2,441 holiday recipes

Rugelach four ways: a single cream cheese pastry dough turned into raspberry-almond crescents, layered chocolate-pecan squares, apricot pockets and honey-pecan triangles. Holiday cookie tray showstopper.

Jewish rugelach with a flaky cottage cheese dough, apricot jam, cinnamon-sugar, walnuts, and currants rolled into golden crescents. A holiday cookie jar essential for Hanukkah or Christmas.

Chocolate crinkle cookies with their signature snowy white powdered-sugar crackle. Made with melted unsweetened chocolate and vegetable oil for a fudgy, brownie-like center. Yields 48 holiday-perfect cookies.

Steamed cranberry pudding, a brighter take on Christmas pudding: tart cranberries, walnuts, and apricots in a suet batter, steamed moist and served warm with caramel or hard sauce. A festive holiday dessert.

A whole roasted turkey stuffed with a bold Southwest cornbread dressing loaded with jalapeños, chayote, cilantro, pecans, and sage. Give your holiday bird a Tex-Mex twist that'll have the whole table talking.

Baked curried fruit casserole with pears, peaches, pineapple, apricots, and cherries layered with slivered almonds in a buttery brown sugar curry glaze. A retro holiday side dish that's best made a day ahead.

Citrus curried cashews toss raw cashews with lemon juice, warm curry powder, and kosher salt, then slow-roast to crisp. A salty-tart, spice-dusted cocktail nut for holiday parties and DIY gifting.

Minestra di riso per Pesach is an Italian-Jewish Passover soup with tiny chicken-matzo meatballs, rice, and a hard-boiled egg yolk in each bowl. Delicate holiday soup with cinnamon-spiced meatballs.

Homemade Purim ravioli with a tender spinach and chicken filling, sealed between paper-thin sheets of pasta and boiled, then served with marinara or meat sauce. An Italian-Jewish holiday labor of love.

The colors the fruits used in the cookies suggest those of the robes worn by the four ordres mendiants, monastic orders that originally lived on charity -- the Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans and Franciscans.

Halloween cupcakes decorated with an elegant chocolate spider web and spider made from piped melted chocolate. This impressive edible decoration freezes solid for easy handling.

These rich chocolate-toffee bars from Mary Lueke of Menasha were our top pick in the bar category.

The crisp, densely chocolaty cookies, with an unusually long baking time, were an annual favorite among the 20-plus recipes that Susan Couchman of Hartland remembers were made each year by her mother, Gloria Kuchler.

Chocolate and caramel give this thumbprint cookie from Kathy T. Preston of Milwaukee a different twist.

Experimentation led Mary Ann Zarczynski of Franklin to create this recipe, which she described as "very rich and delicious."

This cut-out cookie from Bev Bosveld of Waupun is dressed up with chewy oats and crushed peppermint for a pleasing result.