Recipe Sifter

Moist carrot muffins featuring chopped apricots and avocado oil.

A steamed banana pudding cake made in a pressure cooker with whole wheat pastry flour, maple syrup, apple juice, and raisins. No eggs, no butter, no oil. Dense, moist, and naturally sweetened.

Holiday fruitcake with a pound of raisins boiled in spiced sugar syrup, mixed with candied fruit, walnuts, and warm spices, baked low and slow in a tube pan.

Apfeltorte: German apple cake with whole peeled apples baked into a butter cake, their cores stuffed with rum-soaked raisins and chocolate. Finished with apricot glaze and powdered sugar.

Quick apple scones with chopped apple, sweet raisins, and warm cinnamon. Built like a pie crust with vegetable shortening and apple juice, no dairy required, ready in 30 minutes.

Fat-free oatmeal drop cookies with applesauce standing in for butter or oil, rolled oats, and raisins. No eggs, naturally vegan, and done in just 10 minutes.

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.

Old-fashioned cold water cake with muscat raisins, warm spices, and no eggs or butter. A Depression-era boiled raisin cake that bakes up dense, spiced, and deeply satisfying.

Light spiced muffins with grated apple, raisins, and orange zest. Low-fat recipe that uses beaten egg white for lift and only a tablespoon of brown sugar for sweetness.

A scrumptious cheesecake made with orange juice and seedless raisins.

Steamed molasses brown bread with raisins, graham flour, and cornmeal. The classic New England Boston-style bread, slow-steamed to a moist, dense crumb.

Soft, spiced rhubarb drop cookies with warm cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, plus walnuts, raisins, and a kick of crystallized ginger. A clever way to use up springtime rhubarb stalks.

Apple raisin cream pie combines Granny Smith apples, plump raisins, and warm spices under a double crust, then heavy cream pours through a center vent during baking to enrich the filling. Old-fashioned American pie with a clever cream-stream finish.

Whole wheat fruitcake packed with figs, dates, prunes, walnuts, and warm spices. No refined flour, naturally sweet from dried fruit for healthier holiday baking.

Oatmeal apple raisin muffins with cinnamon and nutmeg, ready in 30 minutes. Hearty, warmly spiced breakfast muffins that taste like fall in every bite.

One base cookie dough, four different bar cookies. Choose from Granola Nut, Apricot Cashew, Apple Oatmeal, or Carrot Pineapple. Spread in a jelly roll pan and bake for 35 easy cookie bars.