Baking

This buttery crust can be used for sweet or savory dishes, baked in either a pie pan or a fluted French tart pan with a removable bottom. This recipe will make a crust for a 9-inch pie or tart.

The almost lemony, tart taste of sorrel is very pleasing with the sweet stewed onions. Even a small amount of sorrel will transform the character of what would otherwise be a more predictable onion pie. Though expensive to buy, sorrel is easy to grow. Plants can be bought in nurseries, put in the ground and harvested leaf-by-leaf for several years. It would be worth having a few plants to be able to make this tart in a regular basis.

You'll be cackling with delight as you roll bread dough into these shockingly realistic gnarled fingers. Turn them into the centerpiece of a Halloween party.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. These cookies are delicious fresh from the oven, but to amplify the ginger flavor, allow the cookies to cool completely before eating. Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips can be used in lieu of both, and walnuts and other add-ins can be substituted for the candied ginger.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. This recipe is loosely adapted from an old Martha Stewart recipe. If you can't find blanched hazelnuts, toast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet in the middle of a 350°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes or just until the skins start to blister, then wrap them in a kitchen towel, and let steam for 1 minute. Rub the nuts in the towel to loosen and remove the skins.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. This is loosely adapted from an old recipe that originally appeared in The New York Times. It calls for vanilla sugar, a blend of confectioners' sugar and the seeds from a vanilla bean. The mixture keeps indefinitely and is wonderful sprinkled over French toast or berries.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. Making pralines always involves a bit of trial and error, as sugar is finicky. Some people swear that these treats will set up only on a cool, dry day, while others have had success no matter what the temperature. Be sure to have all your ingredients measured and at the ready as the sugar mixture's temperature fluctuates rather quickly, so you'll need to be prepared for each step. Ask a friend to help scoop the hot mixture onto wax paper as you keep stirring the pot. For a more pronounced molasses flavor, substitute brown sugar for 1 cup of the white variety.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. This is a classic old-school Christmas recipe from my grandmother, Ethel Hughes Johnston, which uses candied fruit and coconut. If you can't find green candied cherries, you can get by with just red ones. They'll still look festive.

Here we go back to New Orleans again, with Bourbon Street flair. Southern bourbon-soaked brioche bread makes a hearty Creole-style dessert.

Apple crisp is one of those desserts that will never, ever go out of style. Easier than pie—no pastry dough to make and roll out—it delivers the warm, juicy apple love you yearn for the minute you see piles of the shiny orbs at local farmers' markets. This crisp deftly manages to capture the flavor of candied apples under a nutty, buttery crumble.

After sampling hundreds of brownies in the Gourmet magazine test kitchens, along with baking countless more at home (my first was from the cult classic Betty Crocker's Cook Book for Boys and Girls), I feel qualified to declare my pride in this brownie. It's old-fashioned in its use of unsweetened chocolate, yet the addition of cocoa takes it to the deeper, darker chocolate place we crave these days. Not everyone loves nuts in their brownie, but without them, brownies seem more like dense squares of chocolate cake. When you do the done test, the toothpick comes out clean—no dilemmas over the moistness of the crumbs clinging to the pick—yet when you cut the brownies into pieces, you'll slice through the requisite thin crust to reveal super-moist and fudgy goodness. Editors' Note: Kemp Minifie reimagined the foil tray frozen dinner for Gourmet Live. Her updated menu includes: meatloaf made from grass-fed beef, scalloped potatoes, lemony green veggies, and your new favorite brownies for dessert.

Use any combination of red or black grapes to achieve a deep purple color.

An elegant twist on the pineapple classic. You can use any kind of pear you'd like.

This delicate cheesecake is cooked in a water bath and steamed for a supremely light texture. To make sure the homemade-gingersnap-cookie crust stays crisp, wrap the cake pan inside and out with heavy-duty, 18"-wide aluminum foil.

The big flavors of Mark Overbay's artisanal Big Spoon Roasters nut butters inspired his partner, Megan Lynam, to create this instant favorite. The complex nuttiness comes from the addition of ground pecans to the mix.

Fresh compote replaces cream-and-egg-laden pie filling.

Tangy buttermilk and fresh lemon juice balance the sweetness in this custardy Southern pie.

A great all-purpose biscuit recipe.

This rustic tart, filled with toasted pistachios, hazelnuts, and pine nuts, is a wonderful take on pecan pie.

If you manage to have any leftovers, this moist spice cake makes a nice afternoon treat with a cup of tea. For an extra-tart garnish, serve with Citrus-Cranberry Compote .