English for the Holidays: Baking and Cooking Vocabulary
You know what the holidays mean, right? Delicious foods and sweets!
No matter where you live, no matter what your favorite holiday might be, you and I have something in common: we celebrate holidays with food.
Cooking, baking, and enjoying meals with our friends and family is one of the most joyful parts of celebrating holidays.
The holiday dishes and desserts that we love are influenced by the season and the region where we live. And today I’m excited to share with you one of my favorite holiday desserts! A Christmas cookie recipe.
In the United States, December is a month full of holidays (just last week I shared a lesson with you on how to talk about the holidays). And that means it’s also a month full of celebrations and food.
So, if you love cooking or feasting as much as I do, then this lesson is for you!
Today I’m inviting you to join me in my kitchen to make one of my favorite holiday desserts. Plus you’ll learn new English vocabulary for baking.
Get one of my favorite holiday dessert recipes.
Lesson by Annemarie
Try making these cookies yourself!
I’ve provided you with the recipe below, using both U.S. Cooking Units and Metric Cooking Units. If you have any questions, be sure to leave your question in the comments below.
Recipe in English: Ginger Cookies with White Chocolate
Ingredients:
- ½ cup (115g)  melted butter (after melting, allow butter to cool for a few minutes)
- ½ cup (72g) brown sugar*
- â…“ cup (116g) molasses, honey, or maple syrup
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups (250g) of flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6-8 oz (170g) white chocolate, melted
- Colored sugar or sprinkles
*You can also use cane sugar. If you do, the weight measurement is 95g.
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Instructions:
Step 1: Preheat (warm) your oven to 350° F (180°C). Prepare your baking sheet with parchment paper.
Step 2: Pour melted butter into a bowl. Whisk in brown sugar and molasses until smooth. Then whisk in egg and vanilla.
Step 3: In a different bowl, combine flour with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients (the flour mixture) to the wet ingredients (the butter and sugar). Mix until well-blended.
Step 5: Using a spoon, measure a spoonful of the cookie dough. Then roll the dough into a ball and place on the baking sheet.
Step 6: Bake cookies for 8-9 minutes. Remove from oven and allow the cookies to cool completely.
Step 7: Melt the white chocolate. You can do this in a microwave or gently heat on your stove.
Step 8: Dip half of each cookie in the white chocolate and then place on parchment paper. While the chocolate is still warm, sprinkle each cookie with colored sugar or sprinkles.
Step 9: Allow to cool and ENJOY! 🙂
Ginger cookies with white chocolate.
How to Make Colored Sugar
- Add ¼ cup (45g) sugar to the bowl with a few drops of food coloring.
- Mix with a fork until well blended. Add more coloring if necessary.
- Pour sugar onto a plate and allow to dry for 60 minutes.
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I’d love to know about your favorite holiday and what foods or desserts you often make to celebrate! You can share with me in the comments below.
Tell me about:
- Your favorite holiday: what is it and when do you celebrate it?
- Traditional foods/desserts you make to celebrate the holiday
- And maybe even share how to make it!
I look forward to hearing from you and I wish you a wonderful week.
~ Annemarie
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Hi Annemarie ,
I’ve just started to see them all one by one yours videous
This is very useful for me and it’s part of my intention to study carefully everything I could not do during the fluency school course
Best regards ,
Radu
Hi Annemarie, My favorite holiday is Eid. We celebrate upon the completion of fasting for the entire month of Ramadan with family and friends. I love feasting as well. One has to make traditional recipes on the Eid day. Following are some recipes which are well known and famous too. My most favorite recipe is called Sheer Khorma and prepare with milk, semolina, and dry fruits. It’s a mainstay in most of the households during Eid. Next comes the world’s most famous Mutton Biriyani, without this traditional recipe there won’t be any celebration. I host a big feast in the… Read more »
Hi Hyder, thanks for telling us about one of your traditional foods. Sounds delicious! And biriyani is one of my favorite rice dishes. Yum.
Hello Annemarie! Thank you for sharing this simple and very Christmas recipe! The main Russian new year meal is a salad, which we call “Olivier”, but in another world it calls Russian salad. We have some legend about french chef who create it in Moscow in 19 centuries. This dish was a bit modified (in a simple way) in soviet time and still very popular especially for the New Year. The Christmas tree, champaign and the salad is enought for the celebrate!)) So, you need boiled potatoes and carrot, eggs also boiled, onion, green peas, cucumber pickles, mayonnaise sauce, salt… Read more »
Hello Yulia,
Oh, thank you so much for sharing one of your own recipes. I’ve had Olivier Salad once and I loved it, so I will definitely try to make it.
I really enjoy getting to learn about your traditions and holiday celebrations. Thank you for sharing in the comments! I wish you a very happy new year! ~ Annemarie
This lesson is one of my favorite! I’ll definitely try to make your tasty cookies. As for me I usually prefer a cake with biscuit, jelly and sour cream. It doesn’t need to be baked and it’s easy to cook. Everything you need is biscuit (I make it by myself), different kinds of jelly (and different colors), sour cream (sugar, gelatin). You can also add some fruits. This cake is very delicious!
Hi Tanya, I’m so glad! 🙂
And I’d love to see a photo or know more about the cake with fruit that you talked about. I think we have something very similar in the U.S. and we call it ‘fruit cake.’ Usually we can only find it around the holidays.
And if you make the cookies, let me know. I hope the recipe will be easy for you! ~ annemarie
Hi Annemarie,
The lesson smelled yummy.)I would like to have these cookies if i had an opportunity to be at your house.because i am not good at baking sweets like cakes,pies and cookies.In my country,by the way I am from Baku,Azerbaijan,only March is famous for its sweets which are baked in the course of Novruz holiday.They are the shekerbura,pakhlava,badambura and qoghal.I invite you to visit Baku especially in March to taste them and to be witness the Novruz festivities being held each year in the oldest part of Baku,namely Icherisheher…Look forward to greeting you in the Land of Fire…
Hello Gular,
Thank you so much for your comment! The good news is, these cookies are so easy to make. I would love to know more about the sweets you make for Novruz. Thanks for sharing about your holiday and traditions. ~ Annemarie
Hello Annemarie! The lesson is not only helpful as usual but it even smells delicious))) I am not an expert at cooking or baking but your recipe seems quite easy)) I’m not in the habit of backing for New Year or Christmas, traditionally we are cooking salads, meat dishes and, of course, “kutya” (rise or wheat with rasin) for Christmas! Two days ago my junior son was 4 and I baked a cake “Cat”!!! I’ll put it on Fluency Community page)))
Thank you so much, Olga. I’m thrilled you enjoyed it.
I’m curious about kutya! I’ll have to look for a recipe for it.
And thank you for sharing the photo! I loved it. Best, Annemarie
Hi!
What a wonderful lesson it is!! I enjoyed it so much!
Visualization is a great thing, I remembered almost all words, except for spices that I’m not familiar with! By the way, cinnamon is my favorite:)
Also thank you for sharing this recipe , though I am not a cookie lover, I like cakes and pies more, coz they are even more chewier than your super cookies;). That’s why my dentist loves me, perhaps…!;P
Thanks again!
Best wishes to you and your family, holidays are just round the corner!
Hi Maria, I’m so glad you enjoyed this lesson!! I was definitely thinking of our group when I created it.
And I agree with you, I much prefer pies because they aren’t usually so sweet. However, these cookies are my exception. I hope you try to make them!! 🙂
Do you have any fun plans for the holidays? ~ Annemarie