Recipes to usher in a sweet Christmas

Christmas is a time when many delicious sweets usher us into the holiday spirit. The following recipes are traditional in various households and are definitely memory makers during the holiday season.

Christmas Bunuelos (Mexican Christmas Fritters)

1 tsp. cinnamon, ground

1 tsp. baking powder

4 cups flour

1/4 cup oil

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. sugar

1 cup water

Sift dry ingredients; slowly add water and a little oil. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead until dough is smooth and elastic. Divide into about 40 small balls; roll out into approx. 4” to 6” circles. Fry in very hot oil (hot and deep) until delicately browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Bunuelos may be served sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar or drizzled with thin honey.

Bunuelos are good anytime but are traditionally served on Christmas morning in many homes.

Reeder’s White Christmas Fruit Cake

l lb. fine coconut

2 cups granulated sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 cup butter

Blend above ingredients then add:

1 cup milk

4 eggs

½ lb. almonds (chopped)

1 lb. white raisins

Cut the following fruit into small pieces

½ lb. mixed peel

½ lb. red cherries

½ lb. green cherries

¼ lb. colored pineapple slices (about 3)

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

Line 2 loaf pans with lots of oiled brown paper.

Bake at 275 degrees for 2 ½ hours

This recipe is from Howard Reeder’s Canadian grandmother, who was a marvelous cook. Lucile, Howard’s wife, said, “I always doubled the recipe and mixed it in a large punch bowl, otherwise it was all gone before I could taste it!”

Emamae’s Chocolate Persimmon Cake

3 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp. cocoa

2 tsp. soda

½ tsp. salt

2 cups buttermilk

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup persimmon pulp (Approx. 2 persimmons)

2 eggs

Sift dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients. Mix with electric mixer until blended. Serve as a loaf, layer cake or cupcakes. For cake, bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until it springs back. For cupcakes bake for 25 minutes. Frost with Buttercream Frosting.

This recipe was from my mother’s friend Emamae Hill, whom she met at the University of the Pacific. After graduation, Emamae and my mother taught together in the same high school. Emamae and her husband, Bob, grew persimmons on their farm in Green Valley, CA.

Barbara’s Buttercream Frosting

½ cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar (1 box)

4 tablespoons cream or half ’n half

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. almond extract

Beat on low to mix; high to blend.

This is my mother’s recipe and whenever I make it the smell reminds me of family gatherings long ago.

Grandma Knudsen’s Swedish Butter Cookies

1 lb. butter

1 ¼ cups sugar

1 egg

4 ½ cups flour

1 tsp. vanilla

¼ tsp. salt

Stir soft butter until creamy, work in sugar, then add vanilla and well-beaten egg. Sift flour and salt, then combine with creamed ingredients. Roll with rolling pin on lightly floured board, then press into various shapes with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until delicate brown. (Watch to see that cookies don’t burn on edges.) Frost if desired.

This recipe is from my grandmother, Ruby Knudsen Taylor. Her mother, Paulina Wallinder Knudsen, brought the recipe with her when she emigrated from Gävle, Sweden, in 1891.