Berry

If you happen to find a brioche loaf, it also would make terrific French toast. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 30 min

No Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without cranberry relish. It can be made in large batches if you want to make enough for the winter.

The mixture of fruit in this dessert, a long-standing menu item at The Marx Bros. Cafe in Anchorage, might include anything from wild Alaskan blueberries to apples, depending on the time of year.

Active time: 15 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

Sorbete de Zarzamora Berries are cultivated near the small colonial town of Valle de Bravo, outside Mexico City. Sorbets and ice creams are enormously popular throughout Mexico.

Begin making this cake one day in advance.

Larry Forgione serves this luscious dessert at An American Place, his renowned New York City restaurant. It's a great treat when local berries are in season.

Look for malted milk powder alongside the dry milk products in the supermarket.

Here's a nice way to serve up fresh summer fruit to family and friends.

Berries are in top form here; the filling is a cool, tangy crème fraîche sorbet rather than the usual whipped cream.

Caramelized Fresh Fruit These crackly-coated fruits bring back childhood memories of candied apples. I've given the Roman recipe here; in Venice, where they're coated with a thicker layer of caramel, they are called golosezzi veneziani. Set aside about 1/2 hour for the caramelizing and finish the procedure no more than 1 1/2 hours before serving so that the fruit remains crisp.

Though the cranberries look gorgeous, you wouldn't want to eat them—they're extremely tart when raw. The mint leaves, however, are positively delicious. Fresh raw cranberries yielded the most attractive garnish; thawed frozen berries may collapse and shrivel. Feel free to increase the amounts we've provided here if you'd like to make your decoration more elaborate.