Pumpkin

On January 1—the country's independence day—Haitians prepare soup joumou, a rich pumpkin soup with an even richer history.

Who doesn’t love banana bread? This one is just sweet enough, with fabulous crunch if you add walnuts and coconut, as I always do. There’s no better solution for over-the-hill bananas, and the batter comes together in less than 10 minutes. I’ve been making this recipe — created by my late dear friend Sherry — for almost fifty years; it’s incredibly reliable.

Can’t decide which pie to make? Let your guests in on the fun with this do-it-yourself pie bar.

Think gnocchi are too time-consuming to make during the week? Think again!

Speculoos cookies in "butter" form add a spicy complexity to pumpkin purée for a new spin on the classic fall dessert.

White chocolate adds a rich, creamy sweetness to this quick pumpkin mousse. Be careful to keep the white chocolate and pumpkin mixtures warm as you mix them; otherwise, the white chocolate can set as it mixes into the pumpkin. If this happens, simply return the mixture to the microwave and gently reheat. Serve it alone or as part of our Build-Your-Own Thanksgiving Pie Bar.

Forget the standard dinner rolls this Thanksgiving—what your table needs is this gorgeous flavor-packed bread.

This fall grain salad combines spelt with kabocha squash that's been roasted in a smoky paprika and pomegranate molasses glaze.

Every October as kids, we loved to go pumpkin picking and buy fresh pumpkins. Our grandmother would take the pumpkin flesh and bake it in the oven with a little cinnamon and sugar, and then we’d stick it in the blender, puree it, and use it for baking. We’d bake pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake, and pumpkin pie, and we would also roast the pumpkin seeds in the oven. Really, she used every single part of that pumpkin! The thing we loved the most was our grandmother’s pumpkin cake. It was more of a cake-bread hybrid: very dense and savory yet sweet. It smelled amazing coming out of the oven. We would sometimes just eat it without any icing, hot from the oven. We’d burn our tongues because we wouldn’t even wait for it to cool!

Fold whipped cream into canned pumpkin purée and then layer with buttery pound cake and airy chocolate mousse for this easy-to-assemble fall dessert.