Dried Cherry

Any combination of dried fruit and nuts will work here, so choose your favorites or just use what you have in your cupboard. For a sweeter treat, swap in semisweet chocolate chips in place of bittersweet.

They look like the loaded chocolate-nut cookies of your youth, but a bite will reveal their luxurious upgrades: chewy sour cherries that play off the crunch of chopped pecans and the creamy sweetness of milk chocolate chunks. Your adult palate will appreciate the complexity.

Cherry pie is traditionally made with hard-to-find tart pie cherries. In this version, fresh Bing cherries combine with dried tart cherries, preserved Morello cherries, and whole spices to create a deep red, intensely flavored pie. Look for Morello cherries in light syrup at Trader Joe's markets and online at amazon.com.

The sauce would also taste great with pork tenderloin.

Semolina flour gives extra texture to the crust.

A classic Christmas bread from one of Buenos Aires's most famous bakeries, Las Violetas.

Coarsely ground black pepper lends a spicy note to this dense, moist brownie cake studded with dried cherries and chocolate chips. Cherry Preserves are thicker than cherry jam and give the Black Forest Torte more body. Look for cherry preserves in supermarkets.

Dallas chef Kent Rathbun created this fabulous dessert for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

Don't be nervous about making meatless mincemeat if you've never tried it before—it's a knockout combination of dried fruits and spices that adds wonderfully deep flavor to baked goods. Here, chunks of sweet pear and a handful of tart fruit create a pie that's fantastic with vanilla ice cream.

Dried cherries are simmered in Banyuls vinegar and brown sugar, creating a sweet-sour sauce.

Unlike many store-bought granolas, this luxurious blend of oats, green pumpkin seeds, and exotic dried fruit is preservative-free and not overly sweet. Sprinkle it on yogurt, pancakes, or waffles—or simply enjoy eating it out of hand.

Crème fraîche is a cultured cream with a rich, silky texture and a nutty, tangy flavor that's well worth seeking out for this recipe. Look for it at some supermarkets and in the dairy section of specialty foods stores. Baker's sugar, a favorite of pastry chefs, is also called superfine sugar. It measures the same as regular but dissolves more quickly. It's available at some supermarkets. You can also make your own by whizzing granulated sugar in a food processor until powdery.