How Sweet It Is: New York’s Top Holiday Treats
Thanksgiving and Hanukkah over-indulgences may have left you desperate to start a diet, but isn’t that’s what New Year’s resolutions are for? Until then, you might as well embrace the season by gorging yourself silly on extra-festive sweets, from The Meatball Shop & Ovenly’s “Boozy Rudolph” Sundae Collaboration to Balthazar Bakery‘s Stollen & Dominique Ansel Kitchen’s shimmery Christmas Tree Cake!
Dominique Ansel Kitchen
From Milk and Cookie Shots to Christmas Morning Cereal, and of course, the Cronut of the month, there’s a lot of pressure for Dominique Ansel to top himself each year. And he may have done just that with Turbo Cheer Bars (eggnog nougat and pine nut ganache-filled chocolate bars, with yellow candy antlers and Rudolph-style red meringue noses) as well as adorable, carefully stacked Christmas Tree Cakes; featuring fluffy, milk chocolate “branches” cemented with raspberry orange jam and refreshing peppermint mousse.
Read MoreThe Meatball Shop
Available throughout December, The Meatball Shop’s “Boozy Rudolph” collaboration with Ovenly begins with the creative Greenpoint bakeshop’s chocolate salted caramel brownie. It’s topped with chef Daniel Holzman’s very own vanilla ice cream & caramel sauce, and finished with a cherry that’s been brandied in-house. Let it guide your way to each one of the meatball specialist’s six locations this season!
Read MoreSullivan Street Bakery
In addition to cakes and cookies, sweet breads are also signature, Christmastime treats — from German Stollen to Italian Panettone. And you can turn to this seminal, Chelsea bakery from the talented Jim Lahey to get your fill of the latter; either a traditional, dome-capped Panettone, packed with rum-soaked raisins and citron, or a chocolate-cherry version, featuring dark Valrhona chunks and smatterings of dried, sour fruit.
Read MoreBalthazar Bakery
This much admired bakery adjunct to the famous French brasserie has an extensive menu of holiday sweets, including a mocha Buche de Noel, sauternes-brushed Petit Fours, a layered Chestnut Gateau, Citrus Ginger Lattice Pie, Stollen with almonds and ribbons of marzipan and yes, even a holiday Fruitcake; studded with dried figs, cherries, apricots and dates, and liberally saturated in brandy.
Read MoreBouchon Bakery
Thomas Keller’s bakeries have definitely got the holiday spirit, as evidenced by an extensive menu of seriously celebratory sweets. There’s Buche de Noel, of course (either chocolate mousse with salted caramel jam or coffee buttercream and hazelnuts), as well as Peppermint Bark, Petit Cream Puffs, French Macarons, adorable Gingerbread People, and even Bouchon Biscuits for pups!
Read MoreCeci Cela
You may be comfortable baking up a Christmas cookie or two, but one of the holiday’s most traditional sweets — the elaborate Buche de Noel — is better left to the experts. And this underrated Parisian patisserie in Soho is offering meticulously crafted (not to mention seriously delicious) Yule Logs in several flavors, including Chocolate Raspberry, Vanilla, and Grand Marnier.
Read MoreEleni’s
This Chelsea Market sweet shop embraces the classics, with a traditional, best-selling set of hand-iced Sugar Cookies, shaped like snowmen, reindeer, candy canes, Christmas trees, presents, and of course, Santa Claus himself! Or, you can go the Cupcake route, with an assortment of vanilla cupcakes with red buttercream and red nonpareils, or chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and crushed peppermint candy.
Canele by Celine
This chic, Upper East Side shop serves bite-sized, bundt-shaped Canele year round; a popular, Bordeaux-based pastry with a custardy interior and caramelized crust. And over the holidays, they’re arranging their cakes into towering Croquembouche; cylindrical stacks of up to 56 minis, flavored with everything from dark chocolate, caramel and pistachio to orange blossom, rose water and maple syrup. (These are sure to impress!)
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