Little Difference #29 - Christmas Dessert
The
Bûche de Noël is the official dessert of Christmas over here in Luxembourg. They start invading the bakeries about a week or so before Christmas. Yum, right? Seeing all these Bûches de Noël got me thinking. In America we don't have *one* dessert that everyone eats at Christmas. The English have their Christmas Pudding. The French and Luxembourgish (and a
few others) have their Bûche de Noël. I can't think of anything comparable in American Christmas culture. We do Christmas cookies but that is really not a dessert you'd serve after a meal. For Thanksgiving we have pumpkin pie but nothing standard for Christmas. Friends, am I missing something?
This year I've seen loads of these little cute Bûche de Noël called buchette. They are exactly the same as their larger counter parts, just smaller and perhaps cuter. Essentially they are individual size Bûches de Noël. They seem to be all over this year. I had to buy some. See? Aren't they cute. Like the little axes?
The traditional Bûche de Noël takes another form besides miniature - ice cream! Oh, yes, the freezer cases are stuffed with bûche glacées this time of year. Same idea only made of ice cream. I even saw some ice cream buchettes (squeal!)
Now, I know you're busy. I realize it is the day before Christmas Eve, BUT, please take a moment to chime in. I'm interested in:
A) What dessert is consumed at Christmas time where you live?
B) To you Americans, I'm curious if your family has a traditional Christmas dessert.
I know you are out there and reading this. It just takes a sec.
Read all the Little Differences here. 
13 comments:
I can´t help myself to commenting on your little differences posts!
Here in Argentina is very very hot on Christmas (now it`s 88°F) I don´t think we have a traditional dessert (ice cream all the time but that common) what we do have is "Pan Dulce" here´s a very good example:
http://www.mazcue.com/receta-pan-dulce-navidad-casero-facil/
It´s kind of a dry cake full of fruits, almonds, etc. Not really good for summer but that´s a must have at the christmas table.
We don't have a traditional dessert here in Cape Town either...it is sweltering heat and some people insist on a Christmas pudding and others insist on trifle - but both make think bleh!!! I am desperate for an idea to serve my mom-in-law it has to be quick and easy and made from whatever I have lying round the house because I am going no where near the stores!!! Don't I wish we had these cute desserts in stores around here!!!
i was trying to think of what dessert you have on Christmas just this morning and for the life of me i could not think of a thing that was a traditional American Christmas dessert or even something my family ate....these buche de noel look so good.
We love to have sticky toffee pudding over at our house. Nope, we aren't English, I just happen to have a chef for a husband so we are more adventurous when it comes to food. Plus have you tired it? It's delicious. We have it sometimes for Thanksgiving and then not for Christmas, which was the case this year, and it is always a big hit. We served it with caramel rum sauce. If I was cooking Christmas dinner, I would maybe make it again, but life is pretty short to make the same desserts over and over, we'd probably try something new, but we have it every year for sure! Oh, we live in SW Minnesota and although my husband is a chef, I take care of the pastry/dessert cooking.
Well, it's like you said about Christmas cookies-- these aren't something you serve after a meal, but it's something people make along with with Christmas cookies: buckeyes! For those of you who don't know what buckeyes are, they're peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate so that only a small circle of peanut butter shows through. They're very famous in Ohio :)
Pecan pie? Maybe? That's the best I can come up with. And lots of Christmas cookies.
My mother is a wonderful baker and her pies are the best. She makes chocolate cream, lemon meringue and pumpkin pie and always asks; aren't you all sick of these, don't you want something different? Then we tell her that this is our tradition! She also used to make 12 or 13 kinds of cookies. Her mother and father were from Sicily, so some are Italian but many are recipes that have been collected over the years. She is 88 and "only" made 3 kinds of cookies this year...I told her that I don't need to eat them and our family is spread out very far. I am in the United States in Maine.
I discovered you through your comment on adding treacle to gingerbread cookies. My father LOVES gingerbread, so I just may have to motivate my lazy self to bake.
I will now be a follower, happy holidays!
It looks a little bit similar to what is called a Yule log in England.
Merry Christmas.
How about Fruitcake?
I certainly remember getting more than one of those at Christmas, even if they are terrible!
Although I don't think it is intended for after Christmas dinner, more like Christmas morning?
My aunt makes trifle every year for Christmas dessert, but that's a pretty recent tradition. Before then, I think we had a different thing every year.
I also make a very good fruitcake, with dried fruit instead of the candied stuff, but I haven't done that in a couple of years.
Pavlova is the national christmas dessert of australia!
http://www.google.com.au/images?hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENAU279&q=pavlova&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=q7EWTYj3C46GvgPesv3pDQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDsQsAQwAg&biw=1037&bih=722
though we have many others. Plum Pudding and Custard too
Trifle is very popular in australia too - layers of cake, jelly (jello to you) custard and fruit.
As far as tradition, I agree with toffee, Christmas cookies and especially Ginger Bread houses. We only make these at Christmas. As far as a particular dessert, it has to be pie, right? We eat pie for breakfast every Christmas morning! But get this: I bought a Buche de Noel this year from Essential Baking Co. It took the place of our chocolate pie...and I felt very European.
In my family we always had pies for dessert at Christmas (along with a huge smorgasboard of cookies). However, now that I host Christmas Eve we've had yule logs twice (made by a friend - not me!) so that's becoming tradition. At Christmas my Aunt always serves peppermint ice cream with hot fudge for the kids. LOVE IT!
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