12 Holiday Recipes That Are Really Worth the Extra Time and Effort

Cooking and feeding our friends and loved ones is a joy that many of us fully embrace during the holidays. Between planning special parties, baking elaborate desserts, and whipping up platter after platter of cookies, it’s a busy time, especially for the cooks in the family. Still, it’s not so busy that we won’t make the effort to cook some of the more difficult and time-consuming recipes in our cookbooks and recipe boxes.

Of course, amid the frenzy of searching for gifts and carefully wrapping everything, who has time to stack meringues and stick them together with buttercream? Well, it is. Or at least you’ll find the time, because the holidays are precisely the time when we want to put on our best show and really go all out.

These 12 recipes are some of the most time-consuming holiday recipes we love to make, even though they test our patience and time management skills. Which of these are on your menu this season?

Babka

We probably won’t need to tell you again how special Babka is. Today, this braided sweet bread is a favorite of the Jewish diaspora, originating in Eastern European Jewish communities. It’s certainly made its way into baking circles well beyond that, of course.

Chocolate or Nutella babka is a holiday favorite, but these breads can also be made with jams, nuts, and spicy toppings. With all the time it takes to proof the yeast, braid the bread, do the extra proofing, and then of course the baking and cooling, a babka is not the easiest treat to make. Luckily, most recipes make two loaves, so you can put one in the freezer for later.

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Beef Wellington

An elegant main dish first cooked in England, beef Wellington has never been on the fringes of fashionable cuisine. For this dish, a beef fillet is coated with foie gras pâté or mushroom puree then wrapped in puff pastry. The dough is simply egg-glazed, and the artists will then use their knife skills to create intricate designs and basketwork designs on the dough before it is baked to a beautiful golden brown. All the steps in this dish add up to a truly lengthy but utterly magnificent dinner.

Old-Fashioned Caramel Cake

This one has special meaning for me and some associated headaches. My grandmother made caramel cakes for every Christmas dinner when I was little. As she grew older, it became difficult to manage the many hours of stirring required to make the caramel icing, and I had no idea of ​​the commitment when I took on responsibility for my brother’s wedding. Unlike our caramel frosting recipe, my grandmother’s tried-and-true version calls for you to stir the frosting as it cools until it reaches a spreadable consistency. This easily takes over an hour to stir, which is why I will only make this cake for special occasions now.

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Fruit cake

The first step to a fruitcake is to soak pounds of dried fruit until plump and filled with bourbon. It takes up to 12 hours. The second step is simple: prepare and bake the loaves. The third step can add a few hours, or even a few weeks, to the schedule. This is when you brush the fruitcake with bourbon, brandy or rum while it cools or for weeks. You can surely serve a fruitcake the next day, but many people think it must be completely saturated after weeks under alcohol-soaked cheesecloth, and if you’re one of those people, you probably don’t make this treat only once a year, because it’s a huge commitment. We applaud you.

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Meringue

Whether you’re making meringue kisses, pavlova, or just a beautiful Italian meringue for the top of a pie, you know what a chore meringue is. It takes time to whip egg whites to the right stiffness, even with a machine that does the job. But if you take it a step further and bake the meringue, well, you’re just a saint.

Meringues are finicky and require a special touch. After cooking at such a low temperature, most of our ovens cannot reach it easily, they just sit for hours until they are crispy and hard enough to hold, which is precisely the time you need to move them and hope they don’t break.

If you can achieve all of this, why not show off with a vibrant stacked cake or a masterpiece topped with fruit and whipped cream?

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Dobergé Cake

We’ll take our lumps on this one and admit that last year’s Big White Cake was a doozy. Doberge cakes, by their nature, are time consuming and may take longer depending on how you assemble and decorate them.

You should start by making several smaller cake layers or cutting the larger layers in half. These are then stacked with a curd or custard which you also need to prepare, followed by a delicate icing and homemade decoration. Luckily, this Red Velvet Doberge Cake is well worth every minute.

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Croquembouche

This classic French Christmas pastry is both a culinary and architectural miracle. Dozens of puffs are baked, filled with cream, then glued and stacked with caramel. If you do this every year, invite us. We want to watch and enjoy the fruits of your many hours of work. These towers are truly beautiful.

Cassoulet

There are shortened versions of cassoulet, and we’ve made many of them in our test kitchen over the years. But the traditional dish, as it was originally made in France, is a day-long process, requiring hours and hours of slow cooking and simmering (and we don’t mean in a slow cooker). The classic version is usually made with several meats (pork, ham, chicken, sausage, and even duck are common) and a few vegetables and beans for added flavor and good measure. Everything is cooked until rich, thick and chocolate brown. The cost of the clock? Usually 12 hours or more.

Yule log

You’ll need several hours and Job’s patience for this holiday favorite. A Yule log, or Yule log, requires you to bake a cake and then roll it while it is still warm so that it maintains its log shape. Then you will fill the roll with some form of cream or custard before swirling it and sealing it with buttercream hoping it will hold its shape while you frost it and decorate it to look like the most beautiful snow-covered log in the world. forest. (Did we mention you might also want to make meringue mushrooms?) It also hurts our hearts when it’s all gone, but at least you know all that work was deeply loved and appreciated.

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Latkes

It’s not so much making the latkes that’s difficult. You have to repeat the process over and over again. and more to get enough latkes to feed your family. Digital news editor Rebecca Angel Baer describes her mother’s kitchen as a “potato latke factory,” in which she produces hundreds of latkes every Hanukkah. When you fry six at a time (to keep the oil hot enough to get those crispy edges you crave), everything takes longer, but we’ll be ready with the applesauce when they come out of the pan.

Mom’s Potato Latkes

Goose

Goose hunting can take as much time, or more, than preparing the goose itself. Grocery stores only stock a few at a time, and just when you’re ready to buy one, they’re all gone. (Pro tip: Call ahead and ask the store to reserve one for you.)

When it comes to cooking, roasting a goose takes several hours longer than roasting a turkey, which is more time without access to your oven for sides and breads; allow approximately 5 hours from start to finish. (Oh, and did we mention how long it takes to thaw?)

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Porchetta

Block out your day if you put porchetta on your holiday menu – and you should at least once. This elaborate pork roast is well worth the effort and the bragging rights for surviving its preparation.

Once you’ve scored the pork skin, cooked the filling, and rolled the pork belly into a tight spiral, it should sit for 12 hours, uncovered, in the refrigerator so the skin gets even crispier during roasting. And speaking of roasting, it will take 4 to 6 hours at 275°F for this holiday dish to reach the perfect temperature.

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These types of holiday specials may take more time than, say, a tray of Cool Whip cookies, but they will be appreciated in the same measure as your work.

Read the original article on Southern Living