6 wafer recipes

Vanilla wafer walnut rum balls combine crushed cookies, ground walnuts, honey, and golden rum into bite-sized no-bake holiday treats rolled in powdered sugar. Five-ingredient Christmas classic.

Old-fashioned cold water cake with muscat raisins, warm spices, and no eggs or butter. A Depression-era boiled raisin cake that bakes up dense, spiced, and deeply satisfying.

Classic tabbouleh salad with bulgur wheat, fresh tomatoes, cucumber, mint, parsley, and a lemon-olive oil dressing. A no-cook Middle Eastern grain salad that improves as it chills.

Ice-water pickles: quartered cucumbers chilled in ice water, packed over onions, and covered with a boiling apple cider vinegar and mustard seed brine. Sweet, crisp, classic refrigerator pickles.

Old-fashioned Christmas fruit cake with boiled raisins, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. No eggs or butter needed, just cold water and shortening for a dense, spiced holiday cake.

Mix flour, salt, sugar, and starchy potato water in a crock, then let wild yeasts work their magic over several days for a rustic sourdough starter with earthy depth.