443 late recipes

Christmas Lizzies are boozy Southern fruitcake cookies loaded with candied cherries, raisins, dates, pecans, and citrus zest, soaked in whiskey. Make them weeks ahead and drizzle with spirits to age.

Classic hermit cookies with dates, golden raisins, walnuts, brown sugar, and warm spices, topped with a simple milk glaze. A chewy, old-fashioned spiced drop cookie.

Whole wheat bread machine loaf loaded with All-Bran, dates, raisins, pecans, almonds, and almond extract. A high-fiber, mildly sweet morning bread that bakes hands-off in one cycle.

Plum cake is the grand Victorian celebration fruitcake: pounds of raisins, currants, dates, citron, and almonds bound by spiced butter cake batter. Christmas, weddings, and christenings on a serious scale.

Christmas compote jam blends dried figs, dates, apricots, three nuts, and candied orange in a quince-juice base spiced with cinnamon, clove, cardamom, and star anise. A three-day European holiday preserve worth every step.

It's hard to resist these addictively delicious cookies. Oats, shredded wheat, and dates add extra goodness. Feel free to use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose flour. The result is as yummy.

Creamy cottage cheese and cream cheese filling flavored with dates and orange zest in an oat crust, topped with glazed apricot halves.

Fruit and nut muffins with whole wheat flour, applesauce, raisins, dates, and walnuts. A lower-fat big-batch recipe using egg whites and skim milk for lighter baking.

A diabetic-friendly spice cake made with whole wheat flour, sour cherries, dates, and applesauce instead of refined sugar. Warmly spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Braided yeast bread wreath filled with dates, walnuts, bran flakes, and cinnamon, topped with vanilla confectioner's sugar frosting. A stunning holiday bread that's worth the rise time.

Fruit basket cookies packed with candied cherries, dates, dried apricots, golden raisins, pecans, and walnuts in a brown sugar butter dough. A chewy, fruited holiday cookie.

Modern fruitcake loaf with pecans, dates, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, and rum, topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. A fruitcake even fruitcake haters will love.

A classic and traditional Christmas fruit cake that brings your memory back to the childhood.

Homemade bear claw pastries made from a buttery yeasted dough wrapped around a cherry, date, raisin, and walnut filling. This classic bakery recipe yields 16 to 20 golden, flaky pastries with a sweet almond glaze.

Roasted pork gets bathed in an exotic cumin-spiced sauce loaded with dates, pine nuts, and aromatic spices, creating a historical Roman-inspired dish that brings ancient flavors to modern tables.

A traditional European-style fruit cake -- Although fruitcakes have a bad reputation, this one is *excellent*.