Thanksgiving

Roasting intensifies the natural sugars in sweet potatoes. These sweeter sweet potatoes come out of the oven soft in the center and crisp around the edges.

Overthinking is one of the most common problems when it comes to baking pies, having the same devastating effect as putting too much makeup on a pretty girl. Often, bakers trying to doll up a basic recipe find themselves left with an overburdened crust and fruit drenched in starchy goo. Have faith in your ingredient selection, and hold back when possible. Here’s a recipe that lets each part carry its own weight, leaving your hands free to twiddle thumbs, shoot finger guns, or slap high-fives.

Pumpkins and pine nuts are in the same boat in that both are easily influenced by other ingredients. I felt they needed each other in this dessert, which I created particularly for this book. In addition to flavor, the pine nuts provide structure in the cake and texture in the streusel.

The technique here is traditional and French. The fresh and dried cranberries and the star anise are modern and provide bright hits of flavor in every bite. You’ll need two 6-cavity Flexipan savarin molds (the 2 3/4-inch size) if you want to match the shape of the dessert in the photograph. But you could also freeze the nougat in a baking sheet and cut pieces to serve.

Root vegetables are particularly forgiving when it comes to roasting times: Slightly undercooked and they have a little extra firmness, while on the other hand it takes quite a while to overcook them to the mushiness point. So this recipe is one of my main choices when I’m preparing an entrée that’s going to require stovetop attention at the end of cooking. While I’m reducing a sauce or sautéing some veal, I don’t want to worry that I’ll need to remove the veggies from the oven at precisely 7:15. And with this recipe, I don’t.

I’m not going to tell you that this is a traditional dish from Umbria; it’s not. But it is a traditional dish in my family. And family is what tradition is all about, isn’t it?

Pomegranates and cranberries are both widely available in the fall, making this the perfect cocktail for any holiday party.

This moist cake combines the fruits, nuts, and spices from the New World that the Spanish conquistadores discovered in 1508. Chocolate was part of this Mesoamerican tableau. Brown sugar and ginger arrived much later, but this cake pays homage to the riches of the original jungles and river valleys.

Serve this attractive side dish with your holiday meal or with roast beef for Sunday dinner. Baking at a high temperature slightly caramelizes the bottom of the squash for a delightful taste.

Cover a cakelike layer on the bottom with a custardlike layer on top to get cupcakes that seem almost like pumpkin pie.

Gina: Nothing is as warm or as inviting as an old-fashioned baked apple. Our baked apples are even more inviting because we pack them with golden raisins, dried cranberries, and nuts, splashed with rum for extra goodness (or try Calvados, an apple-flavored liqueur from France, for a special twist). Serve these warm, fragrant little gems with a scoop of caramel or rum-raisin ice cream. In the unlikely event that you have a few left over, there’s nothing like a cold baked apple for breakfast, served in a pool of cold half-and-half. (Chances are your sweet-tooth husband is also on to this secret, so don’t be surprised if he beats you to the kitchen.)

Gina: Calley Anderson is Shelbi’s best friend, in large part because Belinda Anderson, Calley’s mother, is my best friend. Calley is an excellent student but the girl is a chef at heart. Baking is her first love, and one day Calley made this sweet potato pie for our family, and it knocked me off my feet. The filling relies on two sweeteners, brown sugar and maple sugar, for an incredible flavor. Warm spices and pure vanilla create an intoxicating perfume, and fresh lemon juice helps cut the sweetness and balance the flavors. So, I swallowed my pride (along with another slice of pie) and asked her for the recipe. Here I am, an adult asking my daughter’s friend for a recipe—pretty funny, huh?

Pat: Gina’s grandmother loved cane syrup, which is a sorghumlike syrup that has a deep bittersweet flavor. If you can’t find cane syrup, use an equal amount of dark-brown sugar plus 2 tablespoons molasses. This dish gives a new twist to a classic Thanksgiving side. The gooey marshmallows and brown sugar keep the kids happy, while the “big kids” will love the addition of orange liqueur, warm spices, and pecans.

Pat: In the South, most stuffing recipes call for some kind of meat, whether it’s bacon, liver, chicken, or boiled turkey, as well as some kind of stock to keep the stuffing moist. In this recipe, the briny oysters meld beautifully with the spicy andouille sausage, and the end result is a stuffing so good that you won’t want to wait until Thanksgiving to try it. For the best results, use day-old cornbread, so it has time to dry out a bit, which will enable it to absorb all the flavorful juices inside the bird.

This country was built on apple pie with a very flaky crust, thanks to an abundance of lard or vegetable shortening. Instead of an overly caloric full-blown crust, this lightened-up pie has a crumbly Brown Betty–type topping. When you pulse the topping mixture, don’t over-mix or it will be tough—not melt-in-your-mouth tender. If you must serve ice cream with this pie, look for a low-cal alternative. The usual scoop of “à la mode” adds 250 to 350 calories.

Most gravies are made from meat juices and a thickener called “roux,” a 50/50 combination of pure fat—like lard or butter—and white flour. This flourless, butterless gravy can be used as a stand-alone sauce for almost any roast meat or poultry—and even some fish like cod and salmon. Play around with it: add low-fat bacon pieces, chopped olives, parsley, tarragon, basil, roasted pearl onions, diced cooked sweet potatoes, lemon zest, crushed peppercorns—whatever you can think of that fits into your caloric budget.