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There’s nothing better than a cup of peppermint hot chocolate for the holidays! This peppermint hot chocolate is rich and creamy with the best minty flavor. Your family will love sipping on it all winter long!

You really can’t go wrong with homemade hot chocolate for Christmastime. With these tasty recipes, you may even want to make it year-round! Try out this white hot chocolate, cookies and cream hot chocolate, or hot chocolate bombs next!

Homemade Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Isn’t it crazy that Christmas is only a few days away? There’s no better way to relax and unwind during the busy holiday season than with a big pot of homemade hot chocolate. Today’s recipe is rich and creamy hot chocolate infused with delicious minty flavor! It’s one of my family’s favorite recipes to make around Christmastime.

Good news is, this peppermint hot chocolate takes less than 10 minutes to make. It’s a quick and easy treat that will warm you up from the inside out! Serve this hot chocolate up with some mini marshmallows, whipped cream, and crushed peppermints for a treat the whole family will love!

Everything You’ll Need to Make It

It only takes a handful of simple ingredients to whip up this peppermint hot chocolate! The best thing about homemade hot chocolate is that you can customize it however you’d like. See more variations and substitutes in the tips section below! Also, if you’re looking for exact measurements, they can all be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

Milk: Feel free to use 2%, whole, or half & half. Any milk works, but the higher the fat content, the creamier your hot chocolate will be.Cocoa Powder: Whatever you have on hand will work, but if you really want to make a good pot of hot chocolate, I recommend using a high-quality Dutch process cocoa powder.Granulated Sugar: Sweetens the peppermint hot chocolate. You can adjust to taste if you don’t want your hot chocolate to be too sweet.Crushed Candy Canes: These get melted into the hot chocolate for peppermint flavor. Crushed peppermint candies work too! You can also use a few drops of peppermint extract instead.Milk Chocolate Chips: Again, I recommend using high-quality baking chocolate for the best flavor. I always go for Ghirardelli! Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds a little extra flavor to the hot chocolate and makes it taste better overall!

How to Make Peppermint Hot Chocolate

It’s so easy! This is something that even your littles can help out with. My kids love stirring in the milk chocolate chips and watching them melt into smooth, chocolatey goodness.

Add Ingredients to Saucepan: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the milk, cocoa powder, granulated sugar, and milk chocolate chips. Then whisk to combine.Whisk: As the mixture heats up, continue to whisk until the chocolate chips melt. Add in Candy Cane Pieces: Stir in the crushed candy canes. Heat for about 5 minutes and whisk until the candy canes melt. Continue to slowly heat until it reaches the desired temperature.Whisk in Vanilla: Remove from heat, and whisk in the vanilla. Serve and Enjoy: Serve immediately in your favorite mug, and top with your favorite hot chocolate toppings and more crushed candy cane!

German Pancakes are a hot and puffy golden pancake that only requires 5 minutes of prep! This classic breakfast is always a huge hit at our house!

We love a good classic breakfast at our house. Try this Breakfast Casserole,  these delicious Quick 45 Minute Cinnamon Rolls, or my Grandma’s Perfect Fluffy Pancakes for a breakfast the family won’t be able to get enough of!

German Pancakes Recipe

Breakfast is always a struggle at our house because mornings are always so busy! I love to surprise the kiddos with a delicious and hot breakfast at least once a week before school. That is why we love German pancakes at our house. They only take 5 minutes of prep with ingredients that you have on hand. This breakfast is totally doable, even for the busiest families!

My kids love to watch things baking in the oven and this recipe is the best to watch! As the german pancakes bake in the oven, they get puffy and golden. Once we take them out, I love sprinkling them with some powdered sugar and topping them with some syrup and berries. But the best part about pancakes is that you can make them however you like!

German Puff Pancakes Ingredients

If you haven’t tried this classic breakfast, you need to make it. We absolutely love it at our house, and it is so fun and easy to make! It is sure to be a huge hit with family or guests!

Flour: All-purpose flour is best for it to thicken.Eggs: This helps with the form and taste of the pancake.Milk: This helps make the batter creamy and smooth.Butter: Melt the butter before adding it to the batter.Sugar: The sugar sweetens the pancakes up!Salt: Just a pinch will help it rise.

How to Make German Pancakes from Scratch?

Make this German pancake recipe even easier by adding the batter to a blender for about 30 seconds. Start with blending the wet ingredients together first and then add the dry ingredients until they are smooth. Once the lumps are out, place the batter in the cast iron skillet.

