Recipe Sifter

Homemade fried elephant ears: sour-cream and buttermilk dough rolled thin, slit, fried golden, then tumbled in cinnamon sugar. State fair pastry made in your own kitchen.

Chocolate malt layer cake with malted milk powder in both the batter and the whipped cream frosting. Tastes like a fudgy malted milkshake in cake form.

Sour cream raisin and nut pie cooks in a double boiler with tangy sour cream, plump raisins, cinnamon, clove, and chopped nuts, topped with a torched meringue. Old-fashioned prairie pie classic.

Low-fat spiced bran muffins with molasses, honey, ginger, cloves, golden raisins, and walnuts. Made with egg whites and nonfat yogurt instead of butter and whole eggs.

A light and tasty pastry that is a perfect healthy snack that can satisfy your sweet tooth.

Fibber McGee cookies pack quick oats, salted peanuts and chocolate chips into a buttery brown-sugar dough. The 'everything' cookie named for the famous overstuffed radio-show closet.

Chocolate pound cake baked in a tube pan with melted unsweetened chocolate and cream of tartar for a tender, tight crumb. A one-bowl, old-fashioned pound cake dressed up in cocoa.

Soft cream cheese cookies studded with pecans and swirled with apricot preserves, topped with matching apricot frosting and coconut for pillowy sweetness.

Pat Korth of Muskego offered a coconut variation on the peanut butter kiss cookie.

Spiced chocolate prune cake with buttermilk and cinnamon, topped with a glossy cooked chocolate fudge frosting. Soaked prunes keep every slice impossibly moist.

Fairy gingerbread, a soft molasses and ginger cake baked in a shallow pan. An old-fashioned recipe with warm spice, buttery crumb, and no-fuss mixing.

Apple crumb coffeecake layers a buttermilk batter with pre-cooked apple-currant filling under a buttery crumb topping. Spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, ideal for brunch tables.

A brown sugar loaf cake studded with candied citron and chopped nuts, topped with a nutmeg cream frosting. Warmly spiced with nutmeg throughout, this vintage gem belongs on every holiday baking list.

Buttery pecan coconut cookie balls with a hint of almond, baked golden and finished with a tropical pineapple honey glaze or a roll in powdered sugar. Makes about 6 dozen bite-sized treats.

Authentic Tuscan almond biscotti twice-baked until crisp and golden. A traditional Italian cookie with toasted almonds, almond extract, and an egg wash finish.

Caramel cinnamon muffins baked over butter and brown sugar that melts into a sticky, caramel-like bottom. Flip them out warm for a gooey, cinnamon-spiced breakfast treat.