Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Like a dreamy mash-up between a key lime and lemon meringue pie, this surprisingly fast and easy dessert is adapted from Bill Smith, who retired in 2019 after 25 years as the chef at Crook’s Corner, a Chapel Hill, N.C. restaurant that closed in June 2021. He was inspired by the lemon pies he ate at seafood restaurants in Atlantic Beach, N.C., while vacationing there as a child. While a food processor makes quick work of the saltine cracker crust, you don’t really need any special equipment — you can just as easily make it with your hands. Top it with whipped cream just before serving, and if you’re feeling flush, sprinkle it with flaky sea salt as they did at Crook's Corner, and citrus zest as we do: a lazy summer’s day in pie form. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This incredibly easy one-pan dinner is from the cookbook “The Silver Spoon for Children,” with more than 40 traditional recipes adapted from “The Silver Spoon,” a book that appears in many home kitchens in Italy. Older children with some experience can follow this recipe as is, but if you’ve got little ones who want to help, they can stir the sage, beans and apple juice together in a large bowl while the sausages bake, then you can pour the mixture into the hot pan. If you like your beans on the saucy side, add ¼ cup more apple juice. Serve with buttered crusty rolls and something leafy and green. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

With generous layers of dulce de leche, bananas and whipped cream, this dazzling pie is not for the faint of heart. The banoffee or banoffi pie, a mash-up of banana and toffee, was created in 1971 by the chef Ian Dowding and Nigel MacKenzie, the owner of the Hungry Monk, a now-closed restaurant in Sussex, England. The original recipe called for a traditional pie crust, homemade dulce de leche and coffee-flavored whipped cream, but we’ve simplified it for the home cook by using a graham cracker crust, store-bought dulce de leche and plain whipped cream. If you like, you could add a teaspoon of instant coffee granules to the whipped cream. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Broccoli salads are a dime a dozen, but this one, which is adapted from Ashley Christensen's cookbook, "Poole's: Recipes From a Modern Diner," is a game-changing celebration of flavors, colors and textures: broccoli, toasted pecans and red grapes are cloaked in a warm bacon-scallion vinaigrette, then sprinkled with small chunks of sharp white Cheddar. Ms. Christensen's recipe, which uses the florets as well as the stalks, asks you to blanch the broccoli (cooking it for a few minutes in generously salted boiling water, then shocking it with salted iced water). It takes a little extra time, but the crisp-tender, bright green broccoli, seasoned inside and out, is your just reward. Try not to eat the entire bowl yourself. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These one-bowl cookies, sometimes known as crispies, are buttery like the Danish cookies in blue tins, tender in the middle like snickerdoodles and snappy like Scottish shortbread. But there’s nothing else quite like them, and they go with everything. No one knows the exact provenance of the recipe, but Nabisco sold a similar cookie called brown-edge wafers until they discontinued production in 1996. This all-butter version is adapted from Millie Shea of Traverse City, Mich., who learned it from her mother in the 1930s. For best results, be sure to cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, and don’t overbake. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These heavenly little bars, adapted from the Southern cookbook author Julia Reed, are a modern-day, perfect-for-a-picnic version of a traditional custard pie made from flour, cornmeal, sugar, eggs, butter and buttermilk. They are like lemon bars without the lip-puckering citrus: a blanket of egg-rich custard generously laced with vanilla atop a lightly salted, crumbly shortbread crust. (If you don't have buttermilk, you can make an easy substitute by combining one tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice with a cup of milk. Let stand for 5 minutes, then measure out ¾ cup.) Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

No one really knows who invented chicken Vesuvio, a roast chicken and potato dish in white wine sauce named after Mount Vesuvius, the volcano in Campania, Italy. Some believe the dish first appeared on the menu at Vesuvio, a well-known Chicago restaurant in the 1930s; others believe it’s a riff on the roast chicken dishes that grandmothers in Southern Italy have been making for hundreds of years. (The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.) Whatever its origins, Chicagoans claim it as their own, and you can find it at almost every Italian-American restaurant in the Windy City. The dish always includes plenty of oregano and lemon juice, and usually a scattering of fresh or frozen peas for color. We reached out to La Scarola, one of the most popular Italian-American restaurants in Chicago, for their recipe, and then we adapted it for home cooks. Serve it with plenty of crusty bread, for sopping up the mouthwatering sauce. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

