Electric Mixer

Whether you dunk them in milk, pry them apart, or devour them whole, sandwich cookies are irresistible. These, with their crisp chocolate wafers and ganache filling made from fine-quality white chocolate, are so much better than that supermarket version.

Love a cookie with crunch? These thin, crisp butter cookies are for you—each one is topped with crumbled almond praline, and its flavor plays on the time-tested combination of caramel and salt.

These chocolate-dipped stars look beautiful on the table, and their ethereal texture means guests can nibble without filling up. All three flavors—vanilla, chocolate, and coffee—come from one batter.

Thumbprint cookies are a holiday classic, and we've tripled their appeal by forming each cookie into a tiny trio that showcases three jewel-toned jams. Each one is like a miniature holiday ornament.

Fresh orange and lemon juices lend this simple icing a lovely zing, and the addition of powdered egg whites helps it set, allowing you to create a host of intricate designs.

Want to shake up your cookie platter? Simply make a notch in two of these lightly spiced sugar cookies, then interlock them to create an edible sculpture that also makes a beautiful tree ornament.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Carole Bloom's book The Essential Baker. One of my favorite treats when I was growing up was malted milk balls. I couldn't seem to get enough of them. I vividly remember biting through the crunchy exterior of milk chocolate to find the malt ball inside. Yum! I still love the flavor of malt and believe it goes well with milk chocolate. This cheesecake is inspired by those malted milk balls I loved as a child. It's dense and creamy, with a crunchy cookie crust and a deep malt flavor. As with other cheesecakes, this one has to be made in advance of serving because it needs hours to cool and chill. But it also freezes beautifully, so you can make it well in advance of when you plan to serve it.

The recipe below is part of a healthy and delicious spa menu developed exclusively for Epicurious by Ananda spa in India. While the recipe is not low in calories or fat, almost anyone can fit this dessert into a healthy diet by taking small servings of the panna cotta and sabayon and upping the portion of the antioxidant-rich berries. If you are following an Ayurvedic diet, the experts at Ananda recommend this for the vata dosha, and in moderation for the pitta dosha. Be sure to start this recipe one day ahead.

Royal icing is a pure-white, sticky icing that dries to a hard finish. Royal icing is used for delicate piping on cookies and gingerbread houses. Its  bright white hue makes it a good option for tinting whatever color you like. 

Dried fruit, nuts, and oil-cured olives make this fruitcake something special.

Put on your winter whites for this elegant dessert featuring spiced, wine-poached pears, ladyfingers, and a white chocolate–mascarpone mousse.

A creamy chocolate pudding fills this rich cake and an easy-to-make chocolate band wraps it up in style.

Dry mustard in a cookie? Absolutely. It amps up the spiciness, adding just the perfect amount of heat.

The best part about making these Christmas cookies? Cutting them into holiday shapes, of course. Cold dough is easier to work with, so chill your dough in the freezer for five minutes if it starts to get warm. 

In this earthy dessert, ground poppy seeds combine with lots of airy beaten egg whites to create a texture that's both rich and delicate. (As a result, a little goes a long way.) A sunny touch of lemon adds zing. Be sure to get your poppy seeds from a good source, since they need to be fresh and can go rancid very quickly.

Whipped cream becomes light—yet richer—with the addition of Calvados. It echoes the apples in the torte but also goes beautifully with the pumpkin plum tart.

Cranberries are a rarity, even to this day, in Italy, so this crostata represents an achievement that's uniquely Italian-American. Though many crostatas employ jam, this one gets its zest from fresh cranberries cooked down and paired with an almond-scented crust—and the proportion of filling to crust is our idea of perfection.

This gently sweet ricotta tart provides a creamy base to a rich compote of dried fruit, which includes figs, sour cherries, and apricots (we much prefer the tangy California kind over Turkish). It's much lighter than a cheesecake, but it hits all the right spots. The Miraglia family likes the tart chilled, but we also loved it at room temperature.

This dense and savory stuffing resembles the filling inside a tamale. This recipe makes enough to stuff the Mole-Roasted Turkey with Masa Stuffing and Chile Gravy, or to serve eight people when baked as a side dish.