Nut

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

You don't have to be in the kitchen at the crack of dawn to prepare a terrific breakfast. In this recipe the French toast is soaked overnight like bread pudding — in the morning all you need to do is add the topping and pop it in the oven. Serve it with coffee, juice, and fresh fruit and you've got a well-rounded way to start the day.

Michael McLaughlin, cookbook author, says, "Green beans amandine used to be the festive vegetable of choice at any number of my family's holiday celebrations. Over the years, a few of us have improvised here and there, resulting in this easy side dish, a real family heirloom. For a change of pace, orange peel can replace the lemon."

This nucato is related to the delicious nougat noir ("black nougat") still made in the southern French town of Sisteron. But here, there is an additional pleasant surprise when you taste it: the perfumed bite of spices. This is a perfect treat for Christmastime.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

A real winner: Delicate "purses" of phyllo pastry hold a banana and hazelnut filling. They're served with white chocolate sauce and a crunchy hazelnut crumble.

The recipe for these melt-in-your-mouth pecan crescent cookies has been in my family for years," says Marilynn Bonecki of Marengo, Illinois. "They can be made a couple of weeks in advance, but it's hard to keep them in the house that long." Be sure to chill the dough overnight before shaping and baking the cookies.

This fluffy Lady Baltimore cake is layered with toasted pecans, dried figs, raisins, and frosted in a thick, luscious Swiss meringue.

This recipe originally accompanied Double-Decker Rhubarb Ice Cream Sandwiches.

"I had lunch at a historic spot in Berryville, Virginia, called the Battletown Inn," says Judy Owens of Round Hill Virginia. "For dessert, I ordered bourbon walnut pie. If chef Robin Smith would share her recipe, I know that baking the pie during the holidays would become a family tradition." The sweetness of the filling is offset nicely by the bourbon. Serve the dessert with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Versatile breads that are good served with cheese, spread with butter and jam at teatime, or paired with a main-course salad.

Begin preparing this a day ahead.

Begin preparing the dessert a day ahead.

This simple apple salad got its name from the luxurious Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Invented in 1896 not by a chef but by the maître d'hôtel Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf salad was an instant success. As often happens, many variations evolved—some with raisins, some with chopped nuts. This one has green apples and red seedless grapes.

Among the pear varieties, we prefer the silky, juicy flesh and slightly winy flavor of Comice pears for eating, and they are exceptionally good in this crisp. (For poaching and in tarts, good Bosc pears have the right texture and body.)

Walnut Soup (Hup Tul Woo) is a favorite snack soup, often eaten in place of dessert. The Chinese believe that walnuts resemble the shape of the brain and, thus, are good for nourishing the brain. Any foods that resemble the shape of a body organ are said to be god for that organ. Walnuts are also associated with longevity, since walnut trees live for hundreds of years. Regardless, this is a delicious soup. The oven-roasting brings out the fragrance of the walnuts, and it is rich and creamy despite the fact that there is no dairy added. I think Walnut Soup is a wonder because it tastes so good while also being good for you. Be sure to use rice flour and not glutinous rice flour.

These ultra-rich and chocolaty sandwich cookies have creamy, coffee-spiked centers.