Broadway Stars Share Their Favorite Holiday Recipes—So You Can Make Your Table Look Like Theirs | Playbill

Holiday Coverage Broadway Stars Share Their Favorite Holiday Recipes—So You Can Make Your Table Look Like Theirs Actors from Dear Evan Hansen, Once On This Island, and more share the secret family recipes they cook each holiday season.

They can cook, too! Broadway actors aren’t just champions of the stage—they’re stars in the kitchen. We asked some of your favorites from Dear Evan Hansen, My Fair Lady, The Band’s Visit, King Kong, and more to share the recipes that make if feel like the holidays. Now you can decorate your table with the same dishes they will. In fact, actor Adam Kantor has a passion for food that he combines with theatre when he’s not waiting for the phone to ring in The Band’s Visit, and Dear Evan Hansen’s Michael Park loves to cook for his three kids. From no-mess loaves to tantalizing desserts, this year’s recipes will make your mouth water.

Read: 13 BROADWAY FAVES OF 2017 SHARE THEIR FAMILY HOLIDAY RECIPES

No-Knead Christmas Loaf from Dear Evan Hansen’s Michael Park
A simple recipe for your holiday table. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

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The recipe:
3 cups All Purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp rapid rise yeast
1 1/4 cup room temp water
1/2 cup room temp lager (I like Guinness actually)
2 Tbsp white vinegar

While the kiddos are still asleep... Mix all ingredients in a bowl with the handle end of a wooden spoon until all flour is blended in—about 5 minutes. Transfer to a greased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and let sit in a dry warm place for the day (approximately 8 hours, but you’ll see the dough rise to twice its original size). With a spatula, scrape the dough from the bowl to a floured surface to shape. Using your thumb and fore finger gently pinch the “4 corners” of the dough, lift and bring to the center. You will then flip the dough over and place on a sheet of parchment paper. Using the parchment as a sling, transfer the dough and parchment to a cast iron Dutch oven. (You can grab one of these online for only $25 and they are super useful!!) Let the dough proof for another couple hours. Prepare the oven. I like to preheat to 500 degrees, if your oven only goes to 450, that's fine. While the oven is preheating take a sharp knife and score an “X” in the top of the loaf. Once the oven is ready, place the Dutch oven in the oven with the top on for 20 minutes. Remove lid and bake for another 20 minutes. Let the loaf cook for at least 30 minutes before cutting to serve.

Grandma’s Chocolate Cake from King Kong’s Christiani Pitts
My great-grandma would be thrilled to know she made it to a Broadway publication.

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Christiani Pitts and company Matthew Murphy

The recipe:
Cake:
2 cups sugar
2 cups plain flour
1 cup Wesson oil
1 cup water
I stick of butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
4 tbs. cocoa
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Icing:
4 lbs. sweet milk
1/2 stick margarine
4tbs. cocoa
1 box confection sugar

Baking instructions:
Mix together sugar and flour, then set aside. In double oiler, mix Wesson oil, water, cocoa, butter
Cook 1 minunte. Add to sugar and flour mixture and beat well. Add buttermilk, eggs, and baking soda (mix the baking soda in the buttermilk and vanilla). Pour into oblong pan and bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Icing instructions:
In a sauce pan, pour the sweet milk, margarine, and cocoa. Bring this to a boil. Pour into a bowl with 1 box of confectionary sugar. Mix well. Pour over the hot cake.

June’s Lefse from My Fair Lady’s Linda Mugleston
Ever since I was a little kid I remember being so excited about having Lefse on Christmas. What is Lefse you ask? Lefse is a delicious combination of potatoes, butter, and cream, all mixed together to create a dough. The dough is then rolled out super-duper thin and cooked on a Lefse griddle. Lefse is wonderful with a little bit of butter and jam or as a vehicle for Swedish meatballs! A day or so before Christmas, my Dad would get his mother's recipe out and get to work. This past Christmas, I helped make the Lefse with my dad where I learned all the secrets—what the consistency should be, how thin to roll it out, when to flip it over. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without it!

