15 recipes for festive baking

Do you have a knack for baking? It’s certainly the season for festive baking. Below you will find a list of the Greek Christmas classics plus my favourite desserts to share in festive season.

With the festivities under way, there is no better time to get the mixing bowls out and make your own Christmas desserts.

Greek festive baking has a holly trinity: Melomakarona, Honey, spiced biscuits, kourabiedes, shortbread cookies and Diples, honey crispy light dough treats.

Another seasonal favourite is Karidopita, the Greek syrupy walnut cake celebrating the fresh harvest of this wonderful nuts.

Syrupy desserts are always a good sharer for tea or coffee, baklava and kataifi often take center stage.

And most important is the New Year’s cake: Vasilopita.

Karidopita, Greek walnut cake

Baklava, with walnuts and almonds

Kataifi, the individual kataifi pastry rolls with pistachios

Layali lobnan, milky semolina pudding

Dreamy milky semolina pudding with pistachios and a drizzle of syrup to serve.

Chocolate & raspberry tart

Need I say more? If chocolate is at the top of your list, go for this tart!

chocolate and rasberry tart by Konstantinos @eatyourselfgreek

Bite sized festive treats

The small treats could not be missing: chocolate rocks, the quickest, easiest hazelnut chocolate coated bites & tangerine truffles, with tangerine peel and almonds, the most sustainable treat you can ever make.

Chocolate rocks, with hazelnuts

Tangerine truffles

Nordic festive baking

Nordic Baking could not be missing from the list. There is a lot to be said about fika, enjoying a sweet bite with your coffee surely doesn’t require a special occasion. The Sweds have made it a way of life and we should definitely follow their example. Below are my two Swedish favourites: Kannelbullaar, Cinnamon buns and Lussekatter, saffron buns.

Swedish cinnamon buns

Vasilopita, New Year’s Cake

Because Santa doesn’t come without treats, for old and young alike. There is always great excitement cutting the first cake of the year. We make it extra special, hiding a coin in the dough before the cake goes in the oven. One lucky person will get it in their slice. It’s meant to bring good luck for the whole year.