Christmas time is traditionally a time for family, presents and lots of sweet baked goods. But what do people in other parts of the world eat at Christmas time? What are the more unusual Christmas bakes that you can try out this year? We’ll explore that question today and maybe some of these ideas will inspire you to bake something different this Christmas.
Christians live in all parts of the globe. Whilst we associate Christmas time with deep mid-winter, roaring fires and bakes like mince pies and fruit cakes. In the Southern Hemisphere, in places like Australia, we know it’s all about BBQ’s on the beach on Christmas day and Pavlovas and fruit-based desserts for pudding.
But let’s now explore what people in other hot places (but not Antipodean) bake at Christmas. First, let’s travel to Kenya, at Christmas time in Kenya you might find a Christmas fruit cake and steamed puddings rather than baked in ovens. Over on the other side of the continent in Congo over 90% of the population are Christian. The Congolese at Christmas time will enjoy baking Christmas cakes. The recipes for these Christmas cakes are passed down from grandmother to grandchild. A typical recipe might include bananas, flour and sugar mixed with aniseed or vanilla extracts.
Now let’s travel back across the Indian Ocean to India at Christmas time in India you’ll find lots of bakers selling traditional festive treats like bolo rei and other Christmas cakes. In northern China at a traditional Chinese New Year feast, you’ll find that sweet red bean soup is often served alongside the rice cake dish known as nian gao.
Now let’s fly around the world to the continent of South America and work our way up. Chilean people at Christmas time tend to bake Pan De Pascua. Pan De Pascua is a traditional Chilean bread that is eaten at Christmas time. The Pan De Pascua has a base of milk, sugar and flour with raisins added for flavour. To top the bread off you can add two small clay figures to represent baby Jesus and his mother Mary. Pancakes are also popular at Christmas time in Chile and Argentina is known for its Dulce de leche type deserts, often served over ice cream.
As we move north into Brazil you will find that there is an abundance of sweet bakes at Christmas time. You might find Bolo Rei, a traditional fruit cake with dried fruits and candied citrus peels. The most common ingredients are flour, sugar, eggs, butter or margarine, yeast powder and/or baking soda as a raising agent and the mixture can be enhanced by adding milk.
Moving into central America the Mexicans at Christmas time will enjoy preparing Pan de Nadal or “Christmas Bread”. A traditional Mexican bread that is often eaten during the weeks leading up to Christmas. The dough contains eggs, aniseed and orange zest added for flavour.
Finally let’s move east again, this time to Russia. At Christmas time in Russia, you will not find fruit cakes or mince pies. Instead at Christmas time and New Year’s, it is customary to bake a special bread called Kulich. A sweet yeast-raised round loaf decorated with pearl sugar. It can be enjoyed after the Russian Easter which falls on different dates every year but generally takes place between the end of April and the beginning of May.
So there you have an insight into what people in other countries bake at Christmas time, we hope that this blog post has helped inspire some new ideas for your festive baking repertoire. And, if you would like to get some inspiration for how to decorate these or any other festive cakes head on over to the guys at Anges De Sucre.