Baking

Elaine O'Toole of Phoenix, Arizona, writes: "This recipe for chocolate cake is a family favorite at our celebrations all year, but especially during the holidays. It's so rich that my sons eat small squares of it as if they were brownies. And since it can be made ahead, it's a great dessert to take to a party."

This simple, rustic cornbread is best used for making stuffing.

This would be a crowd-pleasing addition to breakfast or brunch. The iced tea powder adds an intriguing background flavor.

Jennifer Wickes of Pine Beach, New Jersey, writes: "I grew up in Bermuda learning to make English sweets like these scones. You can adapt the recipe to any season by adding a different mix of berries and nuts. This combination is perfect for fall."

The puffs can be formed and chilled or frozen on baking sheets well ahead of time, then simply popped into the oven.

Watch out, pumpkin pie! This dessert is delicious even without a caloric crust. It's a light and flavorful soufflé consisting mostly of egg whites, a great source of high-quality protein. To further up the health quotient, naturally rich but low-calorie unsweetened soy milk is used in place of whole milk.

These golden-brown cookies sprinkled with flaky sea salt contrast nicely with the sweetness of the glaze on the blancmange .

Tabat Jibneh In Kuwait it's common for women to gather at least twice a week for a couple of hours before lunch. When I lived there, most of the women at these gatherings were not employed outside the home, making these subheys, which means "mornings," a cherished part of our social life. We enjoyed visiting one another and sampling the delicious refreshments that were always an important feature of the get-togethers. Savory pastries, sweets, and coffee were usually served, and there was always an unspoken challenge to come up with uniquely delicious recipes in order to impress one another. Since I love cheese, and especially the combination of cheese and bread, I invented these fragrant cheese-filled rolls to serve at one of our subheys. Tabat Jibneh can be frozen uncooked, right in the pan, for up to 6 weeks. Double-wrap the pan with one layer of plastic wrap and another of heavy-duty aluminum foil. When you are ready to bake them, defrost the rolls in the refrigerator, then bake them in a preheated 425°F oven until they are pale gold, 30 minutes. You can also freeze fully baked Tabat Jibneh, tightly wrapped, for up to 2 weeks.

Easily made with puff pastry, these light, thin apple tarts provide just the right amount of dessert. The skins get added to the syrupy glaze, enhancing the tarts with a bit of sweetness and the faintest blush of pink.

We've made one of America's most famous holiday desserts — pecan pie—even more delicious by adding an unctuous layer of moist caramel, a touch of bittersweet chocolate (to cut the sweetness), and some finely shaved nuts on top.

Nothing beats buttery sweet rolls fresh from the oven—and you get the pleasure of filling your house with their warm, yeasty scent as they bake.

A bite of this flan, fragrant with traditional pumpkin-pie spices, is very comforting despite the dessert's modern looks; a topping of pumpkin seeds, seasoned with cayenne, creates a play of sweet and heat.

As great as the original, but with a lot of crunch, too.

If any cake could be called refreshing, this would be the one. Rich but light, it loses absolutely nothing from the absence of white flour.

When the pumpkin pie is gone, but you've only just begun to get your fill of pumpkin desserts, this bundt will fill the void quite nicely (and the somewhat more assertive spices will welcome the season ahead). Best of all, the flavors continue to develop and the cake tastes even better a few days after it's baked, so it's perfect to have on hand at this time of year, when guests tend to drop in unexpectedly.