Popular Christmas Desserts in Latin America
Christmas is one of the most celebrated festivities in Latin America. Families come together to share, reminisce, and participate in multiple and varied traditions throughout the continent. Normally, these include a delicious dinner. However, these holidays are also marked by exquisite desserts that are as different as each country in the region.
Here, we bring you a list of some of the most important. Argentina. In addition to chocolates, nougats, sweet breads and ice cream, the English pudding stands out, a cake made with candied fruits that has chopped strawberries and spices. Brazil. Here, the dessert is the rabanada. It is a dessert made from bread submerged in a mixture of milk and beaten eggs fried in butter and covered in syrup, honey and a touch of cinnamon. Bolivia. They enjoy buñuelos, the typical fried wheat flour sweetened with honey or chambergos that are similar to traditional buñuelos but a little crispier and sweeter. They also include sopaipillas. Chile. Enjoys sweet drinks such as cherimoya punch and “monkey tail,” the latter, made with milk and coffee, has a touch of liquor, and is consumed cold. The cherimoya is made from the pulp of this fruit, white wine and sugar are added. It is left to marinade all night and it is savored cold. Colombia. The best desserts are the custard and the buñuelos. The buñuelos are added papelón and coastal cheese, while for the filling they usually use arequipe (dulce de leche), honey, chocolate, or grated coconut. The custard is made with milk, corn starch and sugar. Costa Rica.The queque is the star dessert, or a canned-fruit cake. It is accompanied with hot drinks such as coffee or tea. Its main ingredients are wheat flour, eggs, sugar, salt, and milk (or liqueur) is added in small quantities Cuba. In this country, it is a delicious tradition to serve sweet fritters made with cassava flour with syrup, which are generously offered to visitors during December Holidays. Ecuador. There is no shortage of buñuelos with honey. They are little balls that are made from flour and cheese, fried, and covered with honey. Its origins correspond more than anything to Mediterranean cuisine. El Salvador. There is something for all tastes. They usually drink hot or cold drinks, including chocolate or coffee. At dessert time, they enjoy the semita plana, a sweet bread that identifies Salvadorans very much. It is consumed throughout the year. Guatemala. The queen of the celebration is the trenza rellena, a braided bread that can be filled with ham, cheese, or sweets. The trenza and the pirujo, a sweet bread eaten with hot chocolate or coffee, are always in the center of the table. Honduras. Here the torrejas are favored. They are made with fried yolk bread and dipped in caramel; they are served after the meal or for Christmas dessert exchanges. Mexico. Tamales are the worthy representatives of this country, but on this occasion, the specialty would be chocolate tamales. There are different options for sweet tamales, but chocolate ones are the maximum expression of sweet tamales. Panama. The Christmas fruit cake, which is a cake made with wheat flour, egg, sugar, condensed milk, candied fruits, dried fruits, and various types of prunes. This is dessert that will delight diners. Peru. In Peru, you cannot miss the encanelado. It is a dessert made of flour, egg, butter, and natural cinnamon concentrate, which in addition to giving it that particular flavor, also gives it the unmistakable color of cinnamon. Puerto Rico. The coconut tembeleque is customary, which is a more typical dessert of the Christmas season, but during the rest of the year flan, majarete (corn pudding) and other sweets made from coconut are also customary. Dominican Republic. Bread pudding is inescapable. It has bread in slices or in pieces, milk or heavy cream, sugar, butter, raisins, or cinnamon are added. It is similar to a sponge cake. Uruguay. In addition to nougats and panetón (fruit cake), another tradition is to serve fruit salad, these must be cut into small cubes and some soft drink is added. |