Stand Mixer

These cookies are also great made with regular semisweet chocolate chips.

Bake this at least one day ahead.

Pastel de tres leches is a traditional Nicaraguan Celebration Cake usually reserved for the holiday season. In this recipe we preserve the traditional presentation, and add some typical American holiday flavors. The cake is composed of four components: Sponge Cake, Rum Milk Syrup, Meringue, and Cranberry Compote.

Some cooks may prefer the convenience of substituting dried egg whites for the fresh ones called for in the following recipe. (This will eliminate having to find a use for the yolks.) Dried egg whites are increasingly available in supermarkets or by mail order. Here, you will need 1/4 cup dried egg whites, reconstituted by stirring 3/4 cup lukewarm water into them as package instructions indicate.

For best results when making this dessert, first mix one can of cream of coconut in a blender until smooth, then measure as called for here.

Mashed potatoes give this spectacular bread a moist texture.

In France puréed potatoes are mixed with a local cow's-milk cheese known as Tomme Fraîche de Cantal. We've substituted fresh mozzarella — widely available in the States — to give the dish a similar consistency.

This recipe was created to accompany Chocolate Strawberry Orance Wedding Cake .

Only half of the praline is used in the dessert; the rest will make a nice topping for ice cream, frozen yogurt or stewed fruit.

Samali: One of the great sweets of Thessaloniki, made in pastry shops, at home, and hawked from small carts on the streets all around the Kapani market.

This moist orange-flavored soufflé is rich with white chocolate. Offer snifters of orange liqueur to sip alongside.

You'll need a candy thermometer to monitor the fudge sauce and the marshmallows.

If time is short, omit the streusel topping.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.