Holidays recipes

Chocolate thumbprint cookies filled with orange-tinted icing and a tiny green stem, shaped to look like miniature pumpkins. A festive Halloween cookie recipe the whole family can decorate together.

Fudgy bat cookies turn chocolate wafer cookies into Halloween treats shaped like flying bats with milk chocolate candy melts. A no-bake project for kids and party trays.

Swedish Christmas ham (julskinka) roasted low and slow, then glazed with egg yolk, sugar, mustard, and bread crumbs and browned until golden. Served cold in thin slices.

Cream cheese snowflake cookies with lemon zest, topped with powdered sugar icing and edible glitter. Delicate, buttery Christmas cutout cookies that sparkle.

Halloween cookies built on a classic chocolate cocoa drop dough: butter, sugar, eggs, and cocoa powder make a tender base ready for spooky frosting, sprinkles, or candy eyes.

Low-calorie pumpkin pie with a crunchy cornflake crust and a creamy butterscotch pudding filling. No-bake filling made with dietetic pudding, pumpkin, and nonfat milk.

Halloween fig spooks cupcakes built from cake mix studded with chopped figs, topped with a whole dried fig and draped in white buttercream icing for little ghost-shaped treats.

Classic prune and raisin hamentachen filling with chopped nuts and whole orange (rind included) for citrus brightness. Traditional Purim cookie filling pulsed in the food processor.

Halloween ghost cookies dipped in white vanilla coating with mini chocolate chip eyes. Three-ingredient no-bake cookie trick that turns store-bought peanut butter cookies into spooky party treats.

Jack-o'-lantern cake: a lemon-scented butter cake wrapped in homemade orange fondant with a black pumpkin face. A showstopper Halloween centerpiece, no special tins required.

Cocoa sponge cake hearts cut from a sheet pan, dusted with powdered sugar, and plated with pools of raspberry sauce and chocolate syrup. A stunning Valentine's Day or special occasion dessert for 8.

Simple pimples: a two-ingredient Halloween snack of cored cherry tomatoes squeezed to ooze cream cheese. Kid-friendly, gross-cute, and ready in 10 minutes with no cooking required.

An easy 2-ingredient Halloween punch: orange juice and lemon-lime soda for a fizzy, spooky-orange party drink. Kid-friendly, ready in minutes, and a blank slate for ghoulish garnishes.

Creepy cheese-stuffed rigatoni shaped into slithering snakes with BBQ sauce markings and peppercorn eyes. A kid-friendly Halloween party snack that's equal parts gross and genius.

Old-Fashioned butterscotch meringue pie recipe. A creamy and rich homemade butterscotch pudding filling topped with airy mile-high meringue.

A Halloween Waldorf salad shaped like a werewolf with carrot fangs, alfalfa sprout fur, and radish eyeballs. Crisp apples, walnuts, and raisins in a creamy dressing kids love.