Hazelnut

Great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

A mug of hot chocolate or a glass of milk would complement these updated, sophisticated chocolate chip cookies.

This is a variant on lemon surprise pudding, in which the mixture divides on cooking to produce a sponge above the thick lemony sauce which forms below. Indeed, it is known in my house as Lemon Surprise Pudding, the surprise being that it's chocolate. Although I didn't actually eat this as a child, it is heady with reminders of childhood foods: the hazelnuts in the sponge bring back memories of Nutella, the thick, dark, fudgy sauce of chocolate spread. The proportions below are geared towards 6, but easily feed 8. It's heavenly with fridge-cold heavy cream poured over it. It is also child's play to make. Choose good cocoa and good chocolate and stick carefully to the exact measurements. (You can, though, use 1 2/3 cups flour in place of the 1 1/4 cups flour and 1/2 cup ground nuts, if you prefer increasing the amount of baking powder needed to 1 1/2 teaspoons.) Use one of those standard white soufflé dishes 8 inches in diameter, or a shallow square 12-inch pan. If you've got only a single oven, it makes sense to use the shallow dish: it will take less time to cook.

If you spend one afternoon in the kitchen, there will be cookies for everyone on your list. You'll need at least a four-quart bowl to mix the large amount of dough.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

For the crispiest cookies, slice the dough no thicker than a half inch. The biscotti keep well and look great wrapped in tinted cellophane tied with a silk ribbon or raffia, or packed into pretty holiday bags.

Gianduia is a classic Italian combination of chocolate and hazelnuts. If you can't find foil candy cups, buy twice as many paper ones and use two (one inside the other) per candy. (Doubling the paper cups makes a sturdier form.) Arrange the confections in holiday tins, or place on decorative trays, wrap in cellophane and tie with gold ribbons.

Alice Waters, who opened Chez Panisse in 1971, took salads to new heights with unusual, farm-fresh greens; she also popularized the use of goat cheese, which was being made by Laura Chenel not far from the Berkeley restaurant. Those ingredients come together in this delicious salad.

This recipe gives everyone a mini cobbler.

A rich chocolate-raspberry truffle filling highlights this updated Linzertorte.

Chocolate ganache and hazelnut cream are encased in a tender nut cake.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Though detested on lawns, dandelions are now cultivated commercially and are widely available at farmers markets and supermarkets. Great additions to this salad are red onion and shaved Parmesan.

(Panforte Di Siena) "Panforte" translates as "strong bread," reflecting the cake's dense, chewy texture.

Few cookies are easier to make or more sublime to eat. I created them for my beautiful Hungarian mom, who called them finum, or refined. Sometimes we eat them with a strong cup of coffee as we play Scrabble, or after dinner, with a slightly chilled glass of sweet Tokay wine.