Stand Mixer

Every region of Italy has its own version of biscotti, and these plain and simple twice-baked cookies from Calabria are great for the home baker. They are tasty and crumbly, and I like the accent of the toasted sliced almonds. When you cut the logs of dough after the first baking, you’ll likely have crumbs and some broken pieces, but don’t throw them away. Save them to sprinkle over ice cream or poached fruit, or to fold into a zabaglione—they add crunch and a sweet taste to all kinds of desserts.

Italians love prugne, the name for both fresh and dried plums (which we call prunes). Italy is one of Europe’s largest plum-producers, and the fresh fruit is a favorite in season. But dried plums, prugne secche, are in such demand year-round—for snacking, cooking, and baking—that today Italy ranks as one of the world’s biggest importers of prunes (many tons of them grown in California!). I, too, love prugne secche, particularly in crostatas (tarts) and torte such as this cake, which I found in Basilicata. Morsels of prune, poached in a wine syrup, dot the golden, buttery cake, and each bite bursts with their concentrated essence of fruit flavor. It’s a great treat for the holidays, or on any winter’s day—a delicious reminder of the sweet taste of summer.

You only have to make marshmallows once to see how ridiculously easy they are to create. You'll be tempted to keep that fact to yourself, though, when your friends freak out over them. Go ahead, let them think you spent the day making these tender, airy squares of fluff, when it really only takes about 15 minutes of fun in the kitchen. To avoid stickiness, try to make marshmallows on a dry day.

Nothing smacks of the holidays quite like one of these peppermint marshmallows melting in a cup of hot chocolate!

Bomboloni—small round Italian doughnuts—is almost as much fun to say as they are to eat. It's like a party in your mouth when you repeat the word, which you will be doing over and over between bites of these balloon-light spheres of the tenderest yeast dough. Bomboloni are the new hot item on restaurant menus these days, and you'll instantly understand why when you taste your first. It won't be your last, that's for sure, which is why we've accompanied them with three different sauces for dipping. Each is delightful on its own, but if you want to go all the way with all three, you'll find they play well together, too.

Press this festive and chewy nougat between 2 sheets of edible rice paper to create a polished look.

You'll be cackling with delight as you roll bread dough into these shockingly realistic gnarled fingers. Turn them into the centerpiece of a Halloween party.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. These cookies are delicious fresh from the oven, but to amplify the ginger flavor, allow the cookies to cool completely before eating. Semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips can be used in lieu of both, and walnuts and other add-ins can be substituted for the candied ginger.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. This is a classic old-school Christmas recipe from my grandmother, Ethel Hughes Johnston, which uses candied fruit and coconut. If you can't find green candied cherries, you can get by with just red ones. They'll still look festive.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. This is loosely adapted from an old recipe that originally appeared in The New York Times. It calls for vanilla sugar, a blend of confectioners' sugar and the seeds from a vanilla bean. The mixture keeps indefinitely and is wonderful sprinkled over French toast or berries.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. This recipe is loosely adapted from an old Martha Stewart recipe. If you can't find blanched hazelnuts, toast the hazelnuts on a baking sheet in the middle of a 350°F oven for 10 to 15 minutes or just until the skins start to blister, then wrap them in a kitchen towel, and let steam for 1 minute. Rub the nuts in the towel to loosen and remove the skins.

The only difficult thing about this scrumptious ice cream is planning ahead to allow for plenty of chilling time (at least 4 hours). Your efforts will be rewarded, though, with incredibly smooth and creamy ice cream jazzed up with apples and gingersnap cookies. Apple Notes: Here's the perfect recipe for using Fuji or Gala apples. They have just the right flavor and tenderness and are easy to find. Equipment: 3- to 4-quart saucepan; 8- to 10-inch skillet; ice cream maker

The trick to making great challah is to add just enough eggs and oil to the dough so that it tastes rich and moist without becoming heavy and sticky. My friend Kathy Cohen gets it exactly right—her bread, stuffed with apples, raisins, and cinnamon, is the highlight of her annual Jewish New Year feast. For years, I'd count the days between slices, until I finally decided to ask for the recipe. Apple Notes: There aren't a lot of apples in this bread, so you want a variety that really stands out. Therefore, green firm-tart apples, such as Granny Smith and Rhode Island Greening, are the perfect choice here. Equipment: 2 large baking sheets, rimmed or unrimmed

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. King Arthur's white whole-wheat flour is preferable for these yummies. Use festive sprinkles on them if baking them for the holidays.

Nothing satiates the sentient like the gooey, almost raw central mass of a freshly baked sweet roll. As true seekers of new ways to sedate each other with homebaked carbs, we flipped the Cinnabon on its noggin' one New Year's Day and whipped up what has become our favorite recipe for savory rolls. Take everything sweet about a cinnamon roll and invert it: soft sweet bread becomes tart and savory, gooey brown-sugar butter morphs into salty caramelized shallot goo, and frosting slumps into melted aged cheese. Yeah this will take a few hours to a day … but it will hurt your friends and lovers in the most wonderful way.

There's a special place in the lexicon of American layer cakes for the classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. It's practically the standard for birthdays and anniversaries, so it was my top choice when creating a cake to celebrate the first year of publication of Gourmet Live. And if ever there was a version that will elicit either a string of excited OMG's or the low-humming purr of rapturous mmmm's, this is it. Tender, buttery cake layers sandwich a creamy frosting so light and airy it's as if you're nibbling a chocolate cloud. (No offense to dense, fudgy ganache-style icings—of which I'm also very fond—but they don't lend themselves to the kind of exuberant flourishes and swirls of frosting that convey the excitement of a first birthday.) Even a strong-willed soul won't be able to resist a second slice.

Falkner's over-the-top homage to the patron saint of French pastry features a crunchy puff pastry foundation, ringed walls of caramel-filled cream puffs, and a rich chocolate cream center. To serve, cut it into small slices, or, better yet, encourage your guests to gather around with knives and forks and dig in.

Classic baked Alaska is turned on its head with these individual desserts from Elizabeth Falkner of San Francisco's Citizen Cake. Coconut, pineapple, passion fruit, and a rum-soaked sorbet lend a tropical twist. To save time, use store-bought pineapple sorbet.

These ethereal, savory puffs are easily frozen and reheated. Serve half the yield from this recipe at the party, and save the rest for another time. Feel free to mix and match any semisoft melting cheese such as Gruyère, cheddar, or Fontina with any hard cheese such as Asiago, Parmesan, or Manchego.