Bake it Easy: Holiday

The holidays are stressful. Your holiday baking shouldn’t be. That was the inspiration behind this stunning collection of Bake It Easy: Holiday recipes!
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·1mo
12 easy holiday recipes for every baking occasion
The holidays are stressful. Your holiday baking shouldn’t be. That was the inspiration behind this stunning collection of Bake It Easy: Holiday recipes.
Easy Two-Tone Sugar Cookies
You don’t need royal icing or piping bags to make stunning holiday cookies. These easy sugar cookies rely on just one base dough and a couple of cookie cutters to create an eye-catching design. By pairing chocolate cut-outs with vanilla cookies (and vice versa), you’ll make two-tone, two-flavor cookies that will satisfy (almost) everyone. What’s more, their sturdy shortbread-like texture makes them perfect to ship to faraway friends and family.
Easy Pretzel Pigs in Blankets
igs in blankets are a beloved party snack for good reason, but dare we say that this recipe improves on the classic? We replaced the plain dough “blanket” with a much more flavorful casing: a chewy, salty, deeply browned pretzel that’s made with our Soft & Chewy Pretzel Mix for ultimate ease and speed. These pigs in pretzel blankets have more personality than the traditional version, but they still go just as well with a mustardy dipping sauce.
Chocolate Peppermint Bark Pavlova
We gave this classic dessert a decidedly wintry spin (forgive us, Antipodeans!) with refreshing chocolate-peppermint whipped cream plus lots of peppermint bark. If you’ve been too intimidated to make meringue, give this one a try: We think the method is nearly foolproof, and you’ll come away with a stunning holiday pavlova that requires no elaborate decoration.
Simple Linzer Cookie Slices
These jam-filled cookie slices have all the spiced, fruity flavors of classic Linzer cookies but without the fussy assembly: Instead of sandwiching two cookie rounds, you’ll fill two logs of dough with troughs of jam before baking, then cut them into batons once they’re out of the oven. They’re a stunning addition to a spread of holiday cookies or teatime treats.
Easy Chocolate Gingerbread Cake
Cocoa powder and chopped chocolate join forces with molasses and warm spices to produce a chocolate gingerbread cake that showcases both flavors at their finest. This dairy-free cake comes together in about 15 minutes, is mixed by hand, and only uses two bowls. A quick glaze adds an extra dose of spice and helps the gingerbread cake feel festive, but your favorite cream cheese frosting, or even a simple dusting of confectioners’ sugar, is just as good.
Fast Christmas Tree Pull-Apart Bread
To add something impressive (and festive) to your holiday spread without adding much work, make this quicker, easier version of our savory Christmas Tree Bread. It starts with our Pull-Apart Garlic Bread Mix Kit, which comes with its own ultra-flavorful blend of cheese and herbs, so the rest of the ingredient list is streamlined — you won’t even have to grate garlic or chop herbs.
Lazy Morning Eggnog Coffee Cake
This eggnog coffee cake is the perfect way to savor the season with minimal effort. Its fine, tender crumb and rich, comforting flavors bring the essence of eggnog to your table, no eggnog necessary. Bake it up and enjoy a festive treat!
Fast Frosted Gingerbread Cookie Bars
Soft and moist, these gingerbread bars are like frosted gingerbread cookies but require much less time, effort, and equipment. Bake some for your holiday table, year after year.
Easy Pecan Pie Bars
If you’re a fan of pecan pie at Thanksgiving, you’ll love these pecan pie bars. Not only are pecan pie bars faster and simpler to make than classic pecan pie, but they also serve a crowd and are perfect for baking in advance of the big day. Cristal Paredes, a baker featured in our Let Good Things Rise series, shared this recipe with us, and we haven’t been able to stop baking them since! Between the brown sugar shortbread crust and the honey-infused pecan pie topping, these bars have us hooked.
Easy Cranberry-Orange Olive Oil Cake
This holiday-ready version of our five-star Everyday Olive Oil Cake is adorned with a big red bow in the form of a simple but stunning cranberry glaze. Made by cooking cranberries with orange juice, then whisking the mixture with confectioners’ sugar, the icing adds a bright tartness that complements the rich cake. It’s also a great way to use up that half-bag of cranberries lingering from Thanksgiving.
Easy Leftover Christmas Ham Focaccia
Inspired by Christmas ham, this focaccia is glazy, sticky, and lightly spiced, with the same craveable crispy bits. Cut the bread into bite-size pieces to serve at a holiday cocktail party or use it in place of rolls at dinner (just be sure to save a square or two for a great breakfast sandwich). This recipe starts with our Crisp & Airy Focaccia Mix for minimal prep, which means you can have Christmas focaccia no matter how long your to-do list.
The Easiest Rolls Ever
These big, soft, and tender dinner rolls are perennial favorites at the holiday table and, in many houses, all year round. Make a batch of quick dinner rolls for cookouts, bake sales, community dinners, or Sunday suppers — this recipe yields enough that you'll still have plenty of leftovers for the week. See details on freezing unbaked dough and adding another layer of flavor, like the cheese and pizza seasoning pictured, in the "tips" below.