Most Delicious Christmas Dinner Ideas

Christmas dinner is certainly one of the most anticipated meals of the year, and, let’s be honest, it’s most people’s favorite! I really love Christmas dinner, and in this article, I’m just going to run through a couple of my favorite things to serve that always make everyone come back for seconds!

Best Christmas Dinner Baked Ham

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There aren’t many dishes that say ‘it’s Christmas’ better than a baked ham does, so why not make one this year to surprise, delight, and astonish anyone that you might be cooking for! The pairing of the decadent saltiness of the good quality ham with the sweet spiciness of an excellent glaze leads to happy tummies all around. To make a classic baked ham you’ll need:

Ingredients

• 1 ten pounds fully cooked whole ham - you can use boneless or bone-in ham, it’s up to you
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 ½ cups of apple cider

Directions

1. No prizes for guessing what the glaze is made of, but don’t all those ingredients sound good? I knew it was a mistake to write this before lunch - my stomach’s rumbling now! To make the ham:
2. Preheat your oven to 325˚F. Place the ham on a roasting rack that’s set within a fairly deep roasting pan, and score it diagonally to form a crosshatch pattern. Cover the ham, and bake it until it’s warm throughout. That should take between two and three hours.
3. During the final forty-five minutes of cooking, make the glaze for the ham. In a small saucepan, whisk together all of the remaining ingredients over medium heat.
4. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce everything to a medium simmer and cook until it’s reduced by half. This should take ten to fifteen minutes. Then, brush the glaze onto the ham every fifteen minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the meat reads 140˚F
5. Finally, remove the ham from the oven. Give it a final glaze, and allow it to rest for fifteen minutes before slicing it.

Christmas Dinner Cranberry Brie Bites

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Is there any problem that cannot be solved with good cheese? I think not. These cranberry brie bites are wonderfully creamy and sharp to produce a mouth-watering combination of flavors perfect for the holiday season.

These could be great for serving as a pre-dinner appetizer, or even as finger-food at a party. To make wonderfully decadent and delicious brie bites, you’ll need:

Ingredients

• 1 eight-ounce tube crescent dough
• Cooking spray, for the pan
• Flour, for the work surface
• An eight-ounce wheel of brie
• ½ cup whole berry cranberry sauce
• ¼ cup chopped pecans
• 6 sprigs of rosemary, cut into one-inch pieces

Directions

1. The ingredient list alone should tell you how wonderfully herby and decadent these bites are going to be - very! Making these bites can be a little fiddly, but it’s easy once you get the hang of it. Here’s the method:
2. Preheat your oven to 375˚F and grease a mini muffin tin with the cooking spray. For as even a spread as possible, try spraying the tray liberally, and then spreading the liquid with a piece of paper towel.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough and pinch together the seams. Cut the dough into twenty-four squares.
4. Then, place the squares into the muffin tin slots. If you’ve got a little time to spare, it may be worth cutting down some strips of baking paper to help lift the bites out of the tin. To do that, make strips of baking paper that are roughly twice as long as the indentations are wide.
5. Then, place the strips into the muffin tin first, followed by the pastry. Once cooked, you can use the paper as small handles to lift out the bite-sized pastries.
6. Cut your brie up into small pieces and place them inside the crescent dough. Top them up with a spoonful of the cranberry sauce, some chopped pecans, and one little spring of rosemary. Alternatively, if you aren’t a fan of cranberry sauce, try using a little chili jam. The heat will pair really well with the creamy brie, and make for some interesting and delicious party snacks.
7. Place the tin, complete with pastries, into the oven and bake until the pastry is golden - this should be around fifteen minutes.

Best Christmas Start - Pull-Apart Christmas Tree

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Tear-and-share garlic bread is one of my favorite things about Christmas. Whenever we had some family over for a holiday-time spread, someone would always put out some decadent, rich, and delicious tear-apart bread.

In that glorious tradition, I heartily recommend a pull-apart Christmas tree this holiday season! Cheesy, bready, and herby - what’s not to love? To make this dish, you’ll need:

Ingredients

• 1 pound refrigerated pizza dough
• Egg wash (1 egg whisked with a tablespoon of water)
• 7 mozzarella sticks
• ¼ cup melted butter
• ½ cup finely grated parmesan
• 1 tbsp thinly sliced basil
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp chopped rosemary
• Optional: Marinara, warmed (for serving)

Directions

1. Speaking as someone who utterly adores Italian food, that recipe list sounds amazing! I can already imagine what it’s going to taste like! Here’s the recipe:
2. Preheat your oven to 450˚F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, and cut your mozzarella sticks into one-inch pieces before setting them aside.
3. On a generously floured surface, divide the pizza dough into two pieces. Then, stretch and roll each piece of dough into a long rectangle, before cutting the dough into two-inch squares. In total, you’ll need 33 of the squares.
4. Then, wrap a dough square around each, individual piece of mozzarella to form a tightly sealed ball. Place the balls seam-side down on the baking sheet in the shape of a Christmas tree - and try to make sure they’re touching! If they’re touching, then you can be sure they’ll stick together during baking to make for a more satisfying pull-apart when served.
5. Then, brush the egg wash on the dough balls, and bake them until golden. That should take around fifteen to twenty minutes.
6. While the dough balls are in the oven, you can make the herby butter. Whisk together the melted butter, parmesan, and herbs until everything is well distributed.
7. When the dough balls are cooked and good color, take them out of the oven and brush the garlic butter on top. Do this shortly before serving so that the balls will be rich and buttery, and don’t have time to dry out. Finally, serve them up with some warm marinara for dipping.

Here are more festive recipes you can make for Christmas