Make Ahead

Editor's note: Use this chive oil to make White Bean Soup with Chive Oil from Kim Severson and Julia Moskin's cookbook, CookFight.

Amazingly, the New York Times fashion critic, Cathy Horyn, is also an accomplished cook and intrepid baker. The equivalent would be if I, a food writer, were also a sleek fashion plate with a deep bench of vintage and modern pieces. This is certainly not the case, so I find her extremely impressive. She claims that these cookies are a Swedish-American tradition in her hometown of Coshocton, Ohio, but I feel they are the cookie equivalent of Paris Fashion Week: a modern, edgy take on a classic. They are truly remarkable, with a robust and smoky undertone that sets them apart from other gingersnaps.

Here's a traditional spice blend from Yemen, where it's called hawayil. Add to onions and celery when making chicken soup; sprinkle on carrots before roasting; or rub into steaks before searing.

This needs to set up overnight, so start one day ahead.

You will find that the garlic has been tamed in the cooking and acquired a delicious buttery quality. Serve with hot toast or thin slices of pumpernickel—to be spread with the garlic sauce.

A tartine is an open-faced sandwich usually composed of a slice of crusty artisan bread topped with a spread, vegetables, and sometimes meat or fish. They are usually served along with a soup or a salad to make a complete meal—definitely one of my favorites. In this recipe, figs, Serrano ham, goat cheese, and greens are piled on top of a savory hazelnut crust.

Chef Kris Wessel of Florida Cookery in Miami Beach, Florida, shared this recipe as part of a Palm Tree Christmas menu he created exclusively for Epicurious. It showcases Florida oranges and grapefruits, which are at their peak during December.

Chef Kris Wessel of Florida Cookery in Miami Beach, Florida, shared this recipe as part of a Palm Tree Christmas menu he created exclusively for Epicurious. At Wessel family Christmases at Grandmother Esther's house in Miami Beach, the main courses were Florida-centric, but the desserts were not. This particular rum cake was often served by one of Wessel's aunts. "I think all the Irish side of our family loved it because it was loaded with rum," he says, joking that they'd often add more to the glaze than the recipe called for. The alcohol will burn off, but you can also omit the rum glaze and just serve with ice cream.

This flavorful ham is glazed with orange juice, bourbon, brown sugar, and apple jelly that's spiced with cloves, allspice, and ginger.

Chef Kris Wessel of Florida Cookery in Miami Beach, Florida, shared this recipe as part of a Palm Tree Christmas menu he created exclusively for Epicurious. Conch is typically sold cooked and frozen, so to make this salad, simply defrost the frozen conch and cut it into bite-size pieces. Look for conch that's white or off-white and not brown or yellow if you're buying it from your fishmonger, Wessel says. The lime juice and vinegar in the salad will further cook the conch slightly, like a ceviche.

Chef Kris Wessel of Florida Cookery in Miami Beach, Florida, shared this recipe as part of a Palm Tree Christmas menu he created exclusively for Epicurious.

Soaked in cherry eau-de-vie, these boozy bites are made for Black Forest Cake but taste equally great in a cocktail.

This is the stew that made such an impression on the final episode of the first season of Top Chef Masters. Each of us had been asked to create a meal that would be an autobiography told through the dishes we would present to the judges. I immediately thought of baeckeoffe ("baker's oven"). The name refers back to the time when bakers used wood-fired ovens. After the bread was done, this dish would be baked long and slow in the falling temperatures of the cooling oven. Since everyone in town would see the baker every day for the family's daily loaf, each would often bring a casserole to be baked in the oven. It was traditional, particularly on Mondays, when the women went to the river to do their laundry. They would have marinated their meats and vegetables overnight, dropped their casseroles off in the morning on their way, and then picked them up—plus a loaf of bread—on their way home. Even though my father was not the bread baker and had a modern, gasfired oven, people still took their casseroles to him. They liked to drop in because he always had some joke or story to tell. Before the village baker also invested in a modern oven and was still using wood, when my father turned over a fresh loaf of bread to give it the traditional blessing, he would sometimes see pieces of charcoal embedded in the crust. That would send my dad wild, muttering that "he [the baker] did not thoroughly clean his oven!" I make this dish often, both at home and at the restaurant. But these days we tend to increase the vegetables and use less meat, and sometimes we use only vegetables and leave out the meat entirely. While there is never a mushroom in the classic recipe, you can add them or make a vegetarian version with mushrooms and a rich vegetable stock. I've also made this stew as the centerpiece for Christmas dinner, adding plenty of sliced black truffles. The classic dish uses a mix of meats including a pig's foot, which gives a rich, gelatinous texture to the stew. You may be able to special-order a pig's foot. Ask the butcher to slice it crosswise into three pieces. But even at the restaurant I sometimes have trouble ordering them, and your stew will still be delicious without one. You can also use just one or two kinds of meat instead of all three.

Our Granny Smith Apple Cider Vinaigrette is enlivened with fresh apple and a squeeze of lime juice.

For my first two months in the army I was based outside Toul. In the town was a pâtisserie that made the best brioche with pastry cream. I would go to the shop whenever I could. The baker spread pastry cream over the dough, and then rolled it up like a biscuit rolé (jelly roll). My father made a brioche-and-pastrycream roll, too, but shaped it like a bretzel. Chantal still remembers them from the first time I brought her home to meet my parents—to do that you had to be serious. When I told my father I planned to put them in this book, he was so pleased.

We love the way Dijon mustard enhances the similarly assertive flavor of the kale, while mellow pine nuts and Parmesan cheese balance it out. You can make this salad a day ahead; the flavors develop and deepen with a little extra time in the fridge. It's also delicious served warm or at room temperature.

The ultimate comforting supper, bursting with flavorsome vegetables and a rich herby gravy. You can either use some of the pre-frozen chicken filling , in which case thaw it, then assemble the pie and eat straight away. Alternatively, you can make the filling, let cool, and assemble the pie, then freeze the whole thing uncooked ready to defrost and bake in the oven at a later date.

This fairly straightforward and versatile dough can be made as drop cookies instead of icebox-style sliced logs: Chill the dough, then scoop it into rounded-tablespoon-size balls, roll in the salt-sugar mixture, arrange at least 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) apart on the baking sheet, and flatten slightly. In addition, you can substitute just about any kind of flour for the rye.

Despite some tall tales, Hostess Twinkies do not last forever. The box of Twinkies that my friends gave me as a gag gift were, in fact, hard as a rock in less than a year. These cream-filled chiffon cake snacks, made with real, unprocessed dairy and eggs and whole-grain flours, won't last nearly as long as preservative-laden Twinkies, but you will almost certainly gobble them up in no time at all.

This broth, the backbone of many of our soup recipes and an ingredient in many others, was developed with brain health in mind. It includes onions, fennel, parsley, oregano, and rosemary, all of which contain antioxidants, as well as parsnips, which are a good source of folic acid. The recipe uses water as liquid, but you can start with chicken stock or fish stock to make an especially flavorful broth that would be great for sipping on its own.