Whisk Together: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, melted butter, salt, and sugar. Add the flour and stir until incorporated, being careful not to overmix.Bake in a Skillet: Add one tablespoon of melted butter to the bottom of a 9 or 11-inch cast iron skillet. Pour the batter into a skillet and bake for 12-18 minutes or just until the edges start to brown. Top with desired toppings.

This traditional German stollen bread is the perfect treat for the holidays! It’s a delicious sweet bread filled with cranberries, raisins, candied citrus, and a luscious almond filling.

I love German food and trying to recreate it at home! A few more recipes you’ll have to try out: pork schnitzel, German oven pancakes, and this German potato salad! (It’s one of my favorite sides!)

German Christmas Fruit Loaf (Christstollen)

This holiday season, swap out your traditional fruit cake for this tasty German version! Translated, “stollen” means fruit loaf. These are eaten all year round, but in December they’re called Christstollen. Stollen bread is soft with the perfect chew. Similar to a fruit cake, it’s also loaded with cranberries, raisins, and candied citrus for delicious fruity flavor!

What really makes stollen good, though, is its tasty almond filling. I use almond paste in this recipe, but it’s also commonly made with marzipan! Stollen is the perfect combination of flavors and textures. It’s sweet, nutty, and fruity! You’ve got to give this delicious German pastry a try for Christmas. It may just become a new family tradition!

What You’ll Need to Make Stollen

I’ve broken this list of ingredients up into a few different parts so it’s easier to organize. If you can’t find almond paste at your local grocery store, check out my tips section below on how to make it at home.

Fruit and Nut Mixture

Dried Fruits: In my stollen bread I used dried cranberries and golden raisins for the perfect combination of tart and sweet.Candied Citrus: I used both candied orange and lemon peel. If you can’t find these in-store, use my recipe here to make them from scratch!Slivered Almonds: Adds a little extra nuttiness to the stollen.Dark Rum: Added for extra flavor.

Bread

Milk: I always like to use whole milk for bread because the fat content makes it soft and tender. Be sure to use milk that’s warm to help activate the yeast!Yeast: I used active dry yeast.Sugar: Just regular granulated sugar works great to sweeten up the dough.Bread Flour: Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, so it produces more gluten and gives your stollen more chew.Large Egg: Binds all of the ingredients together!Softened Butter: I used unsalted butter because we add salt separately.Vanilla: Vanilla and sweet breads go hand-in-hand! Add some in for an extra pop of flavor.Lemon Zest: I add lemon zest for a touch of zesty flavor.Salt: Keeps your stollen from tasting bland.Spices: No Christmas bread is complete without spice! I used cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon for the perfect holiday flavor.

Almond Filling

Almond Paste: For the filling of the stollen. You can also use marzipan instead. If you can’t find either at the store, you can make it from scratch using my instructions below.

Garnish

Melted Butter: Nothing compares to a little melted butter brushed on top of homemade bread!Powdered Sugar: Stollen is traditionally made with powdered sugar dusted on top, but you can omit this if you want your bread to be less sweet.

How to Make Stollen Bread

I know all the instructions may be intimidating, but making stollen is actually pretty simple! It just takes a little time and patience to get your dough right.

Preparing the Fruit and Nut Mixture

Combine Ingredients: Prepare the fruit and nut mixture by combining dried cranberries, raisins, candied fruit peels, almonds, and rum.Soak in Rum: Allow the mixture to soak, stirring occasionally until you are ready to use it.

Making the Dough

Activate Yeast: In the bowl of a stand mixer combine your milk, yeast, and sugar. Let the mixture rest for about 5 minutes, it should become bubbly as the yeast activates.Combine: Add to the bowl 3 cups of your bread flour, egg, butter, vanilla, lemon zest, salt, cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon.Mix: Using the dough hook attachment mix the dough on low speed to incorporate all the ingredients and bring the dough together. Once dough has come together, if it is too sticky and wet, add more bread flour ¼ cup at a time. Then allow it to mix for a few more minutes on low speed. Increase speed to medium high and mix for about 3-5 minutes, this will develop the gluten.Proof: Remove dough from mixer and place in a lightly greased bowl and cover to proof until it has doubled in size, about 45 minutes to an hour.Create Bread Forms: While the dough is resting, create two rectangular forms with tin foil and place them on a sheet of parchment paper, these will help the stollen bread to keep it’s shape while baking. If you have stollen bread forms you can use those.Shape and Fold: When dough has doubled in size, dump out onto a lightly floured surface and pound to degas. Fold in your fruit and nut mixture, straining out any excess juice beforehand. Then work the dough until the fruit and nut mixture is evenly distributed throughout the dough. Allow the dough to rest, covered in the bowl for another 10 minutes.

