuming you can guess which category I fall into.

Truth be told, I’m just not tempted by sweets. I will often enjoy a bite or two, but they don’t make my heart sing in the way that cured meats and good cheeses do.

(Don’t hate. It’s just the way I’m wired.)

Still, I know I’m not in the norm here, which is why I make sure to put sweets on the table as a special treat for my family and my guests. While I may not “holiday bake” to the extent that many do, we still enjoy sweet treats, balanced and in their place.

Call me crazy, but I also make sure to bake my holiday treats with heirloom einkorn flour (it’s very nutrient dense and digestible) and maple sugar (my natural, unprocessed sweetener of choice). It doesn’t matter if they’re treats, we still focus on high-quality ingredients like grass-fed butter, whole-fat milk, protein-rich ricotta, and fair-trade chocolate.

Treats can be both sweet and nourishing.

I’ve put together a recipe-trio for you this month that highlights a few of my favorite holiday treats!

I’ve made it very easy for you to print the PDFs below.

French Hot Chocolate

Decadently rich, this is a wintertime treat that we reserve for special occasions when regular ‘ol hot chocolate just won’t do. I keep a few special bars of chocolate stashed away just for this! While I chose to make mine with a mixture of milk and dark chocolate, you can make yours with whichever you prefer. The espresso powder is optional but brings the flavor of the chocolate out wonderfully

Lemon Ricotta Cake

I made this cake for my friend Jenn for her birthday and she’s yet to stop talking about how much she enjoyed it. Ricotta not only adds moisture to cake, but also a rich sustenance. I sweeten mine with maple sugar, but you can use whatever sweetener you prefer. The acidity of the lemon counters the sweet very well, making it a practically perfect cake.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

A bit of fuss for an absolutely fabulous treat. The crushed peppermint candies on the edges can of course be omitted, but it does bring a wonderful holiday flair to the cookie sandwich. To make it even more festive, use a fun cookie cutter!

Also worth noting, every Cooking Community member get access to it all. So whether you support The Elliot Homestead here or there, we’ve got you covered. Over in our Cooking Community, we offer 5 new recipes each month, along with instructional cooking videos for each one and an exclusive, private online social community of home-cooks.

For us, it feels quite humbling to know that our content is valuable enough to you for you to financially support our efforts. I hope the $7/month that our paid newsletter supporters spend each month is like buying yourself a nice latte and tucking in with some high-quality, no-ad content that brings beauty and value to your days. With your support, you literally allow us to nurture our family. I pray that our content, in turn, nurtures yours. Enjoy the printable recipes!

Printable recipes below!