Just because the holidays are over, doesn’t mean that the baking should stop. There is always time to try a new twist on an old (and well-loved) recipe.
The advantages of experimenting and tweaking new desserts is that it is an opportunity to learn. You never know what kind of knock-your-socks desserts you can come up with until you try. The worst that can happen is that your experiment did not turn out. You learn and you move on. You try something slightly different with that recipe or do something completely new.
Here are a few ideas of ways you can give that old recipe a new perspective:
Spices: There is such an array of spices that pair very well with desserts. Cinnamon and nutmeg are commonly paired with pastry. Try rolling sugar cookies in cinnamon sugar (1 cup of sugar to 1 tsp ground cinnamon) before baking. Add ground cardamom to that chocolate pudding or cake frosting. Try something a little adventureous, perhaps pink pepercorn or five spice.
Try different sugars: Brown sugar, granulated sugar and honey are all sweeteners, but all behave differently once baked. For example, brown sugar has a much more robust and profound flavor than granulated sugar. It also is much more “moist” than granulated sugar. Using brown sugar in baking cookies with result in moister cookies rather than that crispy texture than granulated sugar yields. Try using golden brown sugar in sugar cookies and shortbread. If using honey or molasses as a substitute, don’t omit the sugar out of the recipe completely. You still need the sugar to help in the basic structure of the cookie.
Chocolate: You can do a lot with chocolate. You can start simple by trying different chocolates in your chocolate chip cookie. Maybe milk chocolate instead of bittersweet. Or try all three: bittersweet, milk, and white chocolate. Or, add some cocoa nibs to give that cookie some extra crunch.
Dried fruits and nuts: There are so many combinations to chose from. Add dried cherries and toasted almonds to your brownies. Change out those dark raisins in your oatmeal raisin cookie recipe with currants or golden raisins. Try adding ground almonds or hazelnuts to that pound cake.
Citrus: Something as simple as lemon zest can give the recipe a makeover. Add a tablespoon of orange zest to chocolate chip cookies. Or add a tablespoon of Meyer lemon zest to a sugar cookie recipe. You can also make a simple glaze with powdered sugar and some lemon juice. Just add enough lemon juice to some powdered sugar so that it is spreadable. (Start with a cup of powdered sugar and a few drops of juice.)
These are just a few examples of what you can do to change up a recipe. You will get successes and failures, but most of all it's important to have fun.
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