Winter

"I've never been keen on pineapple," food editor Paul Grimes admits, "so I challenged myself to make a pineapple dessert that I would actually like." Charring the wine-poached fruit caramelizes it and softens its acidity while highlighting its floral notes. With vanilla and a cidery syrup, this dessert feels at once wintery and light.

A salad of oranges and slightly bitter endive and escarole rounds out the buffet of fried latkes and rich toppings.

Lemon-tahini dressing unexpectedly emboldens kale and cheesy potatoes with its creaminess and tart richness. We went back for seconds and thirds.

Our love of lemon grows exponentially at the sight of these delightful melt-in-your-mouth sandwich cookies. It perfumes the tiny treats, which are put together with an easy icing that zings with zest and fresh lemon juice. Rolling them in brightly colored sanding sugar makes them sparkle like vintage Christmas ornaments.

Vanilla is arguably one of the best scents in the world, and it permeates this tender cake in the form of a simple vanilla sugar. A zesty cranberry filling lies beneath the crumble top.

One of the great things about a trifle is that you make it ahead of time, so the cake can soak up the flavors of the custard, fruit, and syrup. It’s a perfect holiday dessert.

Every family has its own (ahem, best) version of these savory potato pancakes. We’re offering you a classic formula, though not everyone drains the potato mixture before frying—we find this prevents the latkes from absorbing too much oil and allows them to crisp into golden disks. Maybe this will become the new family favorite.

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 "buck" is a traditional type of drink containing a spirit, lemon or lime juice, and ginger ale. Julie Reiner, the owner-mixologist of New York's Clover Club cocktail bar, serves this version during the holiday season. It has a Scotch whisky base (she prefers the light flavor of Famous Grouse, but you can use any brand) and a balanced mix of autumnal and winter flavors: pear, allspice (infused into a simple syrup before making the cocktail), ginger, and cinnamon. The recipe makes more allspice syrup than you'll need, but the extra will keep for up to three weeks and is delicious in glögg or a Tom & Jerry It can also be served as a nonalcoholic beverage, sans Scotch.

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

A cross between fudge and pecan praline, this soft, nutty, and somewhat crumbly southern delight is the ideal holiday treat.

This deep, rich cake gets extra flavor from bittersweet chocolate, coffee, and crystallized ginger.

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.

When I was growing up, everyone put out bowls of toasted pecans during the holidays. To this day, the heady perfume of toasting pecans brings me back to my childhood. To capture that memory in cookie form, I made a buttery-rich, highly addictive shortbread, then decorated it with toasted pecans.

A vegetarian spin on rillettes, the rich, creamy pàté traditionally made with duck or pork.

These come out extra-crispy when you use a pizza stone. If you don’t have one, a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet works well; invert it so that you can remove the pizza easily.

Luscious and satisfying—a little goes a long way. Make the gratin up to one day ahead. Before serving, cut it into pieces and rewarm in the oven.