If you Google “mug cake,” you’ll get more than 100 million results for the one-serving cake that’s baked in a mug in the microwave. Yet finding the right recipe — not too dense, not too sweet — is harder than one might hope. This version, adapted from “Baking Class: 50 Fun Recipes Kids Will Love to Bake!” by Deanna F. Cook, is great, and requires just a few pantry staples. For a molten chocolate mug cake, sprinkle the top with some mini chocolate chips before popping it into the microwave, then remove it a few seconds early. This cute little cake may have been developed for children, but everyone loves it. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This recipe looks hard, but it’s not. Promise. A very easy chocolate cake is transformed into a version of tres leches cake, the classic Latin American dessert, by drenching it with evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream and topping it with a lightly sweetened whipped cream. Each component of this recipe — the cake, the tres leches and the whipped cream — are all adapted from “Simple Cake: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake” by Odette Williams, a choose-your-own-adventure cookbook that provides you with several cake and toppings recipes that you can combine as you wish. Ms. Williams’s recipe doesn’t call for it, but adding a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the whipped cream is a lovely addition. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

You like chocolate chip cookies. You like pizza. What could be better than a giant chocolate chip pizza cookie? If your answer is, “pretty much nothing,” we’d say you’re 100% right. This Instagram-worthy treat starts with a batch of our famous chocolate chip cookie dough (with a smidge of cornstarch to keep the cookie soft and gooey in the center), but from there, it’s all yours. When we took it out of the oven, we spread on cherry jam “pizza sauce,” drizzled on melted white chocolate “mozzarella,” and added rounds of raspberry fruit leather “pepperoni.” But warmed Nutella and blobs of marshmallow fluff are a pretty awesome combination, too. We developed this recipe for a special print-only edition of The New York Times for Kids, but our sources tell us grown-up sweet tooths can't resist this oversized treat either. For a more sophisticated dinner party-worthy variation, leave off the toppings and serve generous wedges with scoops of vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

