The best holiday desserts from Boston-area bakeries, according to a local food writer

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's Saturday morning newsletter, The Weekender. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here. 

Frosty weather blew into Massachusetts this week, just in time for the ramp up to the winter holiday season. It’s during this period that our social gatherings inevitably shift indoors, lasting for what seems like the entire night, thanks to the early sunset.

Whether it’s a dinner party, holiday celebration or a ski trip, long winter social gatherings are best when everyone’s fueled with warm drinks and tasty baked goods. But if you don’t have time (or patience) to make something from scratch, there are several bakeries and restaurants in Boston whipping up crowd-pleasing seasonal delights that you’ll want to check out.

I spoke with Rachel Blumenthal, food editor at Boston Magazine and former editor of Eater Boston, to narrow down seven desserts that deserve a spot on your holiday table this year. Here’s what she shared:

This award-winning Vietnamese spot in Lynn is one of Blumenthal’s favorites. And this year, they’re doing holiday cookie boxes.

You’ll get a dozen cookies per box, with a variety of flavors ranging from pho spiced snickerdoodle to Thai tea sablé cookies. There are also gluten-free options like pandan coconut macaroon, brown butter almond blondie, and chocolate orange sablé.

(FYI: Orders must be placed by Dec. 20. You’ll be able to pick up your fresh baked box on Dec. 23 or Dec. 24 from the restaurant.)

Mamaleh’s has locations in Brookline, Boston, Cambridge and Somerville where you can pick up their rich chocolate cake.

“It’s a really classic chocolate layer cake that feels very ‘old school deli,’ like the thing that you would see in that glowing cake tower,” said Blumenthal. “And they sell it by the slice, if you don’t want to get a whole one.”

Chocolate chip cookies are always a crowd pleaser — and these ones are Blumenthal’s favorite in the Boston area.

La Saison head baker Soheil Fathi based his brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe on the Mrs. Fields cookies he ate growing up when his family would take trips to North America from their native Iran. “It tastes like such a classic American chocolate chip cookie in a lot of ways, but the chocolate is better. It’s like Mrs. Fields, but artisanal,” Blumenthal said. You can pick them up at La Saison’s bakeries in Cambridge and Charlestown.

Baklava, dates and kunafah are classic holiday fare in most Muslim-majority countries. Palestinian-owned Yafa Bakery & Cafe in Somerville prepares these desserts fresh daily.

Blumenthal says she’s “obsessed.”

“They’ll box up a bunch of different types of baklava in a big, beautiful box — and they have a bunch of other delicious little pastries too,” she said. That includes chocolate-covered dates with gold leafs and different fillings as well as kunafah creams, topped with crispy pasta, orange blossom water, rose petals and chopped pistachios. The presentation makes these pastries a great host gift, she added.

There’s something for everyone in these cookie tins from SweetBoy, a bakery founded by Ben Sidell, the son of Saltie Girl owner Kathy Sidell. Inside, you’ll find 12 cookies, two each in the following flavors: chocolate chip, brown butter “CocoOats” almond crunch, crystal sugar, double chocolate peppermint and ginger molasses.

“I just tried these cookies the other day,” said Blumenthal. “They’re kinda classic, but they have this interesting shape. You could put ice cream on top of it. I think it would be perfect for that.”

(FYI: Want to get your hands on a box? You’ll have to order by next week. The cookies will ship on Dec. 16.)

Hanukkah begins on the evening of Christmas this year. “If you show up at a Hanukkah party with a two-foot loaf of babka in any flavor, or maybe a few loaves of different flavors, that’s going to be perfect,” said Blumenthal. She suggests heading straight to Bakey in Brookline, Boston or Newton to grab a fresh one.

Made from richly layered dough, hazelnut praline cream and dark chocolate, babka is “a really nice foil to all of the fried salty food that you traditionally eat” around Hanukkah, said Blumenthal. Bakey offers classic flavors like chocolate, cinnamon, raspberry and almond, and a specialty pistachio babka for 2024.

Speaking of traditional Hanukkah goodies, Union Square Donuts is planning to bring back their classic strawberry sufganiyot, which are basically jelly-filled donuts, later this month. Their Hanukkah doughnut menu will also include special flavors like Nutella cream, rugelach and halva honey pistachio.

Blackbird Doughnuts also makes sufganiyot during December. Blumenthal says she has a soft spot for Union Square Donuts, after living up the street from their original Somerville location. “But they’re both great,” she said.

Want to elevate your grocery store eggnog or bottle of Baileys? Newton Centre pub Thistle & Leek sells its own homemade, bottled eggnog and Irish cream every year. Brendan Collins, the restaurant’s general manager, says both are “fairly boozy,” combining dairy and rum or whiskey, respectively. (He says their Irish cream is “the best version of Baileys you’ll ever have.”)

If other party guests have the cookies and cakes covered, Blumenthal says these beverages could be a fun alternative to bring.