Ice Cream Machine

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 4 hr (includes chilling and freezing)

(Gelat de Crema Catalana i Xerès amb Mel i Figues) The mellow, almond flavor of Amontillado Sherry works especially well in this rich, creamy dessert.

Berries are in top form here; the filling is a cool, tangy crème fraîche sorbet rather than the usual whipped cream.

We call for English-style bitter orange marmalade (made with Seville oranges and often called Dundee) because other types made the ice cream too sweet and too soft. It's available at specialty foods shops and some supermarkets. This recipe makes about a dozen more florentines than you'll need for the sandwiches, but it's a good idea to have extra in case one or two break — and the cookies are delicious even without the ice cream. Active time: 1 1/2 hr Start to finish: 7 hr (includes freezing)

Move over, cranberry sauce! This sorbet is an alternate way of bringing that tangy flavor to the table.

The good news here is that there will be leftover ice cream to enjoy at another time.

You would never guess that this dense and creamy dessert is nondairy and kosher for Passover. Since the recipe contains egg yolks, this is not a sorbet in the strict sense, but the yolks do provide a rich texture.

At the ever-popular Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe, chocolate and devilishly hot chile pequín flakes come together in an ice cream not soon forgotten. Our version is rich but almost austere compared to chef Katharine Kagel's original, the recipe for which appears in Cafe Pasqual's Cookbook.

Seedless watermelons are on the market these days, but I prefer the old-fashioned ones with big black seeds — easy to see and remove. Then proceed with the recipe.

Pineapples are grown all over Thailand and are commonly eaten freshly sliced at the end of a meal. We wanted a worthy finish to this complex meal, so we decided to put a slightly different spin on this classic ingredient. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 17 3/4 hr (includes chilling and freezing)

The leftover syrup from the lychees makes a delicious sweetener for iced tea. Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 30 min

We discovered that store-bought mango sorbet and ice cream were so good we could do little to improve upon them. But most store-bought raspberry sorbet lacked the color, tang, and true berry flavor of homemade.