No one really knows the origins of fried coconut shrimp, the crunchy, breaded kind that’s served in chain steakhouses and beachfront restaurants, but its roots are likely found in the tiki bar culture, which was all the rage in the United States after World War II, when access to tropical produce like coconuts and pineapples became an everyday thing. Using egg whites instead of whole eggs and cornstarch instead of flour yields shrimp that are simultaneously crunchy yet light, and go just as well with piña coladas as they do with Champagne. We paired ours with a simple spicy-sweet dip made with marmalade, Dijon mustard and Sriracha, but you can also serve them with store-bought sweet chile sauce.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Depending on where you’re from, this simple dip is known as cowboy caviar or Texas caviar, and it’s a favorite at tailgates and potlucks all over the South. Its creator, Helen Corbitt, a dietitian from New York, had never heard of black-eyed peas when she moved to Texas in 1931. The exact details are fuzzy, but at some point in her 40 years working in restaurants there, she combined black-eyed peas with a simple vinaigrette, and it was a big hit. The recipe has evolved over the years, and you can find a number of variations online. Some contain corn and black beans (as this one does), and others avocado. Some call for bottled Italian salad dressing, others homemade. No matter how you tweak it, it’s always good with a pile of tortilla chips.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Don't toss that little bit of cranberry sauce leftover from Thanksgiving dinner. This recipe, which we developed for a special kids' edition of The New York Times, calls for making it into a savory-sweet salsa that everyone will love. Just add some chopped fresh tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro and jalapeño to prepared whole cranberry sauce (not the jellied stuff). Stir in some lime zest and juice, and a sprinkling of chile powder, cumin and cayenne. Serve with enchilada pie or tortilla chips, and consider stocking canned cranberry sauce in your cabinet all year long.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This simple, refreshing and not-too-sweet frozen dessert is the perfect blank canvas to show off that fancy Italian balsamic vinegar in your cabinet. Natasha Pickowicz, the pastry chef at Café Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar in New York, developed this easy yet sophisticated recipe for the 2019 NYT Food Festival. Ms. Pickowicz also likes this semifreddo with a spoonful of jam, or a drizzle of maple syrup, chocolate syrup or honey. (The photo shows a tart-sweet combination of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup.) Everything seems to shine against the backdrop of this parfait. If you’d like, you can substitute mascarpone for the cream cheese, although the final result might be a bit softer. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Many people may not think of cumin as a traditional seasoning for Chinese food, but the earthy spice is found regularly in the cuisine of Xi’an, a city in northwest China that is the eastern origin of the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road. Cumin, chile and Sichuan peppercorns are used generously, resulting in bold, not-for-the-faint-of-heart dishes that combine Chinese and Middle Eastern flavors. This recipe, which is adapted from “To Asia, With Love” by Hetty McKinnon, is a vegan riff on the signature lamb dish at Xi’an Famous Foods, a restaurant chain in New York, that is made with chunks of meat dry-fried in a heavy cumin spice mix. This version features tofu and cauliflower. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Einat Admony, the chef at Balaboosta, Taïm and Bar Bolonat, came up with a simplified version of baklava that was featured in “Food52 Genius Desserts: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Bake.” Instead of stacking individual layers of phyllo dough, Ms. Admony calls for rolling up the nut filling in the phyllo and slicing it into discs as you would cinnamon rolls, then baking and drizzling the slices with syrup. Like traditional baklava, they are shatteringly crisp, gooey and sweet in all the right places, but much less work. Her original recipe calls for raw peanuts, but roasted work just fine. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Cinnamon rolls are always a good idea, but traditional yeast-risen versions aren't exactly a treat you can make on a whim. This recipe, however, comes together in under an hour. Adapted from “At Home With Magnolia: Classic American Recipes From the Owner of Magnolia Bakery” by Allysa Torey, this formula uses baking powder and baking soda to make the dough rise quickly. Toasted pecans add crunch to the cinnamon-sugar filling, and a tangy cream cheese glaze blankets the top of the rolls. The end result is tender, chewy and cakey rolls that taste best when unspooled bit by bit and eaten with your fingers. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Just when you thought the world couldn’t improve upon cinnamon rolls, this dreamy mashup comes along. Adapted from “Procrastibaking: 100 Recipes for Getting Nothing Done in the Most Delicious Way Possible” (Atria, 2020) by Erin Gardner, they are actually quite easy to put together: Toss together a basic scone dough, then roll it out, spread it with a sweet cinnamon-butter filling, cut it into strips, roll it up, score and bake. Once cooled, drizzle the roll with a simple vanilla sugar icing, gently break into wedges and serve to the delight of your loved ones. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These adorable D.I.Y. Pop-Tarts are a bit more work than the original toaster pastries, which were created by Kellogg in the 1960s as a sort of all-in-one, portable toast and jam, but making them at home means you can customize the fillings and toppings to suit your fancy. You can use two rounds (about 14 ounces) of store-bought pie dough for the pastry, but this cream cheese version is easy to put together and even easier to work with. If it starts to get too soft while you’re rolling and cutting it, pop it into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes and try again. This recipe includes a quick berry jam for the filling, but you can use about ¾ cup store-bought jam, too. Peanut butter and jelly would be pretty great, as would chocolate-hazelnut spread. These keep well stored in an airtight container for about a week. Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, they also freeze like a dream for up to 3 months.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This classic Shanghainese dish, adapted from “My Shanghai: Recipes and Stories from a City on the Water” by Betty Liu (Harper, 2021), features pork belly braised in light and dark soy sauces, Shaoxing wine and rock sugar until it’s deeply flavored, caramelized and glossy, a popular method called “red cooking.” There are endless variations of this dish throughout Shanghai: Some include hard-boiled eggs, tofu knots or salted yellow croaker fish. This one is gently seasoned with whole star anise and ginger. While the recipe suggests three hours’ braising, heed Ms. Liu’s advice: “The longer the better. My husband’s grandfather makes this dish as well, and he just lets it simmer over a small flame all day, filling the kitchen with the most tantalizing aroma.” Begin tasting the braising liquid at the 2-hour mark; if it’s too sweet or salty, add more soy sauce or rock sugar until the flavor makes you do a little dance.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

