Celebrate the holidays with Bachelor Nation!

Fans got to know and love Nicole Lopez-Alvar on Season 23 of “The Bachelor” and Season 6 of “Bachelor in Paradise.”

And now, the Bachelor Nation star is sitting down with BachelorNation.com for an exclusive interview about her favorite holiday foods and traditions.

Check out Nicole’s entire interview — including the secret recipe for her favorite Apple Pie Pancakes — below!

Bachelor Nation: Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving recipe to make?

Nicole Lopez-Alvar: Absolutely! Every Thanksgiving I go a little *ham* with my cooking (pun-intended) because I was born three days before Thanksgiving in 1992. Every seven years, when my birthday lands on Thanksgiving, my family throws me a Thanksgiving-themed birthday party… So, you could say I know a thing or two about it, lol.

My favorite recipe to make for Thanksgiving is my Apple Pie Pancakes recipe. They combine all of my favorite things — breakfast, dessert, and Thanksgiving flavors all into one bite. It’s seriously my heaven. (My followers who know me by now will not be surprised my recipe is a sweet one, lol.)

Here’s how to make my Apple Pie Pancakes. They’re sooo good.

Nicole’s Apple Pie Pancakes

Pancake ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (or a healthier one idk)
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk or almond milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup grated apple (or way less for less apple flavor/drier pancakes)

Secret Sauce:

• Scoop a big spoonful of Mrs. Richardson’s Sea Salt Caramel (you can buy it at most grocery stores or you can use ANY caramel you have!) and plop it in a bowl with maple syrup. Microwave and boom! Pour ALL over pancakes
• Then add fun toppings like caramelized pecans, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, dash of cinnamon, brown sugar, white chocolate chips, vanilla ice cream, pumpkin spice ice cream.... (why am I like this).

Instructions:

• Turn on your stove to medium heat
• In a big bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients
• In another big bowl, mix together all the wet ingredients
• Then, pour the bowl of wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and mix it all together (don’t over mix)!
• Now grab the apple you grated and pour as much as you want into the mix

BN: WOW! Those pancakes sound absolutely delicious! What about a favorite recipe for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa?

NL: I come from a big, loving, Cuban family, so each year we celebrate Nochebuena the night before Christmas Day. For Latin and Hispanic families, Christmas Eve is the biggest feast day of the season, where the entire family gathers around the dining room table sharing stories while eating delicious Cuban food, such as lechon, black beans and rice, plantains, yuca frita, and more.

However, sweet tooth sally (me) loves to make cookies for Nochebuena. Here’s my go-to, “Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Christmas Morning Recipe,” which is actually my rendition of NYT Cooking’s “Double Chocolate Cookies” recipe by Samantha Seneviratne on cooking.nytimes.com. It’s been my go-to (and I’m not even a double chocolate chip person)!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup cocoa powder (you can use any, but a good one is best)
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ¾ cup dark brown sugar (regular brown works)
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate discs (or use any chocolate chips you’d like)!

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

2. Beat together butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until very light, about 5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.

3. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Add the chocolate discs and mix briefly to combine. Press plastic wrap against the dough and chill it for at least 24 hours and up to 36.

4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Portion the dough out into balls slightly larger than golf balls, about 3 1/2 ounces each, and transfer five balls to the baking sheet. (They will spread significantly.) Bake the cookies until set, being careful to remove cookies from the oven when still soft in the center, about 18 minutes. Transfer the parchment with the cookies to a rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough, baking a second batch of four or five cookies. Serve warm.

BN: Okay, hello, recipe queen! These also sound incredible. We have to ask, what is the best holiday food?

NL: Okay, why are you doing this to me?! Seriously… how can I name only ONE thing. Okay, if I have to say what’s the best… It’s sweet potato casserole or all of the casseroles, because they do the heavy lifting each year. Here’s what I mean: What is any turkey, roast chicken, or lechon without the creamy side dishes that bring the meal together?! From cheesy broccoli and cheddar casseroles to my favorite sweet potato casserole with a brown sugar, crumbly, pecan topping… casseroles are the MVP. I said what I said.

BN: Sorry, not sorry, we had to ask! Now, did you have a favorite holiday food to eat/make while growing up?

NL: While my love of cooking developed after college thanks to my love of watching the Food Network to unwind after class (no joke — try it), my favorite holiday food to eat every single year around Christmas is classic Spanish turrón. Turrón is a traditional dessert of Moorish (Arabic) origin that is made nowadays especially in Spain and has been around for centuries. There are two types of turrón: soft Jijona, which is so smooth and chewy and delicious, and then a hard variety, which is like an almond nougat candy, similar to the texture of peanut brittle, but I prefer the soft kind. It’s sooo nutty, and just one-of-a-kind delicious. We have to run to our grocery store early in December each year just to get our hands on it because they sell out like hotcakes.

BN: Okay, now we’ve got to try those! What is your favorite holiday tradition that you do with your family?

NL: My favorite holiday tradition with my family is gathering in the family room (my grandma’s “mancave”), where we pop on a DVD of one of our favorite Christmas movies. My favorite tradition is watching “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with my grandma as I explain what’s happening and she cries with laughter (especially during the scene with the cat and the tree… If you’ve seen it, then you know what I’m talking about).

BN: That’s a great tradition! Is there a dish from your family’s background/culture that you incorporate into the holidays? If so, would you share the recipe with us?

NL: I always incorporate my family’s classic Cuban flan recipe. It’s been passed down for generations, and my abuela still makes it each year. It’s so easy and so delicious! I’m craving it as I’m writing this, lol.

Ingredients:

• 6 large eggs
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounce)
• 1 can evaporated milk (12 ounce)
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel Sauce:

• 1.5 cups white sugar
• 3 tablespoons water

1. Heat your oven to 350°.

2. Add all of the flan ingredients to a blender and mix until completely combined. Set aside.

3. Pour the sugar and water mixture into a loaf pan and stick into oven to create the caramel. Take out when it’s melted.

4. Pour flan mixture into the loaf pan that’s now filled with the caramel on the bottom.

5. Bake uncovered for 60 minutes. Then lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the top and bake for another 40 minutes.

6. Slice and enjoy!

BN: Another incredible recipe. Thank you for sharing! Last but not least, do you always go back for seconds and leave room for dessert?