5 Holiday goodie Beer Pairings

Sing with me! 

Do you smell what I smell? .. 

Below you will find 5 new ways to enjoy those holiday goodies . . . with beer, of course. 

If you have a favorite goodie beer pairing share it with us in the comments below.

Click here for more holiday beer pairing entries.

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Sugar Cookies

 Finally, an alternative to dipping your cookies in milk!

Sugar cookies are a Christmas favorite in many homes and mine don't look anywhere near as good as these beautiful Cooking Classy cookies.

This holiday porter from Bison Brewing is full of, wait for it . .. ... ginger... and a whole bunch of other holiday spices.  This is what makes it a great pairing for sugar cookies.  All of those spices will complement the cookie creating a taste experience with a sum greater than its parts.  

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Figgy Pudding

Yep, I'm talking about the popular English Christmas dessert and one of the only verses a group of second graders can sing together, in time... Figgy Pudding. 

If you do a web search you will find many examples of figgy pudding. It seems, you can put just about anything in a figgy pudding and prepare it anyway you like.  The link above will take you to a recipe and give you a historical perspective from which to enjoy this dessert.

Perhaps you'd like some Piggy pudding...

Samuel Adams Holiday Porter is the perfect pairing for this rich dessert.  The roasty notes in the porter will resonate with the caramel/burnt notes (from the flambe' or baking or frying) in the pudding.  The spices used in brewing will also resonate with the spices used in the pudding. 

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Fruit Cake

You know, that 5 pound loafy-cake thing full of nuts and dried fruit that sits alone, on the counter, for several months, just begging to be put out of its rejected misery.  

I won't go on and on about the bad fruit cake especially since I found this tasty looking one at Simply Gourmet.  This cake is full of the spices and just a little bit of booze!  

However, if you aren't the baking type may I suggest the best commercial fruit cake I have ever had.  Hawaiian Happy Cakes are rich, flavorful and moist. All good things right?

Wassail's caramel notes will resonate with the candied fruit and dark dried fruit (and molasses if used) found in the fruit cakes. Wassail's pleasant alcohol warmth will resonate with the brandy (used in the recipe from Simply Gourmet) and the crisp hop character will help cleanse the palate after each bite.

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Lebkuchen

Part gingerbread cookie, part cake, sometimes with jelly and coated with dark chocolate; lebkuchen is always good. 

My favorite variety of lebkuchen is the one coated in a thin layer of dark chocolate with just a touch of dark fruit jelly hidden inside. 

My favorite beer pairing for lebkuchen, especially the ones with the little spot of jelly, is a nice strong dark Belgian beer like Delirium Noel.  

The dark fruit flavors (fig/raisin) will resonate with jelly filling while the sweet malt flavors will resonate with the cookie.  Last, but certainly not least, the yeast spices resonate perfectly with the ginger spicing in then cookie

If Belgian Christmas beers aren't your thang, then here is an alternative that rivals any lebkuchen beer pairing.  Narwhal from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is thick, rich with wonderful roasty notes that complement the lebkuchen so well the only way you can tell which is which is you actually have to chew the beer!-)

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Tea Cakes

These bite-sized balls of cookie dough are baked and rolled in powder sugar are,by far, my favorite holiday cookie. They are so simple and delicious that they trump sugar cookies, IMHO.

In my house these tasty little morsels are called Russian Tea Cakes and they are perfect holiday beer munchies!  The recipe above the illustrated version of my family recipe, so you know it's good!  

Below, is a beautiful picture of the tea cakes in real life.  Click the picture to visit Zoe Bakes.

Ok, this pairing isn't fair to anyone who doesn't live within an hour radius from Wolf Creek Brewing Company, but that doesn't mean this pairing isn't killer.  Go get yourself a growler of Winter Wonderland, come home and enjoy a pint while you make the tea cakes, then enjoy another pint while you mow down some cookies. 

The spices used in brewing this beer complement the vanilla in the tea cakes very nicely while the sweet malt flavors resonate with the baked dough creating a tasty base layer.

This pairing featuring Deschutes' Jubelale is a little more inclusive and just as tasty -for all the same reasons as above.