Adding Filling and Baking

Add Almond Filling: Dump the dough back onto a lightly floured surface and cut it into two equal halves. Stretch each half into a rectangle and set aside. Take your almond paste and roll into a rectangle between two sheets of parchment paper. Cut the almond paste rectangle in half and place one on each rectangle of dough, slightly off to one side.Shape and Proof: Stretch the dough over the almond paste and secure your seam on the side of the loaf. The seam is baked on the side of the loaf to create the classic stollen bread form. Be sure to secure it tight. Place the formed loaves onto your prepared forms on the sheet pan and cover, allow the loaves to proof until just under double in size. Do a touch test to see if the loaves are ready to bake by lightly poking down each loaf about 5 times. The pokes should slightly spring back but still be visible. If they spring back and the dough is still tough they need more time, if the loaf starts to deflate when you perform the test your dough is over-proofed.Bake: Once the loaves are ready, bake them at 350° Fahrenheit for 40-50 minutes. I like to rotate the pan around after about 30 minutes to ensure an even bake. You also may want to cover the loaves with foil after 30 minutes if they are browning too quickly. The loaves are ready when they are a light golden brown and temp out to 190° Fahrenheit.Add Topping: Remove the loaves from the oven and brush with melted butter, once the loaves have cooled a bit, dust each one generously with powdered sugar.

Pomegranate chocolate chunk cookies are the BEST cookies you will ever make! The pomegranate is tangy, like cranberry, with a hint of sweetness at the end. The burst of flavor when you bite into this cookie will have you coming back for seconds!

I love a good cookie. I’m a little obsessed with winter baking because it just makes the home smell so good! And it’s the one time of year when you actually want the oven to warm up the house! If you love cookie baking in the winter time, you HAVE to try these perfect-for-Christmas Grinch cookies, these gooey and delicious Butter Cookies, and these melt in your mouth Peppermint Meltaways.

Pomegranate Cookie Recipe

It’s no secret that I love cookies! It was one of the first things I learned how to make (probably like most of you), and they have always hit the spot. I especially love cookies during the holiday season, like these almond cookies and these Italian Christmas cookies. They are so easy to share, and everyone loves having a delicious cookie for Christmas!

If you have ever had a cranberry cookie, this pomegranate chocolate chunk cookie is kind of like that! Cranberries and pomegranates are similar because they are tangy and have a little sweetness at the end. I am a huge fan of cranberries, but it’s fun to switch it up! Pomegranates are so fun to eat in so many different ways. I bet you haven’t tried them in a cookie yet. They are a must-try!

Ingredients in Pomegranate Cookies

You will need the same ingredients as any cookie recipe, but for this pomegranate cookie, you will also need, well, pomegranates, of course! I also added cream cheese to the recipe, which I think you will love! You can find the exact measurements below in the recipe card.

Butter: You will want to use unsalted butter and make sure to leave it out for a few hours before you plan on making the cookies so it is nice and soft.Cream Cheese: Cream cheese is SO good in cookies. If you haven’t tried a cookie with cream cheese in it, you are in for a treat. It’s tangy and creamy and gives this cookie great texture and flavor.Granulated Sugar: Your pantry sugar will work great.Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is great in cookies like this because it has molasses in it. Molasses has a nice rich flavor and gives a deeper flavor than just granulated sugar by itself.Egg: I always use large grade-A eggs in my recipes.Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract adds flavor to the dough and helps to bring out all the other delicious flavors in the cookie.All-Purpose Flour: All-purpose flour is the easiest to work with and will be the best option for this cookie.Salt: Salt brings out the flavor.Baking Soda: Baking soda will help the cookies fluff up when baking. Baking Powder: Baking powder also helps these pomegranate cookies to rise.Semi-Sweet Baker’s Chocolate: You could use chocolate chips too.Pomegranate Arils: You will need to buy a pomegranate from the store and get all the seeds (arils) out. See my tip below for how to easily remove the seeds!

How to Make Pomegranate Cookies

This pomegranate cookie recipe is really similar to a chocolate chip cookie. The main difference is the pomegranates and adding chunks of chocolate instead of chips. You will love how these cookies taste; they are perfect for holiday get-togethers!

