Best Holiday Cooking, Baking, And Entertaining Hacks

THE IDEA: The wetter your dough, the less likely it is to break when you’re prepping a pie. That being said, a dough with too much water will also be tougher once cooked. The key to straddling this fine line, according to Cooks Illustrated, is replacing part of the water with vodka when making your dough. 

THE RESULTS: The vodka hack seriously works. To test it, we baked a second pie using the same recipe, except we left out the vodka. While assembling the pie, the vodka dough held up better without breaking, but it was also much stickier because of the moisture. It was a bit of a mess, so you might want to avoid if making a lattice crust. 

Once baked, the vodka crust was definitely flakier and crumblier that the test pie, but it still held together well. If you really love super flaky pie crust, this trick is worth the extra effort. 

First, I made the dough. Then every 30 minutes for the next two hours, I would grab the edges of the dough, fold it into the center, flip it over, let it rest for 30 minutes, and repeat. (If that sounds confusing, the Food52 recipe does a great job of explaining the process.) Once I finished the folding process, I braided the dough into two loaves and baked them in the oven for 20 minutes. 

To my surprise, the challah came out perfectly. It was yellow and moist on the inside, with a tougher, glossy crust. Not to mention, my apartment smelled like amazing, freshly baked bread all day. If you’re committed to following the directions and taking this methodic approach to baking, anyone can make this recipe. 

THE IDEA: Cut the foot off from a lone sock and slide it onto your cup to keep your hot drink insulated. From Diana Rambles.

THE RESULTS: This is super straightforward and was an awesome way to repurpose a lone sock (this one was from my favorite pair😪). Though it was a little awkward to try to stretch a sock around a hot cup of coffee, I surprisingly loved this. The sock also works so much better than that flimsy piece of cardboard from the café because it actually insulates the cup. Plus, it covers the entire thing rather than just a small sliver, so you won’t burn your hands. 

THE RESULTS: You almost couldn’t even tell there’s cauliflower in there — the florets became super tender and almost melted into the pasta. The cheese flavor was out of control, but not in an overpowering way. It tasted like something you would get in a fancy restaurant — like mac ‘n’ cheese all dressed up. I loved the texture (especially with the breadcrumb topping) and I couldn’t stop eating it.

THE RESULTS: The Tater Tot version didn’t taste exactly like traditional potato pancakes with their wispy, crisp edges and tender center. (They were much thicker and chewy all around.) But with a dollop of sour cream and chives on top, they were really tasty. After making regular latkes, I can definitely see the appeal in skipping the potato grating and taking the easy way out. 

THE IDEA: I’ve heard this tip often, and it’s a classic baking hack that even my grandma swears by. Given its popularity, I wanted to see if it was just a myth or if it actually works. All you have to do is refrigerate your stainless steel mixing bowl before beating whipped cream in it to make the cream super fluffy.

THE RESULTS:  Pictures don’t exactly do it justice, but the whipped cream that was prepared in the cold bowl was much more airy and light than the one made in the room-temperature bowl, which was more limp. Now all you have to do is add this fluffy whipped cream to your hot cocoa or holiday baked goods.

THE IDEA: For those who prefer a soft and chewy cookie to a crisp one, adding a serving of a simple store-bought ingredient, pudding mix, to your cookie recipe is supposed to result in softer, moister, and chewier cookies. 

THE IDEA: So your friends are a few minutes away and you forgot to chill the rosé. It happens! But I found a few different tricks for chilling a bottle of wine ASAP. One crowd favorite is submerging the bottle of wine in an ice bucket with salt, but even that takes a while (and not to mention a lot of ice). Then I saw this post, which says you can chill a bottle of wine in seven minutes flat by wrapping it in a wet dish towel or paper towel and popping it in the freezer.

THE RESULTS: This totally works if you’re in a pinch and need to chill wine quickly. I started out with a lukewarm bottle of rosé. The poor wine had been sitting out in a sunny room all morning so it was in rough shape. I soaked a dishtowel in water (you’ll want to make sure the dish or paper towel is really, really wet, not just damp), wrapped it around the bottle of rosé, and left it in the freezer for seven minutes. When I took it out the wine was pleasantly chilled. It was by no means ice cold, but then again, you don’t want to serve freezing wine anyway.

THE IDEA: Boil apples, oranges, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla in a large pot of water, then reduce to a simmer and leave the pot on the stove all day so that the steam can fill your house with lovely holiday smells.

RESULTS: So, I was really anticipating that the house would smell like Christmas on crack. It smelled wonderful around the pot and the steam really warmed up the kitchen, but the smell wasn’t as strong as I wanted it to be. That being said, I might’ve just acclimated to the smell, because when my roommates came home they looked at me and asked, “OMG, what are you making?!” My guess is that the second your guests walk in the door, they’ll feel like they just crossed the threshold into heaven. 

I was afraid the grainy mustard, which goes into the potatoes after mashing, would be overpowering, but it was surprisingly subtle and just added a nice flavor. The mash was extra creamy, perfectly salty, and flavorful without being aggressive.

THE IDEA: It’s hard to make a bad cookie, but the trick to a next-level delicious cookie: apparently, it’s brown butter. While butter itself is delicious, brown butter adds a whole new depth of flavor and imparts a rich, nuttiness to the final cookies. To make brown butter, just toss butter in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. After a few minutes of boiling, the butter begins to toast and turn brown.

While you’re browning the butter, you’ll want to make sure to stir constantly so it browns evenly. Once the butter has turned a nice nutty brown, remove it from the heat and pour it into a liquid measuring cup to stop the cooking. Give it a stir and add 2-3 tablespoons of cold water to the butter to bring it back up to 1 cup of liquid. Set it aside to cool to room temperature and then use it in your cookie batter.  (This recipe walks you through everything.)

Thanks to the brown butter, the cookies will be ever-so-slightly nutty with a deep, rich flavor. Be warned, it’s hard to stop eating these.