Molasses

Deputy food editor Janet McCracken adds fresh ginger to a family recipe to create this moist spice cake.

Use a triple hit of ginger—fresh, ground, and crystallized—and blackstrap molasses to lift your ginger cookies to the next level. The dough is rolled in raw sugar for a sparkly effect.

Halved grapefruits taste delicious with a kiss of smoke from the grill. But they're even better sliced to expose more of the fruit to the caramelizing fire. Pomegranate molasses, with its sweet-tart flavor and syrupy texture, makes a tasty, ruby-hued glaze. Try this recipe with oro blanco (a white-fleshed pomelo), too. If you have fresh pomegranates, scatter the seeds over the top.

In this delicious dessert, tender spice cake is layered with maple-sugar frosting, candied pecans, and a salty-sweet caramel sauce

For the best flavor, use an artisanal root beer made with cane sugar (not corn syrup). We like Faygo and Fitz's, but many more options are available online at sodapopstop.com.

If you prefer a spicier sauce, add two chipotles instead of one.

At Mesa Grill, this barbecue sauce is used as is, or as a base for some more complex sauces. The ancho and pasilla chile powders add Southwestern flavors to the traditional barbecue-sauce ingredients: tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet molasses, and brown sugar.

Treacle tarts are usually made with a combination of golden syrup and molasses. The dessert has a texture similar to pecan pie (minus the nuts).

A thin layer of deep-flavored molasses filling gives way to a tangy buttermilk custard.

A trifle is not only one of the most elegant desserts around, it's also one of the most exuberant—which is why it is tempting to toss aside decorum and dive right into the bowl. The nontraditional version here is sturdy, made with robust gingerbread and mellow pumpkin mousse instead of the classic spongecake and custard.

If it makes sense sometimes to eat breakfast for dinner, why not breakfast for dessert? These pancakes are perfect for the fall, when apples are in season and gingerbread spices are on the mind. My apple of choice is the Golden Delicious because when cooked, it becomes honeyed and intense, but you can use any apple that holds its shape. Don't try this with McIntosh; they disintegrate into mush.

Old-fashioned mincemeat contained tiny bits of meat and/or beef suet, a type of fat. This modern, meatless version is a great mix of apples, dried fruits, and warming spices.

These moist, tender treats are a cross between a cookie and a cake. They're delicious plain, but also make nice ice cream sandwiches.

Flax is rich in substances that have been shown to protect against heart disease and cancer. It has a very mild taste and is good mixed into muffins and breads as well as sprinkled on cereal. This flax muffin recipe is one way to add a daily tablespoon of flaxseed to your breakfast and snacks. These muffins are remarkably sweet and moist, despite having no added fat. (The 3 grams of fat per muffin are from the health-protective fats in the ground flaxseed meal.)

No southern holiday meal would be complete without sweet potatoes, and this simple twist on old-fashioned candied yams, with the addition of molasses and an orange's juice and zest, tastes bright and full of nuance.