Pecan Cream Pie

Bake an unforgettable dessert this Thanksgiving: Pecan cream pie layers a buttery nut-filled base with brown sugar custard, a flaky crust, and whipped cream.

Stone Fruit Caprese

A standout caprese starts with great fruit. You need ripe tomatoes to weep juices, which then mingle with grassy olive oil and milky cheese to make your dressing. Basil adds freshness, black pepper and flakes of sea salt add crunch, and that’s it, a perfect combination. But if the stone fruit options are looking better than the tomatoes at the market, you can use them instead. They’re similar in flavor to tomatoes, but need cajoling to relinquish their juices. By letting sliced fruit macerate with salt, sugar and lemon juice, their fruitiness becomes more electric and their juices pool on the plate. Start with fruit you can smell and pair it with equally quality ingredients. Caprese is more about shopping than cooking.

20 min

Italian Ricotta Cookies

Jessica Hulett’s tender, cakey ricotta cookies taste like the white part of the best black and white cookie you've ever had. The recipe comes from Ms. Hulett’s grandmother Dorie, who used to flavor the cookies with anise, if she used flavoring at all. Adding lemon zest gives the cookies a fragrant brightness. We approve.

1 hr

Classic Caprese Salad

This classic summer dish doesn’t get any simpler or more delicious. Use different-colored heirloom tomatoes for the prettiest salad, and buffalo milk mozzarella for the best tasting one.

15 min

Kale Salad With Apples and Cheddar

For a kale salad to be successful, use the most tender kale you can find and cut it into very thin filaments or chop it very finely (or both). Curly kale and Russian kale are more tender than black leaf kale. This is inspired by a wonderful salad I tried recently at the New York restaurant Northern Spy.

5 min

Date Bars

Native to North Africa and the Middle East, dates were planted in the Coachella Valley in the late 1890s and are now a California crop, with the state growing 90 percent of America’s dates, particularly the medjool variety. “The intense sweetness of dates makes them a great substitute for honey or sugar,” writes Tanya Holland, the chef and author of “Tanya Holland’s California Soul: Recipes From a Culinary Journey West” (Ten Speed Press, 2022). Her date bars from this cookbook feature a gorgeous strip of the beautiful fruit and make a great caky snack to serve alongside coffee or tea.

45 min

Sweet Cinnamon Tamal

Baking a single large-format tamal may not be traditional, but it produces a similarly tender, moist, barely sweet cake with pudding vibes.

Molten Chocolate Mug Cake

This warm, rich chocolate cake with a molten center can be yours in a mere five minutes. It requires little more than a mug and a microwave to make.

5 min

Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts

Brazo de Mercedes

A classic Filipino meringue roll filled with a rich, lemony egg yolk custard. Light, airy meringue wraps a silky sweetened condensed milk custard — perfect for holidays or make-ahead desserts.

Pumpkin Tiramisu

Tiramisu gets the PSL treatment with a pumpkin-tinged custard, warming cinnamon, plenty of whipped cream, and a splash of bourbon for good measure.

Gluten-Free Fudge Brownies

Just what we want a gluten-free brownie to be: rich and super fudgy. Beating the eggs and sugar for a long time incorporates air into the batter, making for a crackly crust when baked.