Ricotta pudding baked in individual cups until puffed and golden, made with part-skim ricotta, lemon zest, and a folded egg white for souffle-like lift. A light Italian-style dessert.
Gluehwein, traditional German mulled red wine with cinnamon, cloves, lemon peel, and sugar. The one rule: heat it close to boiling but never let it boil.
Strufoli are tiny Italian fried dough balls drizzled with warm honey and topped with rainbow sprinkles. A classic Neapolitan Christmas dessert shaped into a festive mound or wreath.
Rhubarb apple crisp baked in individual ramekins: tart rhubarb and sweet apple thickened with tapioca under a buttery oat, pecan, and maple crumble. A bubbling, crunchy-topped spring dessert.
Fresh pear and apple pie with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lime juice in a double-crust pastry. A fall fruit pie that blends the soft sweetness of pears with tart, firm apples.
Moist zucchini bread loaded with grated summer squash, brown sugar, cinnamon, and oil for a soft, never-dry crumb. Makes two freezer-friendly loaves, the classic late-summer use for garden zucchini.
Old fashioned sweet potato meringue pie tops a spiced sweet potato custard with fluffy toasted meringue peaks. A Southern Thanksgiving dessert that beats pumpkin pie at its own game.
Mom's apple cookies are soft, cake-like drop cookies with grated fresh apple, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and walnuts. Old-fashioned spiced bakery flavor from a lunchbox-friendly batch of three dozen.
Pecan cinnamon muffins with brown sugar, chopped pecans, and warm cinnamon in a quick oil-based batter. Golden, tender breakfast muffins best served hot with butter and jam.
Cinnamon swirl bread with a brown sugar and cinnamon ribbon marbled through a tender, sour milk quick bread batter. No yeast needed for this coffee cake-style loaf.
Laminated yeast pastries with butter folded through dough, twisted into spirals and filled with cinnamon apples. Overnight fermentation develops rich flavor.
Deep-dish apple pie with a single top crust hiding a heap of brown sugar and cinnamon-spiced apples. Old-fashioned simplicity served with cream or hard sauce, just the way grandmother made it.
Acadian eight-bean chili with kidney, white, pink, black, red, pinto, cranberry, and navy beans slow-simmered with bacon, ground beef, beer, tomatoes, and warm spices.
Bread machine cranberry orange breakfast bread with honey, cinnamon, allspice, and walnuts. Set it, forget it, and wake up to a warm, spiced loaf studded with dried cranberries.
Wholesome bran muffins sweetened with honey and loaded with raisins and walnuts. Makes 24 hearty muffins with a cinnamon-spiced crumb that freezes beautifully.
Grated Granny Smith apples and warm spices bake into a tender brown-sugar cake, pierced and drenched in a buttery brown-sugar glaze. Walnut crunch and frozen vanilla yogurt finish each slice.