Make Ahead

The secret to a perfect brûlée crust is using both the turbinado sugar and a blowtorch.

This recipe originally accompanied Frozen White Chocolate and Hazelnut Dacquoise .

Mashed potatoes and Green Beans with Warm Bacon Dressing (see recipe) are great side dishes. Follow with apple pie à la mode.

It's unusual to butter and flour the pan when making a chiffon cake, but we liked the delicate crust that resulted. Because we did it this way, the cake must be cooled, inverted, on a rack, not on a bottle (the usual procedure for chiffons), or it will fall right out of the pan! Don't be tempted to substitute lemon juice for orange juice in the recipe, as the cake will not be as tender.

Use this versatile sauce as a dip for crudités, a dressing for cold fish or chicken, and as a substitute for mayonnaise. Tofu makes it virtually fat-free.

These biscotti can be baked in different size pans — even free form on a baking sheet — depending on what shape you’d like them to be. We used an 11- by 4-inch pan for a square shape. A 9- by 5- by 3-inch pan yields a long, narrow rectangle. The cooking time will not be affected by the pan you use.

In this recipe we call for creamed honey, another name for the crystallized, or non-liquid, form of this sweetener.

This is easily one of my three favorite dishes in my mother's repertoire. She only started making it five years ago, and whenever I'm home I ask for it. It takes well to substitutions, so go ahead and experiment.

This recipe is from Ellyn Goodrich, one of the 5,000 Jews who live in Alaska (the "Chosen Frozen," as they call themselves). The fish is baked in a bundt pan and unmolded, for a festive look.

Inspired by the creamy mint-chocolate after-dinner drink, grasshopper pie was a hostess's dream: Composed of only a handful of ingredients, it took just minutes to assemble; then it could be stored in the freezer until serving time. Here is an updated rendition-with white chocolate instead of the original marshmallows-that is every bit as cool and minty as its predecessor. Those who don't want a grasshopper-green dessert can substitute clear ("white") crème de menthe for the colored liqueur.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Dark chocolate never goes out of fashion, but white chocolate was all the rage in the eighties. Foodies couldn't get enough, enjoying it in truffles, tarts and sumptuous ivory-colored mousses like this one.

"There are three recipes I like for strawberry jam," says Caroline Bates. "My mother’s long-cooked one may be too much trouble for some people; the sun-cooked version is impractical for city dwellers ('First, find a sunny rooftop....'). But this soft strawberry jam (also my mother’s) is simpler and good, too." Its flavor depends on the berries' being fully sweet, completely ripe yet firm, and with not a trace of white near the stem. Such berries have less pectin than underripe ones, so the jam will be loose. Just spoon it out of a jar and dribble it on biscuits.

This recipe originally accompanied Chocolate Layer Cake with Chocolate-Raspberry Frosting.