For Easier and More Joyful Holiday Baking, Try These 5 Expert Tips from Broma Bakery

Holiday baking can be a serious stressor as the holidays creep closer, whether you’re busy perfecting your pie recipe or baking dozens of cookies for a holiday party. If you’re stuck on what to bake this year or need some tips on how to winterize your favorite recipes, we talked to an expert. Sarah Fennel, New York Times best-selling author and founder of Broma Bakery, shares her holiday baking tips so you can whip up seasonal goodies your loved ones will love.

1. Get Spicy This Winter

Fennel has two spices that she can’t get enough of during the holiday season. The first is ginger, which she says is unfairly underrated in winter. “I think that ginger is absolutely incredible. It pairs so well with apples,” she says, recommending that you double the amount of ginger in your apple pie. “Ginger goes so well with chocolate, too,” she says, as well as molasses and brown sugar. 

“So if you're making gingerbread men or ginger molasses cookies or anything with ground sugar molasses, just adding a little more ginger in there, I think, is absolutely delicious,” Fennel says.

The other spice you need to be using more of during winter? Cardamom. “I think, personally, cardamom is my favorite spice of all time. And I think cardamom is so amazing during the holidays. It goes really well with sort of vanilla-y flavors, like pear,” Fennel says.

2. Use the Freezer

To save you some time during the holidays, Fennel recommends baking your sweet treats ahead of time and popping them in the freezer. “I think that people really underestimate how much you can freeze,” she says. Baking a pie for Thanksgiving or Christmas? Fennel recommends rolling the pie dough into your pie pan, then freezing it so you have premade pie crust. 

Cookies, brownies, and bars, Fennel says, are also good candidates for freezing. With this trick, you can bake your holiday favorites well ahead of time so you have less to do around the day itself. 

“I’ll do it with my cakes, too,” Fennel says. “I'll bake my cake layers and then wrap those up and put them in the freezer so that the day of, all I have to do is take them out and frost them.” 

The only thing that Fennel advises against freezing is baked goods that contain a lot of moisture—frosted items, for example—so save your decorating for day-of.

3. Winterize Your Go-To Recipes

If you have a favorite dessert you like to bake, Fennel has a few tips for making it look more festive before it hits your dessert tray. For cookies, Fennel explains that you can swap out your recipe’s add-ins however you please, as long as you stay within the original amount. "Take your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, whatever the amount of mix-ins is—say it calls for one cup of chocolate chips. You can basically swap that in for any other mix-in as long as you stay within that volume amount.”

Fennel says that she also loves to use red and green holiday M&Ms for her cookies. She also likes to add extracts to put a holiday twist on the flavors of her bakes. “You can just add a teaspoon of peppermint extract, and all of a sudden, your double chocolate cookies are now peppermint chocolate cookies,” she says. Sugar cookies can also get a holiday refresh with themed sprinkles mixed into the batter.

4. Make Your Boxed Mixes Taste Homemade

As for brownies, Fennel isn’t against a boxed brownie mix. However, Fennel prefers to make her store-bought mixes feel more homemade. "Swap oil for melted butter, swap the water for milk, and then add in an extra teaspoon of vanilla,” she recommends. The same thing goes for boxed cake mixes, too.

To give your brownies and cakes an additional upgrade, Fennel recommends homemade frosting, “like a peppermint frosting or a peanut butter frosting.”

5. Time Isn't Money, It's Love

This year, one trend that Fennel is seeing a lot of is what she calls “showstopper bakes.” “I feel like people are really spending more time in the kitchen rather than doing quick, easy recipes,” Fennel explains. “People are really enjoying the acts of taking time and creating something, maybe multiple components or that requires a chill or a rest or something like that.”

Breads, cinnamon rolls, and donuts are all on the list of time-consuming baked goods that Fennel has seen rise in popularity this season. “I think that honestly with TikTok and Instagram pushing so much content through to everybody… people really want what they make to feel different,” says Fennel. “I think people just get so excited by bringing something that people haven't heard about because people hear about so many different things.” 

With all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, time becomes the most valuable asset, and spending it making elaborate baked goods can be a way of showing love and gratitude during the holidays. That said, baking isn’t about bringing the most impressive dessert to the table; it’s about spreading the love amongst your family and friends.

“I think that people sometimes feel intimidated or overwhelmed by the idea of making something for the holidays," Fennel says. "And I think the most important thing is that you remember that the act of baking is you're doing to spread love and spread joy and cheer. Read the recipe fully, take your time doing it, but also…know that if you mess up, it's okay. The point is that you tried your best and you're doing something, you know, really, really lovely for the people around you.”