If there’s one thing we love about the holidays, it’s the food.

Even if you don’t celebrate any holidays around this time of year, there’s something about the winter weather that makes us want to cook and bake!

EPCOT is a food epicenter and the best time to enjoy the variety of cuisine the park has to offer is during a festival. We decided to take some inspiration from these festivals and came up with a smorgasbord of fun recipes to try this holiday season!

Beef Bourguignon Over Red Skinned Potatoes

Starting off strong with something savory, why not try your hand at making Beef Bourguignon? This tasty dish can be found at Yukon Kitchen in the Canada Pavilion during Festival of the Holidays and is the perfect dish to warm you up on a cold winter night.

Ingredients (serves 6)

Beef Bourguignon

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 6 ounces smoked bacon, diced
• 3 pounds beef brisket, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces, or stew meat
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large white onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 1 pound crimini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped thyme
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups red wine (Merlot, Pinot Noir, or Chianti)
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup sherry vinegar
• 12 small fresh or frozen pearl onions, peeled
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley, divided

Red Skinned Potatoes

• 1 tablespoon salt, plus more, to taste
• 3 pounds red-skinned potatoes, washed
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• White pepper, to taste

Recipe

For Beef Bourguignon

1. Heat butter and bacon in a large Dutch oven over medium heat and cook until bacon is brown and beginning to crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. Pat beef dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Sear in Dutch oven with butter and bacon fat, 1-2 minutes per side, until browned. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
3. Add garlic, onion, carrots, and mushrooms and sauté for 6 minutes, until vegetables begin to soften. Stir in rosemary and thyme.
4. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes, until paste begins to caramelize, but does not burn.
5. Return beef and bacon to pan. Add flour and stir constantly for 5 minutes. Add wine, beef broth, and vinegar and stir to deglaze pot. Add pearl onions and bring to a boil over high heat.
6. Reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for 1 1/2 hours until meat is tender and sauce is thickened.
7. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of parsley and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
8. Keep warm until ready to serve.

For Red Skinned Potatoes

1. Bring a large stockpot of water to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon salt and the potatoes and boil for 10-15 minutes, until soft. Drain potatoes.
2. Return potatoes to pot and mash with a hand masher or electric mixer until just broken. Add butter, sour cream, vinegar, and mash until potatoes are mashed, but still lumpy.
3. Season with additional salt and white pepper, to taste.

To serve, divide potatoes among 6 bowls. Ladle beef bourguignon on top of potatoes and garnish with remaining chopped parsley.

Belgian Waffles with Berry Compote and Whipped Cream

Looking for something to eat on a snowy winter’s morning? Check out this tasty dish from the Belgium booth at EPCOT’s International Food and Wine Festival, which features thick Belgian waffles. The heaviness of the carb-filled waffles pairs well with the light flavors in the berry compote!

Ingredients (makes 8 4″x4″ waffles)

Belgian Waffles

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon dry active yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons beer
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 stick butter, melted

Berry Compote

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon red wine
• 1/2 cup apple, orange, or cranberry juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup fresh blackberries
• 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
• 1 cup fresh raspberries

Recipe

For Belgian Waffles

1. Sift flour into a large bowl. Add sugar and yeast. Create a well in the center of mixture.
2. Add water, milk, beer, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir until mixture is just blended. (Don’t worry if there are lumps; they will dissolve as the batter rests overnight.) Add melted butter, and stir until just incorporated.
3. Refrigerate batter overnight.
4. Bring mixture to room temperature. Ladle waffle batter into a Belgian waffle maker; cook according to manufacturer’s instructions.
5. Serve warm with berry compote and whipped cream.

For Berry Compote

1. Combine cornstarch and red wine in a small bowl, stirring until cornstarch is dissolved. Set aside.
2. Combine fruit juice, sugar, and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer. Add cornstarch mixture, blueberries, and blackberries.
3. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, until berries are softened and mixture is thickened. Add strawberries, stirring to combine. Remove from heat, and gently fold in raspberries. Serve warm over Belgian waffles.

Mickey-Shaped Linzer Cookies

Linzer cookies are a holiday staple to many. You can get them as part of the Cookie Stroll or on their own at the Bavaria Holiday Kitchen in EPCOT during the Festival of the Holidays, but in their traditional circular shape. We decided to put a little Disney spin on it and created these Mickey-shaped cookies! Now it’s a bit tricky to finagle the shape, so if you want to stick to a more traditional shape, you can follow this recipe but just use regular Linzer cookie cutters. This is very much a labor of love, but when you’re finished you’ll have beautiful Linzer cookies to enjoy!

