Recipe Sifter

Lighter cocoa oatmeal cookies made with egg whites and nonfat yogurt instead of whole eggs and butter. Studded with mini chocolate chips and chewy with 3 cups of quick oats. Makes a whopping 66 cookies.

Fave dolci, Italian almond cookies shaped like fava beans with ground almonds, orange flower water, lemon zest, and cinnamon. A traditional Southern Italian sweet.

Old-fashioned homemade apple pie with a flaky oil crust, McIntosh apples spiced with cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg, and a hot vanilla glaze brushed over while the pie is still warm. The glaze is what sets this version apart.

Bachelor buttons: traditional English shortbread-style cookies made with butter, flour, sugar, and a hint of nutmeg. Tender, pale, walnut-sized teatime classics.

A must on your Christmas cookie tray. Despite the lemony frosting, the cinnamon flavor comes through.

Yogurt chocolate chip cookies with honey and brown sugar for a soft, chewy texture. Plain yogurt replaces some fat for tender cookies with a subtle tang.

Fried rabbit simmered first in salted water with peppercorns and bay leaves until tender, then dredged in flour and pan-fried in butter until golden. A two-step method for crispy, juicy rabbit.

Baci di Dama are Italian "lady's kisses": delicate ground almond cookies with candied orange peel, sandwiched together with melted chocolate. Gluten-light, flourless-forward, and elegant enough for gifting.

Vegan pumpkin cookies are dairy-free, egg-free, and packed with raisins and nuts. Soft, cake-like, warmly spiced with cinnamon, and held together by mashed pumpkin instead of butter or eggs.

Homemade orange honey mustard with dry mustard, apple cider vinegar, honey, and fresh orange zest. Cooked in a double boiler and aged overnight for a bright, tangy condiment.

Banana walnut sandwich cookies filled with a peanut butter cream cheese frosting and a touch of nutmeg. A two-component cookie with soft banana rounds and a creamy, salty-sweet center.

Fat-free cocoa squares with applesauce instead of butter or oil. A hot cocoa-brown sugar sauce poured over the batter before baking creates a gooey, self-saucing chocolate dessert.

Buttery lemon drop cookies glazed with fresh citrus. Tender melt-in-your-mouth texture from egg yolk dough, rolled in sugar and baked until barely golden.

Hearty Hungarian-style cranberry bean soup with kolbasz sausage, thickened with a bacon dripping roux and sour cream. Old-world comfort food that sticks to your ribs.

A milk-based sourdough starter jump-started with yeast: flour, water and yeast left to ferment, then enriched with milk, sugar and flour. Keep it in the fridge and feed it after each use for ongoing baking.

Granny's sourdough starter: a four-ingredient old-fashioned starter that uses commercial yeast as a kickstart, then matures into a true wild starter you feed every ten days.