In 1955, Ernest Morgado, a Honolulu businessman, served a group of farmers grilled chicken that had been marinated in his mother’s teriyaki-style sauce. It was such a hit that he decided to market it with the name “huli huli.” Huli means “turn” in Hawaiian and refers to how it’s prepared: grilled between two racks and turned halfway through cooking. This simplified version calls for chicken pieces and a standard grill. The original recipe is a trade secret, but you can find many slightly different variations on the internet, typically including ginger, garlic, soy sauce, something sweet (honey, brown sugar or maple syrup) and something acidic (vinegar, white wine, lime juice or pineapple juice). This recipe is adapted from “Aloha Kitchen: Recipes from Hawai‘i” by Alana Kysar (Ten Speed, March 2019). It also works beautifully with boneless chicken thighs, but adjust your cooking time accordingly. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Also known as Venetians, Neapolitans or tricolore cookies, these classic Italian-American treats are not really cookies at all, but thin, dense layers of brightly hued almond cake stacked with apricot jam, and coated with glossy chocolate. The layers are traditionally red, white and green to resemble the Italian flag, but, of course, you can play around with the colors depending on the holiday and what you have on hand. This version is adapted from Mary Carpino, from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., who made them every Christmas for years. One of her granddaughters, Nicole Carpino Frasco, passed along the recipe to us. We increased the chocolate and salt slightly, but the festive spirit of the recipe remains. Mrs. Carpino stored them in her chilly winter attic, but if you don’t have one of those, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 5 months. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

If you think you don’t need another Bundt cake recipe, this one exists to prove you wrong. Adapted from Nell Lewis of Platte City, Mo., who entered the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in 1963, it is a favorite of food bloggers and Pinterest lovers alike. On the surface, it’s not that different from your typical pound cake, but what makes it special is a vanilla-scented, buttery sugar glaze that’s poured over the still-warm cake. Left to sit for several hours before unmolding, the glaze soaks into the cake, making it incredibly tender and rich while leaving behind a delightful sugary crust. There are a lot of variations out there — some with bourbon in place of the vanilla, others with sherry — so feel free to play around. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This recipe, adapted from “Chicano Eats: Recipes From My Mexican-American Kitchen” (Harper Design, 2020) by Esteban Castillo, is less dip than it is pasta — a smoky, spicy version of the best boxed macaroni and cheese you’ve ever had. Make a very simple roux, to which you add smoked paprika and three types of grated cheese (mozzarella, Mexican cheese blend and Parmesan). Stir in the noodles until they are glossy and coated. You could stop there or take it over the top by finishing the dish with crumbled, cooked chorizo and sautéed mushrooms. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This surprisingly tender vegan chocolate cake is made entirely in an 8-by-8-inch baking pan: Just toss in the ingredients, stir until you don’t see any flour streaks, then bake. For flourish, add a small handful of chocolate chips before baking or sprinkle the finished cake with a little confectioners’ sugar. Adapted from Mollie Katzen’s “Honest Pretzels: And 64 Other Amazing Recipes for Kids Who Love to Cook,” this recipe was developed for kids, but adults love it, too. It’s an ideal snacking cake, or you could gussy it up with a simple ganache frosting. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Maida Heatter, the legendary dessert-cookbook author, tested this recipe 20 times before deeming it good enough for publication in The Times in May 1972. Her toil was worth the trouble: Eight months later, it was named the paper’s most requested dessert recipe of the year. This is an adaptation of the version that appears in Ms. Heatter’s book “Happiness is Baking” (Little, Brown, 2019). It begins with a big batch of chocolate mousse, half of which is baked in a pie plate. As it cools, it sinks in the middle, creating a dense, fudgy cake with a bit of an elevated edge. The remaining mousse is piled in the center, then topped with snowy whipped cream and chocolate shavings. One note: Like most traditional mousses, this one contains raw eggs. Use the best pasteurized eggs you can find. If that worries you, try another Maida Heatter dessert instead.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This incredibly easy soup, which was developed for a special kids edition of The Times, is just the thing to warm you from fingertips to toes on a chilly day. It starts with a simple garlic-ginger broth, to which you add pretty much any vegetable, tofu or cooked meat that you like (meatballs are fun). Just be sure to slice any firm vegetables thinly, so they can cook quickly. Toss a tangle of cooked noodles in to the broth, and add a frenzy of toppings – halved hard-boiled eggs, roasted peanuts, sliced scallions, sprouts, nori (a type of seaweed), a drizzle of sriracha – whatever excites you. As for noodles, we like udon, because they're delightfully soft and chewy, but you can also use spaghetti, bucatini or even ramen. (Fun fact: Udon dough is traditionally kneaded with your feet.)

