Holiday Desserts Featuring Pearls

With the holidays quickly approaching and many people still spending a lot of time at home, ovens are getting pre-heated! Home bakers all over the world are dreaming about the treats they'll be making for family and friends - and even for themselves.

We may prefer natural pearls for our necklaces, but we also don't mind some sweet artificial pearls for our desserts. Would you like to share edible pearls along with your meaningful jewelry gifts this holiday season? We have some ideas and recipes for you.

To impress your guests with homemade French pastry, you can try your hand at baking "chouquettes" - or "choux" pastry puffs studded with pearl sugar. The base recipe is actually very simple, but the result is stunning and elegant. To make these sweet treats, you'll need some easy-to-find ingredients like butter, salt, sugar, flour, and eggs. You'll also have to find pearl sugar, which is a crunchy sugar from Sweden that's made when sugar crystals are compressed to form larger, round particles. Before the chouquettes are baked, they're sprinkled liberally with the pearl sugar for embellishment. Find the complete recipe here.

If you buy pearl sugar specifically for the chouquettes, then you'll want to make the most of it! Travel from France to Italy without ever leaving the comfort of your warm home by baking "amaretti" cookies, which are the Italian version of the macaroon. They're cute and crowd-pleasing treats made with almond meal, cocoa powder, sugar, eggs, almond extract, and pearl sugar. According to the website Global Cookies, "Traditionally these cookies were served with a sweet dessert wine or liqueur, but they are also wonderful with a bowl of ice cream, sherbets, or mousses." (Source) You can also grind the cookies and add them to other desserts for texture and flavor. Get the recipe here.

Tapioca pudding isn't traditionally a holiday dessert, but you can certainly put a festive twist on a classic recipe. In 1894, the MINUTE® Tapioca Company in Boston created the tapioca pudding with a sweet milk base that we know today. You can purchase a premade version from your local grocery store, or you can make the pudding yourself with pearl tapioca, which is a unique starchy ingredient made from cassava root. The Vegetarian Times suggests putting a holiday twist on homemade tapioca by mixing it with a decadent assortment of dried fruits like cranberries, raisins, apricots, and apple rings. Click here for the recipe.

For a sophisticated and chic pearl dessert, you can bake Winter Pearl Tree Cookies, which can easily be made with a simple sugar cookie base and eye-catching white decorations like white icing, white shimmer sugar, and white pearls. Santa will love finding these under the tree with a cold glass of milk! Visit this page for more information.

Which one of these treats sounds the most delicious to you? Pearls can be valuable and meaningful, but they can also satisfy a sweet tooth with some creativity. We'd love for you to tag us in any photos of your holiday desserts featuring pearls.