Recipe Sifter

Braided yeast bread wreath filled with dates, walnuts, bran flakes, and cinnamon, topped with vanilla confectioner's sugar frosting. A stunning holiday bread that's worth the rise time.

Fruit basket cookies packed with candied cherries, dates, dried apricots, golden raisins, pecans, and walnuts in a brown sugar butter dough. A chewy, fruited holiday cookie.

Fruit tortilla pizza with a blended ricotta-cottage cheese spread, mixed berries, brown sugar, and cinnamon on crispy flour tortillas. A light, low-fat dessert ready in 20 minutes.

Chocolate peanut butter cookies loaded with peanut butter chips and chopped peanuts. A fudgy cocoa dough with a double dose of peanut crunch in every bite, baked in under 10 minutes.

Fudge pudding cake that bakes into two layers: chocolate cake on top and a rich fudge sauce on the bottom. A self-saucing dessert with walnuts and real chocolate.

Giant double chocolate chip cookies with melted chocolate in the dough plus whole chips folded in, sour cream for fudgy centers, and chopped walnuts. Bakery-sized at 3 inches.

Broiled pineapple is a tasty alternative to a traditional bed of rice or pasta.

Ginger walnut drop biscuits with fresh ginger root puree, brown sugar, and finely chopped walnuts in a buttery biscuit dough. A warmly spiced, no-rolling biscuit baked golden in 17 minutes.

Ginger-macadamia brownies with unsweetened chocolate, buttery Hawaiian macadamias, and bright bursts of crystallized ginger. Rich, chewy, and one overnight rest from peak fudge.

Gingerbread house cake: a warmly spiced two-layer gingerbread cake filled with cream cheese frosting and candy, then decorated like a gingerbread house. All the festive fun without the structural engineering.

Ginger-glazed ribs baked low and slow in a Dutch oven with a sweet-tangy sauce of brown sugar, ketchup, vinegar, and Italian dressing mix. Basted every 30 minutes for sticky, fall-off-the-bone results.

Golden Harvest beef brisket braised with yams, carrots, apples, and potatoes, finished with mandarin orange glaze. One-pot autumn Sunday dinner that feeds six.

Old-fashioned brown sugar roll-and-cut cookies with shortening, cream of tartar, and vanilla. A simple heritage recipe that makes four dozen crispy-edged cookies.

Sweet and tart with the perfect flake-to-crunch ratio. It's all about the butter pats.

From-scratch pumpkin pie with fresh or canned pumpkin, dark brown sugar, molasses, raisins, and toasted pecans. Richer and more complex than the back-of-the-can version.

30-minute vegetarian chili with kidney beans, jalapeño, and bulgur for a meaty texture without meat. Ready in 30 minutes, served with yogurt, scallions, and cilantro.