Recipes with vanilla extract

Dense, fudgy unsweetened-chocolate brownies baked in a round pan, topped with chocolate frosting, chopped toffee candy bar, and a crosshatch drizzle of white chocolate. Three treats in one.

Three-layer chocolate caramel bars with a fudgy brownie base, gooey pecan caramel topping, and a lacy semi-sweet chocolate drizzle. Makes 54 bars that store beautifully for 10 days. Think homemade turtle candy in cookie bar form.

Father Time chocolate chip cookies decorated with piped clock face icing for New Year's Eve. Chewy brown sugar cookies with a simple powdered sugar icing design.

Classic baked flan with a deep amber caramel top and silky vanilla-orange custard underneath. Spanish-style cream caramel made the proper water-bath way for a dinner-party showstopper.

Crispy drop doughnuts made with mashed potatoes and sour cream, fried golden and rolled in sugar. The potato keeps them impossibly moist inside while the outside shatters. Makes 3 dozen in under an hour.

Homemade white bread enriched with butter, eggs, milk, and a hint of vanilla. A heritage big-batch recipe that yields five or six golden, tender loaves with a soft sandwich crumb.

Spider-shaped chocolate Halloween cookies with red-hot candy eyes. A simple shaped cookie kids can sculpt themselves: oval body, round head, eight skinny legs.

Marshmallows wrapped in crescent roll dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar, and baked until golden. These pull-apart treats get drizzled with vanilla glaze for an easy breakfast or dessert.

Pinwheel slice-and-bake cookies with a chocolate oat layer swirled around a peanut oat layer. Make the dough ahead, chill overnight, then slice and bake in minutes.

Brown sugar and cinnamon candied almonds cooked to firm ball stage in cream and butter. Crunchy, sweet, and addictive with just 7 ingredients and 15 minutes of work.

Popcorn surprises made with candy-coated popcorn ground fine and mixed into melted chocolate, then molded or cut into shapes. A unique candy that makes about 50 pieces.

Homemade hot cocoa made from scratch with cocoa powder, sugar, milk, and a splash of vanilla, no powdered mix needed. A rich, single-serving mug of hot chocolate ready in about five minutes.

Glazed honey spice cookies with cinnamon, cloves, mace, and allspice, finished with a thin vanilla sugar glaze. Old-world cookies that bake up firm, keep beautifully, and taste better the day after baking.

Five-ingredient pound cake with seven eggs, butter-flavored shortening, and no leavener. Baked low and slow in a tube pan for an ultra-dense, velvety crumb with a golden crust.

Classic butter nut balls (also called Russian tea cakes or Mexican wedding cookies). Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread rolled twice in powdered sugar for a snowy finish.

Moist two-layer chocolate cake with a bright orange zest frosting. Boiling water in the batter creates an extra-tender crumb. Drizzle with orange liqueur for special occasions.