Fruit

If you only have time for a dessert after the kids are in bed, try something elegant and expedient, like poached pears. This recipe works best with pink champagne.

Champagne always brings sparkle to the holidays.

Egg white binds the sugar and spices to the nuts.

Coating the rice with butter and oil keeps the grains from sticking together while they cook.

Brushing the pastry with egg adds shine while it bakes.

Bundt cakes are always crowd-pleasers, and this dark, moist one won't disappoint. The combination of time-honored ingredients—sweet dried figs, crunchy pecans, and aromatic bourbon—will have your guests clamoring for the recipe.

Homemade pound cake hits all the right notes—it's buttery, rich, and immensely satisfying. This version is classic, with hints of lemon and orange, perfect with afternoon tea.

Nothing says festive as eloquently as a towering white coconut cake, and this particular one is breathtaking. Better yet, it's delicious—we've brushed each layer with a syrup made from coconut water and sugar to ensure that every bite is succulent. Shreds of delicate fresh coconut far surpass the packaged kind.

Miss Lewis mentions buttermilk cookies, which she pairs with ice-cold lemonade, but as far as we know, she never committed a recipe to paper. When we developed one, the big debate was about texture: Soft or crisp? What you see here is the cookie of your dreams, with a tender interior and the slightest bit of crispness around the edge.

Think of the best sweet-potato pie you've ever eaten and then take away the crust so you can revel solely in its silky goodness. A bite of this pudding is full and round, with hits of chestnut and dried fruit.

In the discussion of preserving fruit By canning versus freezing, why doesn't this technique ever come up? Peacock credits the late Edna Lewis for teaching him to mix mashed fruit with sugar for a sort of jam that he says keeps for a year when refrigerated. (We only tested up to one month, but so far, so good.) "It's a very old-fashioned method," he says. "The flavor is fresh and intense and delicious spooned onto hot Buttered Buttermilk Biscuits or Yeast Rolls ." Try it with raspberries or strawberries, too.

This juicy, fresh-fruit version evokes those described in 19th-century southern cookbooks. Flakes of fresh coconut provide a nice chew, and a little Sherry gives it sophistication and complexity. Ambrosia is often served as part of the transition to dessert, but at a generous meal like this one it fits in well earlier on, providing a bright, refreshing contrast to the main course.

This grand old American dessert is enormously popular down South for its clear, true sweetness (saved by the edginess of lemon) and its masterful contrast of textures. And somehow it is show-stopping (think beauty pageant) and homey (think Aunt Bee) simultaneously.

We heart this dish. Pomegranate may protect your arteries against LDL ("bad") cholesterol.

These rich nibbles only taste decadent. Soft goat cheese is naturally lower in fat.