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3 last-minute recipes for Christmas

A quick boozy cake, a salad styled like a wreath and chocolate bites for last-minute festive menus

No-soak Christmas cakes to the rescue for last-minute cooking.(Kate Laine, Unsplash)

By Team Lounge

LAST PUBLISHED 25.12.2023  |  11:30 AM IST

Christmas tastes of sugar, butter, spice, and all things nice. The day of feasting is here. If you are searching for last-minute recipes, look no further. The reasons for unplanned cooking could be many: maybe, there are unexpected guests; perhaps you need to carry food as gifts for near and dear ones and decided to be little extra generous. Here are three recipes for sweet and savoury options.

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A wreath-shaped salad

In keeping with the yuletide spirit, the simple idea of a wreath can extend from styling salads to snack platters. Case in point: this easy-to-make and good-to-look vegetarian salad topped with crispy apples, avocado and cranberries to represent the colours of Christmas. The pretty pink dressing with olive oil, pomegranate juice, yogurt, champagne vinegar, honey, mustard and salt can work as a dip too. The champagne vinegar can be switched with a regular or wine vinegar.

Quick chocolate-peanut bites

An eggless dessert that requires about 20 minutes of prepping and no baking sounds like magic. All one needs to do is prep a caramel base, throw in a lot of peanuts, place them on a tray, pour melted chocolate and allow it to freeze for an hour. Then cut it up in bite-sized squares, pack it in little boxes and send them off as Christmas gifts.

An easy no-soak Christmas cake

Prepping for a Christmas cake takes weeks because the dried berries need to be soaked in alcohol for days. This recipe has hacks that will reduce your time to about two hours, and yield an ultra moist buttery cake. It is enriched with berries and pecans, has zest of orange and lemon and brandy for a nice boozy balance of flavours and textures. Needless to say, it gets better with time and can be kept unrefrigerated for two-three days.

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