Baking

These easy refrigerator cookies are great to have on hand. Chill or freeze the dough, then just slice some off and bake when you want cookies.

You'll need two dozen lemon leaves or camellia leaves to make the chocolate decoration. If you don't have unsprayed leaves from your own or a friend's garden, get them from a florist.

Top off this easy-to-make dessert with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Named for the "muddy" Mississippi River, this is a dark and rich chocolate cake.

This tart has an unusual cake-like texture.

These cookies are also good on their own.

These cakes are actually better made ahead. They become richer and fudgier one to two days after baking.

"There's a terrific place called Grand Central Cafe and Bakery in Portland, Oregon. I tried their Jammers, which are luscious buttermilk biscuits filled with jam," says Lori Stiffler of Butte, Montana. These home-style biscuits look like giant thumbprint cookies. Freezing the dry ingredients contributes to the biscuits' flakiness.

This dessert is simple and delicious, especially when made with very ripe strawberries and thick Devonshire cream. Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 3 hr

Begin making these one day ahead. The dough is much easier to roll out when chilled, and the buns hold their shape better when formed with cold dough.

To create the dome shape, bake this flourless chocolate cake in a foil-lined bowl. The cake is crusty outside with a tender center: rich, fudgy and irresistible. And it's a great addition to your holiday table.

This delicious dessert uses the Easy Pie Crust .

This recipe, adapted from The Viennese Pastry Cookbook: From Vienna with Love, by Lilly Joss Reich, requires a Rehrucken mold—a loaf pan with a rounded, ridged bottom.

These cookies from the town of Prato are also known as cantucci. They are usually served with the Italian dessert wine Vin Santo.

This dough can also be formed into crescent shapes and coated with confectioners' sugar while still warm, as is done in many eastern European countries.

When I eat Bread Pudding Soufflé I always think of the Commander's saying, "If it ain't broke, fix it anyway." Bread pudding was already near perfection, but we combined Creole bread pudding with the light texture of a meringue and ended up with the restaurant's signature dessert, the single most sought-after dish in our family's restaurant history. The whiskey sauce itself is divine but particularly so when generously poured over the piping hot soufflé. Take it from me, this is no light dessert. Make the bread pudding and the sauce in advance, the meringue just before assembling and baking.