Around the world, holiday festivities are usually celebrated with food. Different regions all have their own unique treats that people indulge in around the festive period. Today, we're sharing some delicious dessert recipes from all around the globe to help get you inspired to try something new this holiday season!
Bibingka - The Philippines
Tradtionally made for Christmas, bibingka is a rice flour cake that is made with coconut milk and eggs, and is normally cooked in clay pot ovens lined with banana leaves. Modern methods usually involve baking bibingka in ovens using ordinary cake pans or tins. This creates a soft, spongey cake that then gets topped with things like grated coconut, butter, cheese or duck eggs. Bibingka is traditionally eaten around Simbang Gabi, a series of 9 dawn masses leading up to Christmas Eve. After the end of service during, churchgoers can purchase this sweet treat from food carts selling them outside.
Diples - Greece
Diples are a delicious sweet treat enjoyed around Christmastime in Greece. Named from the Greek word 'fold', they are made by folding thin sheets of dough which are then cut into various shapes and sizes before being fried and drizzled with a honey syrup. This sweet dessert is known as xerotigana or avgokalamara more commonly.
Image via Daring Gourmet
Risalamande - Denmark
This Danish dessert is typically made to celebrate Christmas. It is made with a rice pudding base topped with whipped cream, blanched chopped almonds and a cherry sauce. It is served cold and is eaten after the Christmas Eve dinner. Traditionally, a whole almond is placed in the middle of the bowl and whoever ends up finding it gets a gift such as a toy or a bottle of wine!
Tortell de Reis - Spain
Tortell de Reis is a ring-shaped cake that is commonly filled with marzipan or whipped cream or a pumpkin jam called cabell d’àngel and gets topped with candied fruit, nuts and icing. This cake is eaten in Spain’s Catalonia region on Three Kings Day, or the Epiphany, on January 6. Traditionally, the cake also contains a cardboard crown, a broad bean and a figurine representing one of the Three Wise Men. The person who finds the figurine in their slice of cake gets crowned, and the one who discovers the bean within their cake will have to pay for next year’s cake.