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Claire Saffitz head shot - Epicurious

Claire Saffitz

Contributor

Claire Saffitz is a freelance recipe developer and video host. Previously, she was Senior Food Editor at Bon Appétit magazine, where she worked for five years in the test kitchen. She hosted the series Gourmet Makes on the Bon Appétit YouTube channel, where she used her classical pastry knowledge to reverse engineer popular snack foods and candy.

Simple Christmas Cookies

A super-easy, no-mixer-needed cookie dough recipe that doesn’t dirty any bowls and leaves plenty of time for the fun stuff—baking, decorating, and eating dough scraps, of course.

Free-Form Chocolate Candies

Known as mendiants in France, these adorned chocolate bites are a holiday tradition.

Navy Bean and Escarole Stew

Pleasantly bitter escarole adds balance to a rich vegetarian stew brightened with feta cheese and green Castelvetrano olives.

Savory Palmiers with Parmesan and Black Pepper

These cheesy bites puff in the oven and taste like gougères, aka fancy French cheese puffs, but this recipe makes them way easier.

Savory Palmiers with Cream Cheese and Everything Spice

You may be able to find pre-made everything spice in the grocery store for these palmiers. If not, it’s easy enough to make. Double the recipe and keep it around for topping plain yogurt.

Ham and Cheese Toasties in a Bread Basket

Getting the bread out of the crust is a little tricky for this recipe, but once you do, you’ll be wondering what else you can stuff in there.

Braised Chicken Thighs With Squash and Mustard Greens

Don’t have an acorn squash for this chicken thighs recipe? Use butternut. Not into mustard greens? Use kale, Swiss chard, or spinach.

Potato Blinis

These potato blinis are inspired by a Thomas Keller recipe. They're the ideal base for caviar.

Boozy Grapefruit-Pomegranate Gummy Candies

No, they're not precious gems, these sparkly crunchy treats are prime for mixing and matching your favorite flavors (with a splash of booze for good measure).

Savory Palmiers with Roasted Garlic and Rosemary

Starting with store-bought puff pastry for this recipe means these crispy, buttery, savory palmiers only look hard.

Bacon-Butter Radishes

You’ll probably have some of this deliciousy bacony butter leftover from this recipe, in which case you should probably serve it atop a juicy steak. Obvs.

Blue Cheese and Bacon Lettuce Boats

Think of this recipe as your favorite bacony wedge salad reimagined as an additive party snack.

BA's Best Linguine and Clams

Clams vary in brininess and the amount of liquid they’ll release during cooking, so you’ll need to adjust the salt and add pasta water accordingly. To prevent the sauce from getting too salty, we recommend a measured amount of salt for the pasta water. If possible, look for an artisanal dried pasta for this recipe—the rougher surface texture will catch the slippery sauce better.

Apple Pandowdy

This apple pandowdy recipe is so delicious that we're just going to have to say: Cobbler, you’ve been warned.

Mashed Baked Potatoes with Chives

Baking the potatoes for this recipe is a completely hands-off cooking process that also reduces some of the water content in the spuds, resulting in the easiest and most flavorful mash of all time.

Lemony Brussels Sprouts With Bacon and Breadcrumbs

Cooking the brussels sprouts in two stages for this recipe ensures that the cores will be tender and the outer leaves will still have bite.

Cranberry Chutney With Orange, Figs, and Mustard

If using frozen cranberries, which are just as good for this recipe, don’t bother thawing them first.

Cheesy Sausage and Sage Stuffing

This holiday-worthy recipe was inspired by bread pudding and ended up somewhere between a strata, a gratin, and a traditional Thanksgiving stuffing.

Fennel-Celery Salad with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

Fennel and celery share more than just the dubious honor of being incredibly underrated vegetables. Their snappy crunch is awesome raw, as proven by this densely textured salad recipe.

Tajín-Seasoned Vegetable Spears

This recipe for raw vegetables is the only conscionable thing you can serve right before sitting down to a heavier meal.