Christmas

This is a festive entrée for a holiday dinner. The aromatic vegetable stock is made right in the baking dish as the fennel cooks, and then turned into a rich sauce. The trick to carving out the fennel bulbs is to leave the sturdy outer layers intact, no less than 1/2 inch thick, or the bulbs can fall apart. If you like, you can mince half of the fennel scraps and add them to the filling. If you can’t find chestnuts, substitute toasted walnuts. Serve with a light, fluffy grain like rice or quinoa.

Meme made a paste of mustard, brown sugar, and sometimes Coca-Cola when she baked a ham. She baked it in a heatproof oven bag to avoid having a messy pan to scrub. Adding bourbon, which I use here, would have never crossed her mind. Only when she baked fruitcake was she anywhere near a bottle of bourbon. She and her neighbor, Cousin Eunice, would drive to the liquor store every November to acquire the spirits for the holiday baking—she would have never gone by herself.

This is a flavorful variation on the timeless pineapple upside-down cake. Here dried apricots are used, but the cake can be made with a variety of dried or preserved fruits with equally good results. It’s excellent topped with a dollop of whipped cream, ice cream, or creamy Greek-style yogurt.

Posole is both an ingredient and a dish. The ingredient is dried field corn soaked in lye or wood ashes in order to loosen the thick skin and make it easier to remove the kernel. It is the primary ingredient in the dish posole, which is a Mexican and southwestern favorite for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day. Posole can be made with either red or green chiles. Canned kernels, known as hominy, can be used, but dried posole stands up the best in the slow cooker. Serve with warm, fresh corn tortillas.

My grandmother used to make these easy cookies for us all the time. They are chocolaty, chewy little bites that taste a lot like brownies. (That would probably be why they are called brownie bites.) You may want to think about making a double batch, because they seem to disappear quickly.

This is a superb date dish because all of the prep can be done and the mess cleaned up long before your date arrives. Then just bake and serve. We use pork tenderloin because it is all dark meat and it stays moist even if it’s a little overcooked. With this classic combination of pork, apples, and sweet potatoes, even the most inexperienced cook can look like a pro.

These mint disks are adapted from a recipe passed on to me by Elizabeth Falkner, the owner of San Francisco’s deservedly popular Citizen Cake bakery. The mixture is simple to put together, and you can adjust the mint flavor to your liking. Taste a bit and add more if you wish, as mint extracts and oils vary. I make my Peppermint Patties very minty, which is especially important when they’re crumbled into deep, dark chocolate ice cream, a combination I call “The Girl Scout Cookie Effect.”

Fortunately, I once worked with pastry chef Mary Canales. Unfortunately, our time together lasted merely a few hours. I was ending my tenure at Chez Panisse, and she was just beginning hers. But I liked her instantly, and we kept in touch. Years later, she decided to open an ice cream shop, Ici, in Berkeley, and I was thrilled when her ice creams became legendary in the Bay Area. Here’s the most popular flavor from her vast repertoire. Panforte is a Italian cake, a Tuscan specialty that’s so dense and delicious that it’s practically a confection. And like the best panforte, Mary’s ice cream has the perfect balance of spices, toasted almonds, and candied orange peel.

If you need to liven things up around your holiday table, this tipsy ice cream will do the trick. Warm apple crisp, cranberry upside-down cake, or the ever-popular pumpkin pie—all are improved with a sidecar of this frozen version of eggnog. This will definitely make those obligatory family get-togethers a bit less traumatic…which I offer on very good authority. The simplest way to measure freshly grated nutmeg, which is the only kind you should use, is to fold a sheet of paper in half, reopen it, and grate the nutmeg over the paper. Then fold the paper again to direct the nutmeg into the measuring spoon.

Sabayon is the French version of Italian zabaglione, an airy egg-and-wine custard. It requires a certain amount of energy—and strength—to whip up a batch. If you’ve ever heard a frenzy of whisking coming from the kitchen at an Italian restaurant, you’ve heard why many Italian cooks (especially the sturdy grandmas) have such well-developed arms. But one lick of the boozy, frothy dessert is enough to make you forget those few furious minutes of whipping. If you don’t think you’re up to the task, you can use an electric handheld mixer. But I always feel that if I’ve worked hard to make something, I’ve earned the right to eat it. You can serve the sabayon hot from the stove, although here, it is cooled and whipped cream is added so it can be held before serving.

