3 Delicious Holiday Recipes!

Hi friends!! I am so excited to share three holiday recipes with you today! These are some of my absolute favorites to make, and maybe one (or all of them!) will become some of your holiday traditions too! They mean so much to me and my family, and I’m so excited to share a glimpse of our holiday recipes with you!

Starbucks Eggnog Truffles

starbucks truffle holiday recipes

I’m really excited about this first recipe because it isn’t a beverage but it DOES include coffee – here, we’ve got Eggnog Latte Truffles! I love that you can do more with Starbucks Holiday Coffees than drink them. Although, I’m not giving up my morning cup of their Peppermint Mocha Latte for anything 😉

For this recipe, you’ll mix together Starbucks Veranda coffee with eggnog (or almond nog!), and add in some nutmeg, butter and white chocolate for an incredibly delicious treat. In a separate dish, melt more white chocolate to drizzle on top, and add sprinkles for a festive look! To balance the sweet of these delectable truffles, I find that a cup of freshly brewed Starbucks coffee on the side makes for a perfect pairing. Other sweet treats that I love to pair with coffee, especially around the holidays, are orange cream cookies or a slice of apple pie. Yum!!

starbucks truffle recipestarbucks truffle recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp ground Starbucks Coffee – your preferred blend is fine, but I made this with the Veranda blend ground coffee
  • 1/3 cup eggnog or almond nog
  •  1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 2 cups white chocolate (about one bag)

holiday recipes truffle recipe

Recipe

  • Warm your eggnog in a pot on the stove and add Starbucks coffee grounds until it combines into a creamy cup. Then, add in 1/2 cup of white chocolate, nutmeg and butter. Heat on lowest setting.
  • Stir constantly until completely melted, and transfer to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours until the mixture is cooled and solid.
  • Once cooled, scoop into tablespoon-sized balls and roll. Once all of your truffles are rolled, return to the freezer.
  • Melt remaining chocolate in a pot and coat truffles completely. Cover with sprinkles or a dash of nutmeg. You can also drizzle any extra white chocolate over top!
  • When the shells have hardened, they’re ready to eat!

veranda truffles

If you missed my post about holiday drinks last week, make sure to check that out here! I used the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha Latte K-Cups to create 3 separate delicious drinks for a holiday beverage bar! These recipes all put me in the holiday spirit!!! It’s funny how scents and flavors can transport you to a certain time in your life for a certain holiday. And these drinks do that for me. You also can check out the entire Starbucks line at grocery stores near you!

holiday recipes

My Friend Lisa’s Cranberry Sauce

I grew up thinking that cranberry sauce was disgusting. Ha! No, really! And now it’s what I look forward to more than anything at my holiday dinners. This recipe was passed on from my friend Lisa who is basically like family to me. Because I spent most of my adult life in California and my family lives on the East Coast, I haven’t spent Thanksgiving with them in years. Usually, I would visit them during other parts of the year because the air travel was so much less expensive than flying on actual Thanksgiving. So, my friends Lisa and Mith sort of took me in on Thanksgiving every year and out of the last 10 Thanksgivings I think I’ve spent seven with them. It’s become our little yearly tradition to spend Thanksgiving together!

cranberry sauce holiday recipes

She always would make this cranberry sauce recipe every year, and it’s now such a tradition to me that I made sure that I have it every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas, even when I am not with her! I met her when I was working at Facebook, and that’s actually where she got this recipe! She spent an afternoon baking with a Facebook pastry chef and has been using it ever since! Here are her recipe cards!

cranberry sauce recipecranberry sauce recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 bag of fresh cranberries
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
  • 1/4 cup Grand Marnier
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp All Spice
  • 1 tsp salt

holiday recipes cranberry saucecranberry sauce holiday recipes

German Spaetzle

Spaetzle is a German noodle dish that my grandmother made every holiday dinner for our family growing up. It screams holidays to me. And when she knew her end was getting near, she passed her 75+ year old noodle press down to me (it might even be 100+ years old). It’s from Germany and her mother gave it to her. I cannot even begin to explain how important this noodle press and recipe is to me. You guys know how much my grandmother means to me and the impact she has had on my life. I have a tattoo in her handwriting from a quote she always used to say, and my daughter is named after her.

So how do you use this noodle press to create your holiday recipes? You essentially hold over the hot water to push the dough through to the water to cook the noodles. It is so special to me and someday I plan to pass it down to Molly or Riley. Whoever loves special noodles more! Ha! They both already love them!