Prep: Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Chop the chocolate and prepare your pomegranate seeds (arils) by removing them from the fruit and set them aside.Beat: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter and cream cheese together until it is light and well mixed. Add in your sugars and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in your egg and vanilla and beat an additional 1-2 minutes.Whisk: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder until well combined. With your mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, ¼ cup at a time, until just combined.Fold and Bake: Fold in the chocolate and pomegranate until evenly distributed. Scoop about 2 tablespoon size rounds of dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving a 2-inch space between each one. Bake for 12-15 minutes, the cookies should be lightly golden all around, remove from oven and let the cookies rest on the hot baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.Cool: Allow the pomegranate cookies to cool for at least 15 minutes and enjoy!

If you’re looking for a dessert that is absolutely delicious but also looks great on the holiday dinner table, these Christmas tree cupcakes are it! Moist vanilla cupcakes topped with homemade buttercream frosting that almost look too good to eat!

If you couldn’t already tell, making festive desserts is one of my favorite things to do around Christmastime. A few more fun and festive desserts to try this holiday season are these Christmas tree sugar cookies, cornflake wreaths, and Grinch cookies!

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

If you’re ever unsure of what dessert to make, cupcakes are always a good choice. They’re easy, bite-sized, and always a hit with everyone. If you’re looking to take your Christmas dessert game to the next level, try out these Christmas tree cupcakes for your next get-together! Not only are they moist and delicious with the BEST buttercream frosting, but they’ll add a little extra holiday cheer to the meal!

The cupcakes themselves are vanilla-flavored, but don’t be fooled! There’s nothing simple about them! (Vanilla is so underrated!) These cupcakes are moist, rich, and buttery soft! I always like to pair my vanilla cupcakes with some buttercream frosting, but you can always go for cream cheese frosting if you want more tang! Either way, these Christmas Tree cupcakes are going to be a hit. And if you’re looking for more festive recipes to complete your meal, try this Santa veggie tray or Christmas tree charcuterie!

Ingredients You’ll Need

With grocery stores being so busy this time of year, I gravitate towards recipes with ingredients I already have at home. You may need to make a run for the holiday sprinkles, but everything else is probably in your pantry right now! Check out the recipe card below for exact measurements.

Cupcakes

Cake Flour: I like to use cake flour for cupcakes because it has a fine, light texture. If you don’t have any on hand, all-purpose flour works as well! It will just give your Christmas tree cupcakes a slightly different crumb.Granulated Sugar: Regular white sugar works great to sweeten up the cupcakes.Baking Powder and Baking Soda: Both are a must-add to make sure your cupcakes rise in the oven!Salt: Boosts the overall flavor of the cupcakes.Buttermilk: Buttermilk is the key ingredient to moist, soft cupcakes. If you don’t have any on hand, you can easily make some with milk and vinegar using my recipe here!Milk: I recommend using whole milk because the higher fat content will make your cake more moist.Vanilla Extract: Since vanilla is the main flavor here, use pure vanilla extract if you have it!Vegetable Oil: Makes your cupcakes nice and moist.Egg Whites: Help to make your batter light and fluffy and bind all of the ingredients together when baked.

Buttercream Frosting

Unsalted Butter: This acts as the base of the frosting.Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar adds the best sweetness! It also gives the buttercream frosting a smooth texture.Milk: To adjust thickness.Vanilla: Adds flavor to the frosting.Salt: You only need a pinch to give the frosting a little extra flavor.Green Gel Food Coloring: For that classic Christmas tree color!Sprinkles and Toppings: This is the fun part! Feel free to decorate your Christmas trees with whatever sprinkles, toppings, and decorations you’d like!

How to Make Christmas Tree Cupcakes

These festive cupcakes are so simple to make but will impress everyone at your holiday party. They’re so cute! It only takes a few simple steps to whip them up. Let’s get started!

Preheat Oven, Prepare Pan: Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two muffin tins with cupcake liners.Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.Add Wet Ingredients: Add the buttermilk, milk, vanilla, and oil to the dry ingredients and whisk until fully combined. In a separate bowl whip the egg whites until you get medium-stiff peaks, and then gently fold the egg whites into the batter.Add to Muffin Tin: Use a small cookie scoop to scoop the batter into the cupcake liners. Fill the liners only halfway full, or the cupcakes will puff over the top of the muffin tin.Bake: Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops of the cupcakes bounce back when lightly pressed. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

How to Make the Buttercream Frosting

Combine Ingredients: Add the butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, salt, and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer. Stir on low to incorporate and increase the speed slowly as the butter absorbs the powdered sugar.Add Food Coloring: Beat on high speed until the frosting is white and fluffy, about 10-15 minutes. Add your green food coloring until it has reached your desired color. Frost Cupcakes: Spoon the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a fluted piping tip. Pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes to resemble a tree. Add sprinkles and other toppings to decorate your cupcake trees for Christmas!