The Magical Christmas Cookbook

There’s a touch of magic at Christmas time when we share food and fun with friends and whānau. If you’re planning a gathering and need ideas, this hardcover cookbook has 75 festive recipes that may help you to “create the sparkle of European Christmas markets at home”.

The book has five sections – Heavenly Starters and Delicious Bites, Magical Mains, Enticing Desserts, Sweet Christmas Baking, and Festive Drinks. Most of the recipes are intended to serve four people, so if you’re expecting the whole crew on Christmas Day you’ll need to bump up the quantity of ingredients.

Although the striking red, gold and deep purple cover will get you into the Christmas spirit, many of the starters and mains lean toward a Northern Hemisphere Christmas where hearty meals are served fireside, accompanied by warm drinks. The recipes include soups and risottos, a winter vegetable gratin, Swiss cheese fondue, a classic potato cake topped with fried mushrooms, and several recipes for roast goose. A lot of the mains are meat- or fish-based, although not all – the Pumpkin and Beetroot Wellingtons and the Nut Roast with Sweet Potato and Chestnut Mash both look delicious.

Some of the desserts are also designed for a colder climate – such as the Sweet Fluffy Dumplings with Poppy Seed Butter (served with an optional warm vanilla sauce), and Roasted Maple Pears. Still, lots of the recipes would suit a summer Christmas too, including the Honeyed Balsamic Carrots with Hazelnuts and Yoghurt, the Radicchio and Rocket Salad sprinkled with nuts, cranberries, goat’s cheese and blueberries, the Mousse au Chocolat, and Lemon Sorbet.

The Christmas baking recipes include Cinnamon Stars, Cranberry Shortbread and Stollen, and several scrumptious-looking gingerbread biscuits. They would be perfect for bakers who gather to swap their favourite goodies with friends so that everyone heads home with a tin full of treats. The back cover suggests that the baking will fill your home with the warm scent of spices – and with recipes using ingredients such as allspice, cardamon, cinnamon, and cloves, that’s likely to hold true.

Most ingredients should be easy to find in New Zealand, although you may need to find other fish to replace gilthead bream or sea bass, and goose may require a special order. The book was first published in Germany and some content is translated, which may explain why the German Gingerbread Biscuits recipe calls for a teaspoon of potash or baking powder. In New Zealand potash is typically used as a fertiliser, although European countries appear to have a food-grade version. I’d stick with baking powder if I were you.

The drinks section includes a German Flaming Punch (with a safety warning!), recipes for both white and red mulled wine, and a chilled Christmas Sangria.

While many recipes in the book are suitable for any time of year, the illustrations are Christmas-themed, with mistletoe, holly, and pinecones on almost every page. Robins, baubles, snowflakes and stars all make an appearance too. You’ll also find photos of the final dishes and drinks.

If you’ve got a spare minute between decking the halls and prepping the festive feast, you might enjoy the Christmas-themed songs, carols, legends and poems featured throughout the book. You’ll find excerpts from The Elves and the Shoemaker and A Christmas Carol, plus the full poem A Visit from St. Nicholas with its classic opening line: ’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house…

There are two indexes – one organised by recipe name, and one organised by the key ingredient. This is a practical approach, although finding some recipes requires detective work. The Stollen recipe, for example, is indexed under T (for Traditional Stollen).

Interestingly, no authors are identified, so it’s not clear where the recipes came from. However, with Christmas just around the corner, these recipes might be just the nudge you need to try something new this festive season.

Reviewer: Anne Kerslake Hendricks

Murdoch Books