Sara Springle ‘21
Contributing Writer
Imagine taking the first bite of a peppermint ice cream cake. The cool ice cream, silky ganache and flavorful cake melding together in the perfect combination. Sounds pretty good, right?
Well that’s too bad. Any cooking you do is going to be in a college dorm kitchen, so let’s get real. But you don’t have to be too upset. Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best, and you can make these three- to four-ingredient holiday recipes at college and at home.
One of my favorite holiday recipes is chocolate dipped pretzels with peppermint. All you have to do is melt chocolate in the microwave and crush some peppermint sticks. After that, just dip the pretzels into the chocolate first and then into the peppermint. Refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened, and enjoy!
There are few dessert combinations better than chocolate and peanut butter. For these easy chocolate peanut butter cookies, mix one cup flour, one cup peanut butter and one egg. Roll the dough into balls, place on a baking sheet, and press a Hershey’s kiss on top of each one. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes, and enjoy! This recipe makes about a dozen cookies, but you can easily double or triple it if needed.
Another great recipe is shortbread, and it’s very easy to make. The only ingredients are flour, unsalted butter and sugar, and they are mixed in a ratio of three parts flour, two parts butter and one part sugar. You can make as much or as little as you wish. You can cut the dough into holiday cookie shapes or just make one big piece and cut it up later. It’s very important to not melt the butter for this recipe. Like a pie crust, cold butter works best, and it’s okay if there are pieces of butter in the dough when you are done mixing it. This recipe is very good served with fresh fruit on top.
For a recipe that isn’t so sweet, broccoli rice casserole is a favorite in my family and couldn’t be easier to make. I’ll admit, the ingredients sound a little weird, but it’s very tasty when everything comes together. It has a few more steps than some of the desserts but is a great dish for holiday meals with family.
First, defrost and finely chop two bags of frozen broccoli and combine with two 8 oz. jars of Kraft cheese whiz and one can of cream of mushroom soup. Then boil three cups of water in a saucepan. Next, measure out one and a half cups of uncooked rice and pour into the boiling water. Turn down the heat on the stove to low, cover the rice and cook for twenty minutes. When the rice is done, combine it with the broccoli mixture and spread in a baking dish. Cook for about thirty five minutes at 350 and serve hot.
Holiday meals are usually full of heavy food, so a salad can be a welcome addition. This salad uses pears, since they are in season this time of year, and blue cheese to balance out the sweetness of the pears. Just mix lettuce with sliced pears, blue cheese crumbles and a little vinaigrette.
My favorite thing about all of these recipes is that not only are they college dorm friendly, but you could just as easily make them for a holiday party or a holiday meal with your family. Enjoy! And maybe ask your aunt about making that peppermint ice cream cake for Christmas.
