By AMY POOLE
amy@du2.byu.edu
The Christmas season is a time to eat and create tantalizing desserts.
Many families have Christmas dessert traditions that heighten the holiday spirit.
Katrina Madsen, 21, a senior from Yorba Linda, Calif., majoring in early childhood education, said one of her favorite Christmas traditions is when her family goes caroling and offers people a plate full of interesting goodies.
One of the desserts the Madsen family makes are Christmas logs, small chocolate cookie cakes with poinsettia frosting.
Steve Saunders, 23, a junior from Arlington, Va., majoring in computer science said making unique cookies is a family event.
'We get together every Christmas and kick out tons of decorated sugar cookies, cowboy cookies and prayer bars,' he said.
Prayer bars, one of Saunder's favorite desserts, are three layered bars with mint, chocolate and a graham cracker crust.
Jason Mills, 27, a first year masters student of public administration, from Montpelier, Va. said his favorite southern Christmas dessert is the Glazed Pecan, or a pecan coated with karo syrup, cinnamon and brown sugar.
'It's to die for,' he said.
The Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook has several Christmas dessert recipes including an Edible Cookie Bowl and Snowmen, which are sugar cookies shaped as snowmen with Reeces Peanut Butter Cups for a hat. Peanut Butter Bear Cookies are another treat from the cookbook. The bear's face is formed with dough and frosting is used to create paws, ears and bow ties. CookieRecipe.com has some fun dessert ideas including Stained Glass Cookies, which are melted candies surrounded by dough to resemble stained glass windows; Gingerbread Folk; Christmas wreaths made of green-dyed dough; and candy cane cookies.
Fruitcake, a spice cake filled with small fruit candies, is an interesting dessert because either people love it or hate it.
'My dad likes fruitcake; he's the only one in our family that will eat it,' said Christina Hulme, 21, a senior from Bear Lake, Idaho, majoring in English teaching.
Adam Jacobsmeyer, 22, a junior from Boise, Idaho, majoring in information systems told his theory about fruitcake.
Only three fruitcakes exist in the world and those fruitcakes just keep getting passed around because no one wants to eat them. If someone receives a fruitcake he or she just passes it on to the next person who puts the fruitcake in the freezer until the next Christmas and then passes it around again, Jacobsmeyer said.
'The joke about fruitcake is that it lasts for a long time because of all the sugar in it,' said Evan Lee, 22, a freshman at UVSC from Preston, Idaho, majoring in drafting.
Another student commented on fruitcake.
'It's the grossest thing in the world, it should be destroyed,' said Kelly Riding, 21, a senior from Portland, Ore., majoring in therapeutic recreation.
Christmas desserts from foreign countries can be even more interesting than American desserts.
In Province, France, the traditional Christmas meal is called le gros souper (the big supper). It ends with a ritual number of 13 desserts symbolizing Christ and his 12 apostles. The desserts must be served all at the same time and each guest must taste each one of them. They consist of pastry and fruit, (http://www.culture.fr/culture/noel/angl/treize.htm).
Madsen said she likes an English hot drink called wassail, made from a combination of orange juice, cran-raspberry, apple juice, cloves and cinnamon sticks.
The sugar tamale originated in Mexico as a Christmas dessert. It consists of a corn husk wrapped in dough with raisins and fruit, Lee said.
One Norwegian Christmas dessert is a pudding like thing with tiny yellowish berries mixed in with whipped cream. The berries are hand picked and can only be found in the northern tundra in Norway, Jacobsmeyer said.
Another English dessert is the triffle, a broken-up cake with gelatin and fruit whipped in cream, Saunders said.