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These classic no-bake peanut butter and chocolate treats are also known as cow patties or preacher cookies. The story goes like this: If a housewife looked out the window and saw the preacher coming up the mountain on his horse, she could whip up a batch of these cookies in the amount of time it would take him to reach the front door. True or not, it’s a good story — and a great cookie that’s a cinch to put together. Combine all the ingredients in a pot over medium heat, then drop spoonfuls on a sheet pan and chill until set. Be sure to use quick-cooking oats, not instant, when making these cookies. The less-processed oats provide delightful texture and chewiness.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This recipe comes from Sister Pie, a Detroit bakery specializing in pies and baked goods, like blueberry plum balsamic pie, buttered corn scones and rhubarb blondies, that are “comforting with a side of adventure.” These oversize cookies embody that ethos. They’re tender, sweet and peanut buttery, but gussied up with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt and a hint of smoked paprika. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Fudgy like a brownie but slightly cakey (and light) from the pumpkin purée, these delightful blondies are the ultimate fall sweet treat. They’re a riff on a Martha Stewart recipe, tweaked by Annie Marshall of Everyday Annie to include butterscotch chips and white chocolate. (If white chocolate’s not your thing, don’t worry: It’s not cloying, but adds perfect little pockets of sweetness.) Add nuts or don’t, but do chill a bit before cutting if you have the time, as it helps ensure clean, even squares. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Layer cakes are pretty, but for many, they require far too much work to make on a regular basis. This cake, adapted from “Modern Baking: Cakes, Cookies and Everything in Between” by Donna Hay, may find a place in your recipe repertoire. It requires just two bowls — one for the cake and one for the frosting — and there’s no need to separate wet and dry ingredients. You just toss everything into a bowl and stir. The end result is a tender, sophisticated cake slathered with a glossy milk chocolate-sour cream ganache. Ms. Hay sprinkled black sea salt around the edges of her cake with stunning effect, but traditional white sea salt looks beautiful, too. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Sort of a Yankee riff on the South’s chess pie, this buttery and rich custard pie is adapted from “Sister Pie: The Recipes and Stories of a Big-Hearted Bakery in Detroit” by Lisa Ludwinski. Use the best dark maple syrup you can find, and don’t forget the flaky sea salt. It takes the pie from simply sweet to sophisticated. Keep an eye on the crust while it's baking: If it’s browning too much for your taste, lightly cover the entire pie with a sheet of aluminum foil for the remaining time. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This vibrant dish is adapted from “Keeping It Simple” (Hardie Grant, 2020), a book of weeknight recipes by the food writer Yasmin Fahr. Miso and ghee are tossed with radishes and rubbed underneath the skin of chicken thighs before both are roasted on the same sheet pan. Fresh scallions, sesame seeds and lime juice provide a bright finish. If you don’t have ghee, regular unsalted butter will do just fine. And if you’ve never had roasted radishes, you’re in for a treat: High heat eliminates the vegetable’s bitterness, coaxes out its sweetness and leaves the lovely pink color behind. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Adapted from Diana Henry’s “From the Oven to the Table: Simple Dishes That Look After Themselves,” this true one-pot wonder of chicken, black beans, rice, tomatoes and chiles will make everyone at the table happy. As the chicken thighs roast, the cumin-scented rice soaks up all of the delicious juices. When the timer chimes, the rice and chicken emerge from the oven perfectly cooked. Be sure to use a 12-inch skillet here; a smaller or larger pan might result in under- or overcooked chicken or rice. Leftovers, if you have any, are great in tacos or enchiladas. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

If you’ve spent any time on Pinterest or food blogs, you’ve likely come across a recipe for three-ingredient barbecue pulled pork that can be made in the slow cooker. Methods and ingredients vary, but the recipe almost always calls for boneless pork shoulder, some sort of dark cola (usually Dr Pepper or root beer) and barbecue sauce. Dubious? We were too, so we asked the members of our NYT Cooking Community Facebook page if anyone had ever made it and if they liked it. We received more than 150 very opinionated responses. Many readers have come up with their own clever twists, like using coffee or beer in place of cola, adding onions or chipotles, rubbing the meat with a spice blend and searing the meat before cooking. We tried cooking it a few different ways and found we liked this adaptation best. It calls for a few more ingredients and an extra step or two, but it’s got layers of flavor and it’s still mostly fuss-free. (You can find the pressure-cooker version of this recipe here.)