Ingredients (makes 1 dozen large cookies)

• 14 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp butter extract
• 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 & 1/2 cups raspberry jam
• Non-melting powdered sugar (also known as donut sugar) for topping
• 2 cookie cutters (one of which is a smaller shape to cut out those windows in select cookies). If you have a 3D printer and want the same ones we used, the file can be found here.

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Adjust rack to middle of oven.
2. Cream butter and sugars with paddle attachment in a mixer. Cream on high until pale and fluffy looking — about 4 minutes.
3. Scrape down bowl and add egg and both extracts. Mix on high until well incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, add dry ingredients — all-purpose flour, almond flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Mix with a whisk by hand until well blended.
5. Pour dry ingredients into mixer and mix, on low/medium, until dry ingredients are just incorporated.
6. Form into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 60 mins.
7. While dough chills, pour 1 & 1/2 cups of jam into a heatproof container and microwave for 1-1.5 minutes until jam is bubbly and hot.
8. Pour jam through a strainer into another bowl. Use a spatula to stir and press the jam through the strainer. This will remove the seeds and make your jam slightly thicker once it sets up.
9. When ready to cut cookies, liberally flour your surface and place dough on top. Flour the top of the dough and roll, gently, with a rolling pin until 1/8 inch thick.
10. Cut your dough with any cutter and carefully use a spatula to transfer to a parchment paper or silicone mat-lined cookie sheet. This is a finicky dough to transfer and ours stuck a good bit to our work surface. Just take your time and add flour as needed to prevent sticking.
11. For ONLY half of the cookies, use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out a window in the center of the cookie. Do this AFTER cookies are transferred to the cookie sheets to prevent warping the cookies.
12. Chill cut cookies for 30 minutes before baking. This is key to prevent the cookies from over-spreading.
13. Bake cookies in preheated oven until just slightly golden. In our oven the whole cookies took 9 minutes and the cookies missing the centers took 7 minutes. We also baked the cut-out pieces for tiny cookies!
14. Let cookies cool completely before assembling. When ready to assemble, either use a knife to smear jam on the bottom cookies or fill a piping bag or ziplock bag with the jam. Avoid getting too close to the edges.
15. Pour a bit of the non-melting powdered sugar into a small mesh strainer. Hold it over the top cookies and gently tap the side of the strainer with your hand. Powdered sugar should gently shower down on the cookies. You do this first so you don’t cover the pretty jam on the completed cookie!
16. Take a top powdered sugar-covered cookie and carefully place it on a jam-covered cookie, then repeat with remaining cookies.

Pretzel Bread Pudding

Okay, maybe you’re not a fan of too much work and are looking for something a little less labor-intensive. This recipe will give you an EXTREMELY delicious result with only a few easy steps! The Pretzel Bread Pudding is an EPCOT favorite, so check out how you can recreate it at home. If you are looking for it in the parks, it can be found at Sommerfest. Note: It’s not a festival treat, but it’s so delicious that we had to share it here!

Ingredients

Vanilla Sauce

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup milk, divided
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pretzel Bread Pudding

• 1 pound pretzel bread
• 1 cup milk
• 1 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 3/4 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Recipe

For the Vanilla Sauce

1. Beat egg and sugar in a small bowl, then set aside.
2. Bring cream and 3/4 cup of milk to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. Slowly add 1/3 of the simmering cream mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Carefully pour back into the saucepan.
3. Whisk cornstarch and the remaining 1/4 cup of milk together in a small bowl. Add to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract.
4. Place a mesh strainer over a bowl. Pour sauce through the strainer and cool to room temperature.
5. Cover and refrigerate for up to 7 days.

For the Pretzel Bread Pudding

1. Tear or chop pretzel bread into large pieces. Place in a food processor and pulse until coarse crumbs form.
2. Whisk milk, heavy cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla paste, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add pretzel bread pieces. Cover and refrigerate for 4-12 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 15 1/2 cup ramekins or muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray. Add 1/3 cup pretzel bread pudding mixture into each ramekin or muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until centers of pretzel bread puddings are firm.
4. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from the molds.

To serve, remove vanilla sauce from the refrigerator. Heat in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until warm. Place warm pretzel bread puddings on small plates. Top each with 2-3 tablespoons vanilla sauce. Drizzle your store-bought caramel sauce on top.

We’ve got plenty more recipes for you to try out, so don’t leave without finding the perfect one for your holiday table!

And if you are looking for more festival-specific Disney recipes — click here! 

Which EPCOT festival is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!