Fruit

We're taking the highway to French elegance with these stacked desserts. Unsweetened whipped cream is a wonderful foil for gooey caramelized pears and flaky puff pastry.

These muffins are inspired by a favorite dessert: sticky toffee pudding. But they are revamped for breakfast and renamed with hope that as you present your beloved with a plate of these, you'll be invited to open your Filofax and check on next Friday night.

A life of piety and chastity has to call for something sensual occasionally. Yes, you can enjoy the seductive chocolate flavor and thick creaminess of this Italian hot chocolate without fearing the loss of other worldly pleasures, but this confection is sure to elicit a moan from all who partake. Drinking any of the great Italian-style hot chocolates is almost a religious experience. Over and over again, people who taste this drink for the first time say, "Oh, my God." Is that enough encouragement to give this one a try? Don't overlook the importance of the orange zest or the arrowroot. The oil from the zest gives the chocolate a fresh kick, and the arrowroot thickens the mixture.

In Turkish cookery there's a distinctive group of dishes known as güveç, which take their name from the earthenware pot in which they are cooked—in the same way that the tagine does in Morocco. In rural Anatolia the cooking pots may be sealed and buried in the ashes of a fire to cook slowly overnight—or, only slightly less romantically, in the local baker's oven. If you don't have a clay pot, a heavy-based cast-iron casserole dish will serve almost as well. Güveç dishes encompass all sorts of meat or poultry cooked with legumes, vegetables and fruits. My addition of star anise is not remotely Turkish, but it adds a wonderful layer of aniseed flavor. This güveç is spicy with a lingering sweetness, so serve it with a light salad or braised wild greens. A dollop of yogurt would also be delicious. Sucuk is a spicy Turkish sausage and can be found in Turkish or Middle Eastern butchers and some specialist delis.

This is easy to make and everyone loves marshmallows on top.

Cranberries add sparkle to the meal.

Add broth 1/4 cup at a time, stirring, to avoid sogginess.

This recipe is perfect for a family reunion or any large summer gathering. If your party is being held at a park, be sure to bring charcoal, a chimney starter, oil for the grill grate, and a sturdy grill brush. These chicken breasts cook quickly, but let the coals burn down to medium-hot to cut down on pesky flare-ups.

The best flavors of fruitcake baked into a tart that’s a balance of sweet, tangy, and buttery.

This simple salad, with its lemony dressing and bitter greens, is a nice match for the fried latkes.

You’ll need a 7 3/4-inch-diameter trifle dish that is at least 4 3/4 inches deep. The recipe makes an extra gingerbread cake; have it for breakfast the next morning. If you prefer to make 12 individual trifles, use all three gingerbread cakes and cut each in half horizontally. Using a pretty glass as a guide, cut out 4 cake rounds from each cut cake layer. Alternate 2 cake rounds with 2 to 3 layers of the mascarpone cream, a few candied kumquats, and some poached cranberries in each glass.

Every year, I make homemade fruitcakes for friends and family. I bake the dense pound cakes studded with dried fruits months in advance, then wrap them in muslin. These cookies are similar to my fruitcakes—only they’ll take you a lot less time. For a fun presentation, the cookies are baked in bonbon-size baking cups.

A great homemade gift. Panforte (an Italian fruit-and-nut confection) is the topping for these bittersweet chocolates.

The traditional latke accompaniment is amped up with fragrant rosemary and nutty brown butter.

Here's the perfect ending to the feast: a light, bright dessert of oranges, dates, and cinnamon.

Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice mix that includes sesame seeds, sumac, dried thyme, and dried marjoram. It’s available at specialty foods stores and Middle Eastern markets and from adrianascaravan.com.

Inspired by Brazil’s national cocktail.