Cinnamon

Consider these "beauty" bites: They offer up 26 percent of your daily dose of vitamin A, which keeps skin and hair healthy.

In the early 1990s we hired a chef who loved to bake, and he came up with this pie. It became an instant classic. The fruit is only lightly sweetened, and its tartness combined with the sugar-crumb topping is a perfect pairing. Served warm with vanilla ice cream, it's heavenly. If you use frozen berries, increase them by 1/2 cup each and defrost slightly before tossing with the other ingredients.

Bodino Stifado Me Praso Braises like this are perfect for meat with tough muscle tissue and tendons (which come from the part of the animal that works hard), a great example of poverty cooking. This less expensive cut of meat develops its own natural and luscious sauce as it cooks. You want a little marbling in the meat, because it melts down as you cook and adds a lot of flavor to the sauce. You can use brisket, shanks, shoulder—all fairly tough meats—but save the filet mignon for the grill or a pan. It takes a little time to cook and become tender, but it's a relatively easy setup, and once you get it onto the stove you don't have to worry about it for about an hour. So you can do your laundry, or walk the dog, or make a salad. A couple of days later, if you have any leftovers, you can shred the meat, then return the meat to the sauce and add your favorite pasta. The resulting dish is a Greek version of beef Stroganoff. The herbs are very important to the flavor development here, since I'm using water instead of stock, so use fresh herbs if possible.

The buttery, nutty cookies are dusted with powdered sugar while they're still warm from the oven.

A silky-smooth panna cotta with the tang of buttermilk, this dessert is wonderfully easy to pull off. Any leftover sauce would be great spooned over ice cream.

A towering dessert on the holiday sideboard always gets attention. And the oohs and aahs will only get louder when you cut in to reveal its moist crumb dotted with ruby-red cranberries and topaz-colored pear. Its scent of vanilla and spices is very inviting, while the brown sugar and cinnamon glaze is, of course, the icing on the cake.

Have you ever visited the marketplace of Jerusalem and noticed small wooden imprinted molds with handles? To be sure, the merchant is hard put to explain their significance. They are ma'amoul molds. Ma'amoul means "filled" in Arabic, and these molds make filled cookies eaten by Jews and Arabs throughout the Middle East, especially in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. A piece of short-pastry dough the size of a walnut is pressed into the crevices of the ma'amoul mold. A tablespoon of date or nut filling is inserted, and you close the pastry with your fingers. Holding the handle of the wooden mold, you slam it on the table, letting the enclosed dough fall out. On the top of the cookie is a lovely design. After baking and rolling in confectioners' sugar, the design stands out even more. Of course, the ma'amoul mold is not necessary to the preparation of these sweets, though it certainly adds to their beauty. The tines of a fork, tweezers with a serrated edge, or a tool of your own devising will do quite well. The following ma'amoul recipe came from Aleppo to the Syrian Jewish community on Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn. These cookies are served at Purim. A similar cookie, called karabij here (nataife in Syria), topped with marshmallow fluff, is also served at Purim. Arasibajweh—rolled cookies from the same dough and stuffed with dates—are served at the New Year or Hanukkah.

If it makes sense sometimes to eat breakfast for dinner, why not breakfast for dessert? These pancakes are perfect for the fall, when apples are in season and gingerbread spices are on the mind. My apple of choice is the Golden Delicious because when cooked, it becomes honeyed and intense, but you can use any apple that holds its shape. Don't try this with McIntosh; they disintegrate into mush.

When layered with tender, brandy-spiked pears and a fluffy maple-flavored frosting, spice cake sheds its old-fashioned modesty, becoming impressive enough for any Thanksgiving sideboard. While it will surely satisfy the cake fans at your holiday gathering, it just might tempt a few diehard pie lovers, as well.

Brown sugar adds a deep, rich flavor to the soft filling. The nutty, slightly salty topping is the perfect finishing touch.

Fragrant persimmons star in this new take on the classic British cake.

Many teething biscuits crumble and break too easily. These are a little sturdier and safer for baby to eat.

Turkey is a paradise for street-food fans, and when Feniger travels there, she especially loves nibbling on the airy doughnuts soaked in syrup that are offered by many vendors. She made them her own by lacing a basic cream-puff dough with cardamom and cinnamon. Dried rose hips steeped in the syrup add a little texture and tartness to the sticky, fragrant bites.

Enjoyed by millions in India, masala chai, a spiced, sweetened black tea mixed with milk, is now popular around the world. It is sold all over India by chai wallahs, or tea vendors, who pour the tea from big kettles into small cups. Americans have incorrectly shortened the name to chai (which means simply "milk tea"); masala refers to the combination of spices, which often includes cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pepper, fennel, and star anise. Although there are many chai blends available in supermarkets, making your own is quick and satisfying, and the results are much better.

These moist, tender treats are a cross between a cookie and a cake. They're delicious plain, but also make nice ice cream sandwiches.

It's not a real party without chocolate! Savor this sweet treat and you'll get 20 percent of your daily calcium.

Although this is a chilled beverage, it is traditionally enjoyed in the winter. The "fire" of the cinnamon and ginger is supposed to warm you up, while the coolness of the beverage balances the heat. Not being much of a traditionalist, I like to make it during the summer and keep pitchers of it available as an alternative to iced tea.

Ma'Dear, my maternal grandmother, would sun-brew gallon jars full of Sweet Goodness on sweltering hot summer days. Recollections of those containers full of cinnamon-colored tea sitting on her back porch bring back sweet memories of simpler days. This version will satisfy the snootiest of Sweet Tea connoisseurs (read: my mom) and won't give drinkers an insulin spike since it is sweetened with agave nectar.

As befitting a diner dessert, this ice cream is thick and rich and perfectly accents the apple tartlet. Cinnamon ice cream generally falls into three categories: infused via cinnamon sticks during the milk warming; ground cinnamon added during the milk warming; and ground cinnamon added at the very end. You can't get a real cinnamony flavor from the sticks alone, and adding ground cinnamon too early makes for a very strange texture. The third option lends a nice flavor and texture and leaves the custard pleasantly speckled.