Food is a staple ingredient to fun during the holidays. Whether Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, or New Year’s, a special treat or dinner makes the day just right! Everyone in our community does something different and special that correlates with the holidays. Let’s hear our fellow Friends’ favorites!
Mary Woodward’s favorite dessert to make is her chocolate peanut butter fudge that she occasionally brings to school. Over time, she worked on and changed the recipe over time until she got it perfect! She also loves baked macaroni and cheese (see recipe below). Mary says, “I saved a piece of paper from the Whittier a long time ago. They had a columnist who did recipes and she did a 5-cheese mac and cheese and that’s what we use, although I tweaked it.” Mary’s family makes this at Thanksgiving and it always reminds her of this time. Mary finds a lot of other recipes from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook and they also have a website called Good Housekeeping. She says, “Every recipe we’ve used from that has been fantastic.”
Moving on to the desserts, Aaron Hockstein ’24 is a fantastic baker who makes a ton of different recipes and has even started developing some. He claims his favorite dessert during the holiday season is a chocolate chip cookie. He explains that a simple cookie can be elevated to make it so much better, by adding toffee, browning butter, or even adding espresso powder to elevate the chocolate (see recipe below). But that’s not the only holiday treat, Hockstein says, “I just love a pumpkin pie.” He found a caramelized honey pumpkin pie that he loves from the cookbook Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz. Hockstein finds recipes from all over, but usually from internet sites such as Sally’s Baking Addiction, Handle the Heat, and Claire Saffitz, who made Dessert Person. All of these websites are filled with hundreds of recipes from cake to Thanksgiving food. Hockstein also has a baking Instagram page called Aarons Baking Therapy, which shows how talented he is and all the amazing things he has made!
Sawyer Rowland ‘25 also loves to bake during the holiday season. Her favorite thing to make is challah bread. She says, “I bake it for my family for Chanukah and I add chocolate chips because chocolate always makes everything better.” Challah is a popular Jewish bread, but the twist with the chocolate chips is unique. Rowland also explains how her family always makes chocolate chip pumpkin bread (see recipe below) and it reminds her of the holiday season. Rowland also finds a lot of her favorite recipes in the New York Times; however, she has developed some as well.
That wraps up the tour of the food around Friends during the holidays. Recipes for some of the food mentioned can be found below. This will give you something to do while at home for Thanksgiving and Winter break, and the best part is the taste test afterward!
