Molasses

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

These Christmas cookies are topped with white icing and silver dragées for added elegance. Look for the dragées in the cake decorating section of your supermarket.

As the pie bakes, the filling separates into a soft pudding-like bottom and a cakey top.

English Christmas "pudding" is really a dense, moist spiced cake. This gingerbread version is flavored with orange marmalade and topped with a traditional hard sauce — butter and sugar mixed with brandy.

Brining ensures moist, succulent meat, and this recipe from Bruce Aidells, chef and founder of Aidells Sausage Company, could not be easier or more low-tech. The special equipment required? Two 30-gallon plastic bags and one very large (16-quart) bowl that will fit in the fridge. You'll want to get started a day ahead, because the turkey is brined for 18 to 20 hours. Stuffing this turkey is not recommended; the brine remaining in the meat may soak into the stuffing during roasting.

Ann Colton of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, writes: "Just as T. S. Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock measured out his life with coffee spoons, I like to measure out my days with interesting meals. Since I started teaching English literature to junior-high students about a year ago, I've had less time to cook because of all the papers I have to grade. I'm still a firm believer, though, that food makes life more fabulous, and I get such pleasure from tasting and experimenting. Sometimes I'll honor requests from my students and whip up new treats for them. My baked goods, like these scones, are the most popular." These oversize wedge-shaped scones have a light muffin-like texture.

Makes 12 to 16 servings.

Arrange the soft, spicy cookies on a platter with apples and Vermont cheddar cheese; also serve hot cider or hot buttered rum.

Serve these gingersnaps as the spoons for this Pumpkin Spice Mousse.

The texture of these spicy offerings varies according to baking time. Underbake them if you are partial to a chewy cookie; give them an extra minute or two in the oven if a crisp cookie is desired.

The cookie dough needs to chill overnight, so start this recipe a day ahead.

An inventive take on a classic.