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Gently spiced poached pears, vanilla pastry cream and flaky puff pastry are the stars of this sophisticated dessert that was created for the 2019 NYT Food Festival by Rachel Gaylord, the pastry chef at La Mercerie in New York. Ideally, this delicate tart should be eaten the day it’s made, so if you’re planning to serve this at a dinner party, make all of the components in advance and assemble the tart just before your guests arrive. Leftovers, if you have any, should be stored in the refrigerator and brought to room temperature before serving. The pastry will have lost some of its flakiness, but it will still be delicious. (This adaptation mercifully calls for store-bought puff pastry, but if you’re feeling ambitious, you can make your own.) Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

When a recipe for a seasoned snack mix first appeared on the back of the Chex cereal box in the 1950s, people went crazy for it. Years later, a Google search for the recipe yields more than two million results for various riffs, from savory to spicy to sweet. Many call for tossing the dry ingredients with the wet, then letting the mix dry on paper towels, but baking it at a low temperature yields crisper, more flavorful results. Hot sauce gives this version a bit of a kick, but if you don’t like heat, you can leave it out. View this recipe as a template to tweak as you see fit: Use crunchy, roasted edamame or green peas in place of the nuts, substitute Thai red curry paste or Sriracha for the hot sauce, or double up on whatever ingredients you like best. Keep the dry-to-wet ratios the same and you can’t go wrong.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These sugar cookie bars, which are adapted from “American Girl Cookies,” are happiness in a 9-by-13 pan. The addition of cream cheese in the batter makes them very tender and slightly tangy, a perfect counterpoint to the sweet buttercream frosting. You can, and should, experiment with frosting colors and use sprinkles with abandon. Whatever you do, do not overbake these beauties. When testing for doneness, you want a few moist crumbs to cling to the toothpick. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This happy little loaf was adapted from “Sun Bread” by Elisa Kleven (Puffin Books, 2001), a beautifully illustrated children’s book about a lonely canine baker who finds herself in the midst of a cold, long winter. Missing the warmth and light of the sun, she bakes a yeast-risen one in her oven, which (surprise!) awakens the real sun, hastening the arrival of spring. You could bake it to celebrate the Winter Solstice and the start of longer days, or just to brighten an otherwise dreary day. It’s a delightfully simple recipe that yields a squishy, buttery loaf best served straight from the oven slathered in more — you guessed it — butter. But it’s also great sliced and toasted with jam. Ms. Kleven’s original recipe calls for shaping a face out of bits of dough, which you can certainly do in Step 4 before the second rise if you’re making this with children, or if you’re a child at heart. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This magnificent version of the popular banana-pineapple-pecan cake developed by Southern Living magazine in 1978 is adapted from the chef Ashley Christensen's cookbook, "Poole's: Recipes from a Modern Diner." It is a Thanksgiving-worthy dessert for the pie averse: a supremely moist, dense cake crowded with sweet potato, roasted bananas, pineapple, currants and green peanuts (if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line, the plain, roasted variety work just fine). A lightly sweet, butter-cream cheese frosting finishes it off. Set aside a solid afternoon for this project cake, as you have to roast the bananas and grate the sweet potato, and the assembly takes some patience and agility — but it is well worth the toil. This recipe is for a towering three-layer version (get out your biggest mixing bowls), but you could just make a more modest, but still generously sized, two-layer cake instead. To do so, cut all of the ingredients in half (use just 2 eggs); divide the batter between two 8-inc

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This recipe was developed for a special kids’ edition of The New York Times, but we’ve found that people of all ages love it. It sounds a little strange, but we promise you, it’s surprisingly delicious. It’s easy to make, and anything you don't already have on hand can be picked up from the corner store. We used leftover turkey, braised greens and mashed sweet potatoes, but feel free to experiment with savory dishes like sautéed brussels sprouts, cornbread stuffing or mashed potatoes. Top your slice with cranberry sauce salsa, a dollop of sour cream and a scattering of roasted pumpkin seeds. (We used a mix of Velveeta, Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses because the Velveeta helps prevent clumping, but, if processed cheese bothers you, leave it out and add a half-cup more Cheddar or Monterey Jack.)

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

The Polish have pierogi, the Japanese have gyoza: Many of the world’s cultures have some version of dumplings, whether they’re filled with meat, cheese or vegetables, and baked, steamed, fried or boiled. This recipe is adapted from the children’s cookbook “Around the World: Delicious Dishes from Across the Globe,” from the American Girl cookbook series, and was inspired by the dumplings you might get at your local Chinese takeout spot. They’re not necessarily authentic, but they are delicious, and folding and frying them is a fun weekend project for kids of all ages. You can use round or square wonton wrappers for this project, but don’t forget the sauce: It’s what makes these dumplings great. Margaux Laskey