If you are anything like me, then you know holiday season means baking and creating all the sweet treats. Typically for me, holiday treats consist of snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, and many types of pies. Now, there is nothing wrong with sticking to traditions, but after Jonas mentioned Turkish Delights, (followed by “what even are those?”), I had an idea. I wanted to compile a list of various literary holiday treats from a few of my favorite books.
I am going to be honest from the start, while I enjoy baking, I am one who sticks to the recipe books. Therefore, all the sweet treats you see below were found from the blogs of skilled bakers. I urge you to check out some of their other recipes linked below each treat.
Today’s blog is featuring our personal favorite literary holiday treats. If you have any other suggestions, leave a comment and I will take a look. But for now, I welcome you to take a trip down memory lane as we look at these holiday treats from classic tales.
Pippi Longstocking, Pepparkakor
To start us off, I am taking us to my childhood favorite, Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren. This story follows an orphan girl, and her pet monkey, on the search for her next adventure. Various events take place, including tips on “thing-searching”, face-offs with the circus strong men, and dreams of pirates. For today’s focus, Pippi’s holiday baking starts off right at the beginning of the book.
“That morning Pippi was busy making pepparkakor- a kind of Swedish cookie. She had made an enormous amount of dough and rolled it out on the kitchen floor.
‘Because,’ said Pippi to her little monkey, ‘what earthly use is a baking board when one plans to make at least five hundred cookies?’
And there she lay on the floor, cutting out cookie hearts for dear life.”
Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren
I assure you, I rolled our cookies out on the kitchen island rather than the floor. However, if you are feeling more Pippi-like than me, feel free to embrace whatever form of baking you wish. Gingerbread holds a special place in my heart. However, the decorating always feels like a necessity with them and sometimes I’m not feeling up to that. I found the pepparkakor cookies to be the perfect balance between sweet and spice-ful, and bonus for not necessarily needing the decorations. We followed a recipie from A Bakers House. These are simple, easy to make, and super fun because you can customize them with different cookie cutters.
Little House on the Prairie, Snow Candy
I needed a fun, simple treat after the complexity of these others. Snow candy was first brought to my attention when reading the Little House on the Prairies series with my grandpa. It always seemed fun and unique.
To make snow candy is simple. First you mix natural maple syrup with butter and cook it over the stove. Once its boiled and combined, cover a baking sheet with snow from the outdoors. Put divets throughout the snowed baking sheet and pour the candy mixture in the divets. It should harden instantly and still be warm to the touch. Its that simple. You can make other candy syrups for a flavor you more enjoy, such as caramel. The trick is finding a candy flavor you like. Living in a place that now has snow, I was looking forward to this. Unfortunately, no snow occurred in the week I am writing this. I hope to update this one day soon, perhaps this weekend, with the special treat my child-like heart yearns to try.
“There is plenty of syrup in the kettle, and plenty of snow outdoors. As soon as they ate a plateful, they filled their plates with snow again, and Grandma poured more syrup on it.”
The Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Polar Express, Hot Cocoa
Hot coco is a classic when it comes to the colder seasons. For this very reason, I knew I had to attempt making the deliciously described and artistically displayed hot cocoa from The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. The famous movie, based off an old childrens book, made this rich, chocolately drink more famous and desirable. The song was constantly sung in my school-aged days and still gets stuck in my head when I have a craving for hot chocolate.
“We drank hot cocoa as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars.”
Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
I do have to say this recipe exceeded all my expectations of a wonderful hot coco. Brooklyn Active Mama does a great job encapsulating the richness and deliciousness of the hot chocolate shown and described in the film and book. As described in the book, it truly tasted like I melted a chocolate bar on the stove top. The thickness and richness of the drink was perfectly paired with marshmallows and whipped cream. You do not need to add the toppings, it just depends on who’s enjoying it. This is a recipe I will be saving for many future uses.
Harry Potter, Treacle Tarts
Harry Potter was the series of my generation and having just featured our own recipe, Alcoholic Butterbeer, I figured we should try another one of these famous literary holiday treats, the treacle tart! Treacle tart is mentioned multiple times through out the series and is one of Harry’s favorite desserts. Harry even smells treacle tart when they find Amortentia potion.
“Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate eclairs and jam, doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding… As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.”
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling
Tarts are generally not my favorite desserts and while this one still falls in the tart category, I found it to be edible. A Communal Table’s recipie was easy to follow and while not my favorite, it was at no fault to the recipe. Perhaps for those who enjoy fruit tarts, this treacle tart will be a new found favorite. For me, I enjoyed making it but do not see myself making it again in the foreseeable future.
The Chronicles of Narnia, Turkish Delights
Now if you haven’t read the book or watched the movie, I am sure you have still seen or heard of the infamous series titled The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis. C.S Lewis holds a special place in my heart and this series still blows me away years after my initial read.
This series follows four English siblings temporarily residing in the country side to remain safe during World War II. Their lives change when the youngest sister finds a wardrobe that transports them to the magical world of Narnia. In the first story, the plot is focused on the fight against the evil White Witch led by Aslan, a magical lion, and his army. This book also contains one of the most popular literary holiday treats. The famous chapter in which Turkish Delights are mentioned, is when Edmund betrays his siblings due to the enchantment the White Witch places on them.
“The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very center and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. He was quite warm now, and very comfortable.”
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
Truthfully, this recipe did not turn out the exact way we had hoped, but they were still sweet and delicious. Although, I’m not sure I’d be tempted into betraying my siblings after eating these, but then again the white witch did not enchantment these little bites. Oh the Things We’ll Make explained the complexities of Turkish Delights and there was some sound advice for the next time make these. I would like to try this recipe again because I am thinking a candy thermometer might be necessary for these to come out correctly.
If you’d like us to try and make any of your favorite literary holiday treats, leave a comment below. Expect to see some more book inspired cooking and baking in the upcoming months. But for now, happy holidays!
And always, happy reading!