Recipes with brown sugar

Two-layer apricot bars with a buttery shortbread base and a chewy brown sugar-apricot-nut topping, rolled in powdered sugar. Makes 75 bite-sized bars from one pan.

Butterscotch monkey bread: frozen dinner rolls layered with nuts, butterscotch pudding, and cinnamon-sugar butter, left to rise overnight, then baked into a gooey caramel pull-apart. An easy brunch treat.

Layered oatmeal bars with a buttery cinnamon-butterscotch crumble, tangy cream cheese filling, and a golden crumb topping. Cut into squares for a crowd-pleasing treat.

Fudgy drop cookies packed with black walnuts and unsweetened chocolate, topped with a glossy homemade chocolate frosting. Old-fashioned, from-scratch baking that makes 2 dozen in under an hour.

Pineapple macadamia nut cheesecake with a vanilla wafer crust, coconut, and a rum-kissed sour cream topping. A tropical Hawaiian-inspired cheesecake that beats any bakery version.

Parkin is a variety of gingerbread, good warming stuff to eat out of doors in cold weather. When I was a child, it was always a firm favourite for the firework party on Bonfire Night each year. This is adapted from my mother's recipe.

No-bake muesli bars with oats, crushed cornflakes, coconut, dried fruit, and peanut butter held together with a buttery honey sauce. Chilled and sliced into chewy snack bars.

Sweet and sour green tomato pickles with brown sugar, vinegar, and a bouquet of pickling spices. The classic end-of-summer way to use up unripe tomatoes from the garden.

Easy homemade barbecue sauce with ketchup, onions, butter, paprika, and a finishing splash of lemon juice and Worcestershire. The 15-minute pantry-staple sauce that beats anything in a bottle.

Homemade peach chutney with brown sugar, honey, raisins, and whole spices simmered for an hour and canned in a boiling water bath. Makes 4 pints of sweet-tart preserve.

Fig chess tarts with a buttery lemon-scented shortbread shell, filled with brown sugar custard studded with chopped dried figs and walnuts. A Southern chess pie translated into bite-sized tart form.

Pecan icebox cookies with brown sugar and toasted pecans, shaped into a log, chilled overnight, then sliced and baked. Classic slice-and-bake cookies that keep in the fridge for a week.

Apple cake with a cinnamon-nut streusel topping, chopped apples folded into a brown sugar batter with sour milk. A tender, spiced sheet cake for fall baking.

Oatmeal millet muffins with rolled oats softened in boiling water and toasty whole millet for crunch. The morning muffin with two grains, golden tops, and tender, rib-sticking crumb. Freezes well.

Brine for roasted chicken steeps a whole bird overnight in salt, brown sugar, lemon, garlic, bay, peppercorns, jalapeno, and Mediterranean herbs. The result: juicier, deeper-seasoned roast chicken from skin to bone.

Oatmeal snickerdoodles cross a chewy oatmeal cookie with a classic cinnamon-sugar snickerdoodle. Five dozen cookies, ten-minute bake, plenty for the cookie jar or to share.