Recipe Sifter

Fluffy vanilla meringue tops a tangy lemon-spiked applesauce custard for a light, elegant dessert that's equally good hot or cold.

Fallen chocolate souffle cake: a dense, fudgy flourless-style cake of bittersweet chocolate, almond, and egg whites that puffs then collapses into a crackled top. An elegant, almost gluten-free dessert.

Virginia Lane of Cudahy secured this recipe, with its nice complexity of flavors, in the late '50s or '60s when she lived in Iran.

A silky, boozy chiffon pie with a half cup of cognac folded into whipped cream and egg yolk custard, set in a graham cracker crust and garnished with shaved chocolate.

Nusskipferl are Austrian yeast-leavened crescent cookies filled with sweet ground nut meringue. A traditional Viennese coffeehouse pastry rolled jelly-roll style and curved into delicate horns.

Vietnamese sesame cookies (bánh mè) with toasted sesame both ground into the dough and pressed onto the tops. Crisp, nutty, and sealed with an egg-wash gloss.

Orangesicle pie layers a creamy orange custard over a graham cracker crust, finished with a sweetened cream cheese topping. Tastes like a frozen orange creamsicle in pie form.

Classic dark rum chiffon pie set with gelatin in a cinnamon graham cracker crust, topped with grated unsweetened chocolate. A no-bake retro dessert with bold rum flavor and silky mousse texture.

New Hampshire maple syrup pie with a silky maple custard filling and a maple-sweetened meringue topping browned until golden. A classic New England dessert that lets real maple syrup shine.

Elegant apple dessert bars with flaky pastry base, apricot jam layer, and Brazil nut-raisin topping served warm with whipped cream for special occasions.

Pumpkin cream cheese pie in a graham cracker crust with lemon and orange zest, topped with vanilla sour cream. A cheesecake-pumpkin pie hybrid chilled overnight.

Spaghetti tossed in a from-scratch cream sauce with nutmeg, Marsala wine, and Parmesan, loaded with flaked tuna, sliced mushrooms, and green pepper, then baked until bubbly. Classic tuna tetrazzini the way it was meant to be made.

Creole remoulade sauce with mayonnaise, sieved egg yolks, Creole mustard, paprika, chervil, and hot sauce. No-cook, mix-and-chill, bold Louisiana flavor.

Frankfurter Kranz is a classic German crown cake with three rum-soaked sponge layers, silky butter-cream filling, and a crunchy almond praline coating finished with apricot glaze.

Nusskipferl are Austrian nut crescent cookies made with a buttery sour cream yeast dough rolled around a sweet ground almond and egg white filling, baked golden.

Lemon icebox cookies with cornmeal and cardamom, sliced from a chilled log and baked golden, finished with tart lemon icing and chopped pistachios. Makes 6 dozen.