Recipe Sifter

Homemade pralines and cream ice cream, a Southern custard-based ice cream studded with chunks of homemade buttermilk pralines. Real cooked custard churned with heavy cream for a proper old-fashioned ice cream parlor texture.

Seed bread for the bread machine with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds in a honey-sweetened dough. Nutty, crunchy, and totally hands-off.

Soft, golden yeast bread made with mashed butternut squash, butter, and milk. This recipe yields three gorgeous loaves with a tender crumb and subtle sweetness from the squash.

Liver, bacon and onions done right: beef liver soaked in milk to mellow its bite, dredged, pan-fried until just pink, then simmered in a savory herb gravy with crisp bacon and sweet onions. Old-school comfort food.

Just milk, yogurt, and flour. This 3-ingredient sourdough starter uses live yogurt cultures to kickstart fermentation, giving you a bubbly, tangy base for homemade sourdough bread in about 3 days.

Chocolate bread made in a bread machine with cocoa powder, butter, egg, and vanilla. A sweet, enriched yeast bread with deep chocolate flavor, makes two loaves.

Buttermilk cake baked over brown sugar and cinnamon-spiced apple halves, then flipped to reveal a sticky caramel apple top. Make-ahead friendly and serves 8.

Ham-somes, savory ham pinwheels: a caraway biscuit dough rolled around a zesty ground-ham filling with horseradish and mustard, sliced into spirals and baked, then served with a warm cheddar cheese sauce.

Whole wheat coffee cake with cardamom, buttermilk, and crunchy oat-walnut crumb topping. Healthy breakfast treat bakes in 40 minutes, serves 16.

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Orange Walnut Rum Cake with Grand Marnier Icing recipe

Jim's sourdough biscuits start with a bubbly starter sponge, then get dipped in bacon grease and crowded into the pan so they bake up tall, soft-sided, and pull-apart tender with real sourdough tang.

Love in Disguise: stuffed pig's hearts braised in tomato sauce with mustard and bay leaves. A traditional British offal dish that turns humble cuts tender and rich.

Sicilian pizza dough made in the bread machine with active dry yeast, dry milk powder, and a touch of butter. Hands-off thick-crust dough that rises pillowy and bakes with a crisp underside.

Black chocolate sponge cake: deep dark chocolate sheet cake with boiling-water batter trick, topped with creamy peanut butter frosting. Old-fashioned chocolate-peanut butter combo.

Everyone in my house goes NUTS over these. They are easy to make (fool proof, really) and you can also freeze what you don't use for later use.