Recipe Sifter

This recipe is a tradition in my husband's Swedish family. It makes enough cookies to feed the Swedish Army.

Mexican wedding cookies (polvorones): tender almond shortbread balls baked low and slow, then rolled twice in powdered sugar for that signature snowy coating. Melt-in-your-mouth holiday classics.

Caramel pecan pie with homemade caramel pastry cream, chopped pecans, and a golden meringue topping. Old-school holiday Southern pie tradition.

No-bake chocolate mint torte with a chocolate cookie crumb crust and a silky chocolate-peppermint filling lightened with whipped cream. A dinner-party finisher that chills 3 hours and slices like silk.

Sweet potato pie blends mashed sweet potatoes with butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, eggs, and evaporated milk into two pies. Southern Thanksgiving classic.

Tender white layer cake stuffed with citrusy orange-coconut filling and crowned with fluffy boiled frosting. A Southern classic that's pure sunshine on a plate.

Dense, moist apple cake packed with dates, walnuts, and golden raisins. Oil-based batter loaded with fruit and spice bakes into a pudding-like texture in a 13x9 pan.

Fluffy oat pancakes studded with grated apple and cinnamon. The oats add hearty texture while fresh apple keeps them moist. Make them with milk or apple juice for natural sweetness.

Cream cheese dough rolled with apricot preserves and walnuts, sliced into crescent-shaped cookies and baked until golden.

An autumn cheesecake with cinnamon graham cracker crust, creamy vanilla cheesecake center, and a topping of cinnamon-sugar apples and toasted pecans. The flavors of apple pie meet New York cheesecake.

Mini cherry cheesecakes with vanilla wafer crusts and homemade tart cherry topping. Single-serving cream cheese desserts baked in muffin cups, ready for any party tray.

Pig cake, a Southern church-supper classic with mandarin orange cake layers and a fluffy pineapple cream cheese frosting. Three-layer pastel pretty, ready for potlucks and reunions.

Homemade pineapple upside-down cake from scratch with butter, mace-spiced vanilla batter, and caramelized crushed pineapple topping. Tender crumb meets sticky-sweet fruit in every bite.

Two-layer banana cake with whole wheat pastry flour, filled and topped with vanilla Bavarian cream and fresh banana slices. A lighter, more elegant take on classic banana cream pie.

Homemade fig newtons with a chewy brown-sugar cookie wrapped around real fig jam cooked with lemon. The classic lunchbox cookie made fresh, no preservatives required.

Elegant crescent-shaped chocolate cookies made with cocoa, walnuts, and butter, blended in a food processor and baked low and slow. Six ingredients, twelve moons, zero stress.