Recipe Sifter

Double chocolate snack cake made with no eggs or butter, using vinegar and baking soda for lift. Cocoa batter topped with chocolate chips bakes into a fudgy one-bowl treat.

Basic beer bread with just five ingredients and no yeast. Flour, baking powder, beer, and a touch of honey make a dense, flavorful loaf with a crispy golden crust.

Yellow split pea soup simmered with a ham bone, carrots, celery, and thyme for 3 hours until thick and smoky. A hearty, old-fashioned soup that turns a leftover ham bone into a full meal.

Scotch mock apple pie: a Depression-era trick that uses soda crackers, lemon juice, and warm spices to taste exactly like apple pie. No apples required.

Osso bucco with veal knuckle braised in white wine and tomato paste with carrots, celery, garlic, and a lemon-herb flour dredge. Starts in a cold oven for hands-off cooking.

Christmas hazelnut balls rolled in powdered sugar, a buttery shortbread-style cookie with ground hazelnuts and vanilla. No eggs needed, melt-in-your-mouth tender.

Vegetarian bulgur and walnut loaf packs nutty grains, mushrooms, mashed carrots, and toasted walnuts into a sliceable savory loaf. A hearty meatless main with deep umami from tamari and a tender, nubby texture.

Oven-barbecued turkey legs dredged in chili-spiced flour, seared golden, then braised low and slow in barbecue sauce with chicken bouillon. Fall-off-the-bone tender in 2 hours.

Traditional New Mexican fry bread made with just 5 pantry ingredients. Simple dough kneaded smooth, rolled thin, and deep-fried golden in minutes. Serve with honey.

Zesty chili seasoning mix, a make-ahead blend of chili powder, cumin, garlic, onion, and red pepper flakes with a little flour to thicken. Skip the packet and season a pot of chili from scratch.

Basic pastry pie crust: four-ingredient single crust from flour, salt, vegetable shortening, and cold water. The simplest flaky pastry to master for homemade pies and tarts.

Philadelphia-style soft pretzels with a chewy, dense bread interior and a glossy egg-washed crust crusted with coarse salt. Four ingredients, baked in a hot oven for street-cart authenticity at home.

Single-crust pastry pie shell with margarine, blind-baked at high heat until golden in 10 minutes. A basic flaky pastry that works as a base for cream pies, custards, and fruit fillings.

Lower calorie pie shell with less shortening than traditional crusts. Three simple ingredients, one hour chill, and a flaky crust for any pie recipe.

Traditional Panforte di Siena with toasted almonds, hazelnuts, candied orange peel, citron, cocoa, and honey syrup cooked to soft ball stage. A dense Italian Christmas confection.

Southern-style fried rabbit with onions and pan gravy. Flour-dredged rabbit pieces browned in oil, then simmered in a simple flour gravy until tender and saucy.