17 softy recipes

Soft banana oatmeal cookies with orange juice, raisins, and nutmeg, drizzled with a fresh orange icing. Makes 30 pillowy drop cookies that stay tender for days.

Soft Portuguese sweet bread (massa sovada) is an enriched egg and butter loaf with a tender, slightly sweet crumb. A traditional Easter and weekend bread baked into pillowy round loaves.

This was very quick and simple to make and the flavor was wonderful...

Big, soft raisin-oatmeal cookies with peanut butter for tender chew, dark brown sugar for moisture, and a whisper of mace that sets these apart from every other oat cookie. Quarter-cup scoops, no flour required.

Forget rock-hard biscotti that threaten your teeth. This butter-rich Italian cookie bakes up tender enough to eat without dunking, studded with raisins and nuts in every bite.

Vegetarian soft tacos loaded with summer squash, zucchini, corn, black beans, tomatoes, and jalapeño. A fresh southwestern skillet filling in warm corn tortillas, ready in under 20 minutes.

Soft yeast-leavened cookies sweetened with honey and cinnamon, made with multi-blend flour and raisins. Egg-free, dairy-free, and naturally sweetened with a bread-like chew.

Stuffed soft-shell crawfish: Louisiana bayou classic with shells packed full of buttery crawfish-bread stuffing, fried golden, and crowned with rich hollandaise. A full-on Cajun centerpiece.

Soft chocolate chunk cookies with a hidden boost of peanut butter for tenderness, plus chunks of dark chocolate and chopped walnuts in every bite. Baked low and slow for chewy centers.

Froggers are oversized soft molasses cookies from old Nantucket whaling kitchens, spiced with ginger, cloves, nutmeg and allspice, flavoured with dark rum and dotted with raisins. Cut into 4-inch rounds for a proper hand-sized cookie.

Fusilli bucati pasta with sauteed soft shell crabs, Anaheim and jalapeno peppers, white wine, tomato sauce, and wilted escarole. A bold Italian seafood pasta.

Soft Southern cream cookies made with sour cream for a pillowy, cake-like texture. Pressed flat with a cinnamon-sugar coated glass and baked until barely golden.

Grandma's split pea soup with bacon and homemade butter-fried French bread croutons. Simmered until creamy with bits of pea still visible, served with crisp sourdough croutons floated on top.

Crispy cornmeal-fried soft shell crab sandwiches on sourdough with smoky chipotle adobo mayo and a citrus bell pepper slaw. A restaurant-quality seafood sandwich you can make at home.

Norwegian lefser made with rye flour, whole wheat, and all-purpose flour rolled paper-thin and oven-baked until soft. A traditional Scandinavian flatbread with no yeast required.

Moist date cake with chocolate chips and walnuts scattered on top. Chopped dates soaked in boiling water keep the crumb incredibly soft. A vintage sheet cake that's easy to love.