Christmas
The breads, logs and spice cakes that European kitchens only make in December.
22 recipes
🇫🇷 FranceBûche de Noël
The Christmas log: a génoise rolled hot in a towel, filled with dark chocolate buttercream and forked into bark.
🇩🇪 GermanyStollen
Germany's dense Christmas bread, packed with dried fruit and hiding a core of marzipan.
🇮🇹 ItalyPanettone
A tall, domed Milanese Christmas bread, slow-fermented and studded with candied fruit.
🇮🇹 ItalyPandoro
Verona's star-shaped Christmas brioche, plain and golden, pulled apart into soft strands.
🇫🇷 FranceKouglof
Alsace's crown-shaped brioche, raised on a starter, studded with soaked raisins and baked over whole almonds set in the mould's grooves.
🇫🇷 FrancePain d'Épices
Honey and rye spice loaf from Dijon and Alsace: no eggs, no butter, just hot honeyed milk stirred into spiced flour and baked low and slow.
🇷🇴 RomaniaCozonac
Romania's festive sweet bread: a rich yolk-and-oil dough swirled with a fluffy meringue-walnut filling and baked slowly in a loaf tin.
🇵🇹 PortugalBolo Rei
A crown-shaped Christmas bread studded with candied fruit and nuts, eaten through Epiphany.
🇪🇸 SpainRoscón de Reyes
An orange-blossom brioche ring, decorated with candied fruit, eaten on Three Kings' Day.
🇫🇷 FranceGalette des Rois
A puff pastry disc filled with almond frangipane, baked each January to crown a hidden king.
🇦🇹 AustriaVanillekipferl
Crumbly, nut-based crescent cookies rolled twice in vanilla-scented powdered sugar.
🇬🇷 GreeceMelomakarona
Orange-and-cinnamon Christmas cookies, dipped in honey syrup and topped with crushed walnuts.
🇬🇷 GreeceKourabiedes
Buttery, almond-studded shortbread crescents, buried under a snowy coat of powdered sugar.
🇵🇱 PolandMakowiec
A Polish Christmas roll of sweet yeast dough, tightly coiled around a poppy seed filling.
🇮🇪 IrelandBarmbrack
Ireland's 'speckled loaf' for Halloween: a spiced yeasted bread studded with tea-soaked currants, raisins and peel, sliced and buttered.
🇳🇴 NorwayKrumkake
Thin, buttery Norwegian waffle cookies pressed in a patterned iron and rolled hot around a cone.
🇪🇸 SpainTurrón
Spain's Christmas nougat of almonds, honey and sugar, made in both hard and soft styles.
🇫🇷 FranceNougat de Montélimar
Lavender honey and sugar cooked to 145°C, whipped into egg whites and loaded with toasted almonds and pistachios.
🇫🇷 FranceCalisson d'Aix
Aix-en-Provence's almond and candied melon lozenges on a wafer base, sealed under a thin sheet of royal icing.
🇨🇭 SwitzerlandBasler Läckerli
Basel's 700-year-old honey and spice bars, chewy with candied peel and nuts and glazed with kirsch icing while still warm.
🇮🇹 ItalyStruffoli
Neapolitan honey balls — tiny fried dough pieces piled high and drenched in warm honey.
🇬🇷 GreeceDiples
Thin fried dough ribbons, folded while frying, then drenched in honey and walnuts.