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The recipe:
7-8 pounds of potatoes
1/4 pound butter
1/2 cup of cream or half-and-half
1 tsp. sugar
Salt to taste
Flour to sprinkle

Steam potatoes with skins on until tender. Drain and skin immediately and put through a ricer, in a large container. Cut butter into chunks and add to the potatoes. Let melt and stir in. Add cream and then sugar and salt. Chill overnight. The next day, divide the potatoes into three parts. Add enough flour to one part so you can knead it. Keep the rest chilled. Form balls of 1/3 cup of dough. On a well-floured canvas, pat the dough into a circle turning several times. Roll out lightly from the center to all sides, flouring lightly if needed, until very thin. Lift with a lefse stick or spatula and transfer to a griddle heated to 500 degrees. Bake until slightly brown speckled, turn, and finish baking. Do not bake too long or lefse will become hard. Fold lefse in quarters and transfer to a towel-lined pan, covering immediately with another heavy towel so that they can steam and keep soft and tender. When lefse has cooled it can be stored in plastic bags in the refrigerator for several days or it may be frozen.

Grandma’s Gravlax from The Dead, 1904’s Rufus Collins
When I was a kid, my grandmother served gravlax as an appetizer at holidays. I’ve been making it for Thanksgiving for the last ten years and love watching the next generation gobble it up.

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The recipe:
2 large fillets of fatty salmon
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups coarse salt (sea or kosher)
1 tsp ground black pepper
2-3 bunches dill roughly chopped
I/4 cup gin

Mix salt, sugar, pepper. Make a “sandwich” with the salmon (skin out) by putting most of the dill and salt-sugar-pepper cure between the fillets. Pour the gin inside the sandwich. Cover the salmon skin with the remaining dill and cure. Stick the thing in a plastic or large ziplock bag. Wrap it in foil. Fridge the sealed package under a pan with some heavy cans for at least 48 hrs (72 better). Flip it every 12 hrs so it cures evenly. When ready to serve, rinse the fillets and slice them as thinly as you can with a sharp knife (I bought a specialized such as they use at Zabars, Russ & Daughters, etc.). It’s best on pumpernickel or rye with cream cheese or creme fraiche, lemon wedges, more black pepper.

Canned Spicy Tomato Jam from The Play That Goes Wrong’s Mara Davi
This is my favorite recipe. I try to make it every year and can it to have through the winter. It is so delicious in scrambled eggs and fantastic on a sandwich.

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The recipe:
5 lbs tomatoes, finely chopped
3 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 Tbs salt
1/2 Tbs red chili flakes (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a non-reactive pot. Bring to boil then reduce heat to simmer, stirring as you do. Continue to stir as jam reduces, which takes about an hour. Leave ¼-inch headspace in the jar and process can in a water bath for 20 minutes.

Peanut Butter Pie from The Band’s Visit’s Adam Kantor
This is my mom’s famous peanut butter pie recipe.

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The recipe:
Shell:
1 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 stick (6 Tbs) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Filling:
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 cup smooth peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup well chilled heavy cream

Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter, and press mixture into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for about 8 minutes. Let cool. Beat cream cheese with confectioners sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in milk, peanut butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whip heavy cream until stiff peaks. Stir 1/3 of it into peanut butter mixture and fold in the remaining cream. Pour into shell. Chill in refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.

Applesauce Cinnamon Ornaments from Once On This Island’s Hailey Kilgore
Not a food but a fun family tradition for the kitchen!!

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Alex Newell, Hailey Kilgore, and the cast Joan Marcus

How to:
Mix 2.5 cups of Applesauce and Cinnamon (if the dough is too soft keep adding cinnamon until desired stiffness occurs). Roll out dough onto parchment paper. Cut out shapes with your favorite Christmas cookie cutters! Make sure to poke a hole at the top of every ornament before putting it in the oven. Bake at 200 degrees for two hours. Let the ornaments cool and fill your house with a pretty holiday scent. String the ornaments an hang em up!

 
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