Not a lot of people will have this press passed down from their grandparents, but you can buy them online for pretty cheap. Just google: Spaetzle Noodle Maker. And this is a really impressive dish to make for when you have guests over, especially because they probably haven’t had it before.

My grandmother used to make it and put beef stew over the top, but I have always just enjoy eating them with butter and parmesan cheese. Even back when I used to eat meat, I just wanted Parmesan cheese and butter on them. Spoken like a girl who is obsessed with her pasta. Ha!

spaetzle press holiday recipes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup of milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 pinch ground white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1 gallon of hot water
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

spaetzle holiday recipes

Recipe

  • In a mixing bowl, add together your flour, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Stir!
  • In a separate bowl, beat the eggs well.
  • Begin pouring some of the beaten eggs into the dry mixture. Mix. Alternate and add some milk. Mix. Repeat these steps until you’ve added all the eggs and milk. Mix until smooth.
  • If you have one, press your dough through spaetzle maker, or you can use a large holed sieve or metal grater.
  • Drop a few at a time into simmering water. Cook 5 to 8 minutes. Drain well.
  • Saute cooked spaetzle in butter or margarine.
  • Sprinkle chopped fresh parsley on top and serve.

I hope you guys love these recipes! When I say they bring joy to me and my family I absolutely mean it! And quite frankly, I don’t only reserve them for the holidays. Isn’t it funny how some things, like cranberry sauce, we think can only be eaten during Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner? It always makes me laugh that I talk about how much I love Thanksgiving dinner when eating it, but really most of the holiday recipes are things I could cook every single day if I really wanted to! I hope you guys enjoy these not only for the holidays, but anytime you feel like you want that holiday feeling! What are some of your family’s favorite recipes?! I would love for you guys to share them with me in the comments below!

 

30 Thoughts

30 thoughts on “3 Delicious Holiday Recipes!

  1. 3 great recipes! I’m going to try the eggnog truffles for a party this weekend. . All the recipes look really good 🙂

  2. So cool that you make spaetzle! My family is German but that was never a tradition until I had a German exchange student about 10 years ago when I was in high school. She brought a noodle press and taught us how to make these delicious noodles. Love that you’re spreading the love and knowledge.

  3. All the 3 recipes look delicious Ali! I can’t wait to try them. Your Grandma’s recipe is such a neat and special thing to pass on. I love family traditions like that, it makes the holidays even more special!

  4. Spaetzle is my absolute favorite!! I’ve never made my own but I’m going to have to try now! Thank you for sharing!! 💕

  5. OMG, spaetzle is delicious! I haven’t had it in a while, but a German restaurant near where I grew up had it. May need to try your recipe!

  6. These sound like delicious recipes. Thanks for sharing them! An off topic comment…I also had a grandmother I called Molly and her last name was Sullivan 😊I think of her every time I see your Molly.

  7. When you say you like ramen what do you put in yours?! Do you do the traditional- like the packet that come with it or make your own seasoning?

  8. They all look so delicious! Do the truffles have a strong coffee flavor to them? They sound delicious, but my husband does not like coffee.

  9. Spaetzle is my favorite! My husband’s father was from Germany and we are doing a full German food dinner on Christmas Eve this year. We also make it with cheese and caramelized onions.

  10. What a special tradition to pass down! I am part German and made spaetzle once. I didn’t have a fancy noodle press. Instead, I pushed the dough through my metal pasta strainer to shape it. It didn’t look nearly as nice as yours, but it tasted great!

  11. Awe Ali. I love your blog. I’m going to search for a spaetzle press Somewhere. My daughter loves these noodles. She’s coming home from college this week. After finals she’d love to have homemade noodles. Thanks again for sharing

  12. I love Spätzle!! I am from Germany and a maker is something I brought with me when I moved. Have you tried them with caramelized onions and bacon and then cheese melted over them so delicious!! 😋
    PS: How so you get yours so even and straight? Mine always come out in different shapes and lengths.

  13. My grandfather Othmar , born in Germany, made spaetzle quite often and taught me how to make it. He always like thicker noodles so used two spoons to cut small pieces into the water. I’m still perfecting his technique now that he has passed but we had his delicious spaetzle for the 100 years we had him with us.

  14. Your grandmothers spaetzle recipe and post really gives me all the feels today. My grandmother used to do the same thing, and her press looks exactly like yours! I’ve never seen or heard of anyone else making them for the holidays like my family. My mom still carries on the tradition and will make them now. This was just such a happy post to see today!!

  15. The noodle maker looks like my antique tool I thought was for “ricing” potatoes. I am going to try your recipes😋

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