12 church recipes

No-bake church window cookies with mint and regular chocolate chips, colored marshmallows, nuts, and flaked coconut. Slice-and-serve treats that look like tiny stained glass rounds.

7 Up bundt cake with butter, lemon extract, and a splash of lemon-lime soda for the lightest, most tender pound cake with a buttery, citrus-bright crumb. The Southern church-cookbook classic that earns its reputation.

Gumdrop fruit salad: a retro church-potluck classic with pineapple, grapes, marshmallows, gumdrops, and pecans bound in whipped cream and a cooked pineapple-lemon dressing.

Cheesy chicken spaghetti casserole with poached chicken breasts, melted Velveeta, cream of mushroom, and tender pasta baked into a Southern church-supper crowd-pleaser. Feeds a small army.

Texas-style chocolate sheet cake with buttermilk, cocoa, and a hot fudge icing poured over the warm cake. A 30-minute one-bowl chocolate sheet cake that feeds a crowd at potlucks and church suppers.

Ham and noodle hot dish is the classic Midwestern church-potluck casserole with egg noodles, cubed ham, corn, green peppers, and cream-of-soup base, finished with a buttery corn flake topping.

Hearty Kentucky stew with beef, chicken, okra, succotash, and curry powder that's been feeding Derby Day crowds and church suppers across the Bluegrass State for generations.

Cherry divinity is the pink church-cookbook candy: hard-ball sugar syrup whipped into beaten egg whites with cherry Jello, then loaded with chopped nuts and coconut. Old-fashioned, fluffy, festive.

Sturdy gingerbread dough engineered for building. Stiff enough to hold its shape, deeply spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg, ready for cookie houses, churches, and edible structures.

Coca-Cola tube cake with pecan frosting bakes a chocolate cola batter studded with mini marshmallows, then gets topped with a warm cola pecan glaze. Southern church-supper classic.

Pineapple muffin cookies: soft, cake-like drop cookies made with crushed pineapple and juice, warm nutmeg, and chopped walnuts. The tropical-twist church-supper cookie that's part muffin, part cookie.

Lyons spaghetti is a baked beef and macaroni casserole layered with tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, green peppers, and American cheese. Old-school church potluck food, the kind that feeds a crowd without fuss.