It was a happy day when an enterprising midwesterner decided that the surplus of sour cherries could be dried instead of left neglected on the trees. And thus, one of my favorite baking ingredients was born. But this recipe is eminently adaptable and you can use any kind of dried fruit or toasted nuts that suits you. Diced apricot pieces and cranberries, walnuts and toasted pecans, and roasted cocoa nibs have all found their way into various batches of this bark. I even got really crazy once and crumbled candied bacon into a batch. That one met with a few raised eyebrows, but was gobbled up by all.

I made a fool of myself when I met Claudia Fleming, who was for many years a noted pastry chef in New York City. But I couldn’t help myself—I flipped out whenever I tasted her desserts. Her multiflavored combinations managed to perfectly balance familiar, everyday ingredients with sophisticated presentations. Every time I ran into her, I’d gush about how wonderful her desserts were as I watched her slowly backing away from this clearly unbalanced fan. I was always intrigued by her combination of gingerbread with rich, malty stout and was inspired to create a cupcake using the same blend of flavors. I add a bright-tasting lime frosting which complements the spicy cake. If you make these, you’re likely to have a few deranged fans, too. Consider yourself warned.

To boost the reputation of the much-maligned fruitcake, I wanted to create a version quite different from those sticky, oversweet loaves riddled with iridescent fruit and soggy pecans. This recipe was my answer: an exceptionally moist loaf, chockablock with freshly toasted nuts, perky dried cherries, and a double wallop of chocolate flavor, courtesy of cocoa powder and lots of chocolate chips. I was glad that my modern-tasting fruitcake made converts out of those who tried it. But I didn’t expect that so many would want to give it a traditional soaking of spirits to preserve the cake. I set to work and experimented a few times, but I had a hunch that something was amiss when I noticed some movement underneath the gauze wrapping. I unwrapped the cake and . . . well, let’s just say I discovered I was only one of the many creatures who enjoy this fruitcake. That was the end of my experiments. Instead, I just use kirsch-flavored glaze that can be added at the last minute.

Chocolate lovers, rejoice! Finally, a gourmet chocolate truffle that’s sugar-free and not artificially sweetened. These are so easy to make, you may never buy store-bought chocolate again. For a plain, unadulterated chocolate truffle, omit the hazelnut extract and roll the truffles in premium-quality unsweetened cocoa powder. For vegan truffles, substitute soy creamer for the heavy cream, butter substitute for real butter, and instant soy milk powder for the nonfat dry milk.

This is an all-time favorite recipe from my cooking classes. A trip to Paris inspired me to experiment more with prunes, and chocolate seemed like the perfect pairing. I think a good PR person could do a world of good for prunes! In spite of their somewhat dowdy reputation, prunes have a sophisticated taste that makes them an interesting recipe ingredient.

This low-fat vegan cake is incredibly delicious served warm from the oven and topped with a cool lemon tofu crème. Using fresh ginger makes a great difference in its taste. I prefer this cake without the nuts and raisins, but others enjoy the texture and sweetness they add. Either way, this flavorful cake is sure to become a favorite of yours

This is a great cookie for children with gluten sensitivity. Using my daughter, her friends, and her baby-sitters as my most critical testers proved these cookies will definitely be a holiday tradition at my house. The best thing is, you can freeze part of the dough, unbaked, for later use. Just defrost in the refrigerator, roll out, and bake according to the directions for a wonderful spicy-sweet treat any time of year. If the kids, and maybe the adults, are clamoring for gingerbread people, you can add eyes, nose, and buttons by pressing raisins or currants gently into the dough before baking.

These chewy gingerbread cookies contain half the fat of most traditional gingerbread recipes, have no cholesterol, and swap out the sugar for agave nectar and molasses. But do they sacrifice on flavor? No way! My boys say, “They’re better than great!”

Subtly sweet and ultra-crispy, these twice-baked Italian cookies are an all-purpose treat. Great for dipping, dunking, or just plain snacking, they’re wonderful to have on hand any time of day. I like mine dunked in tea, and my kids like theirs partnered with vegan ice cream.

Pretty and elegant, these cookies will make your mouth water, and they’re fun to make! Kids love sticking their thumb in the middle of the cookies, and filling the mini pool with creamy delicious chocolate. See below for a fruity variation.