Electric Mixer

Sour cream gives this cake a particularly lovely tang. Tube pans are made with both regular and removable bottoms; either is fine for this recipe.

If you use miniloaf pans, reduce the baking time to forty-five minutes. Because this recipe calls for dried figs, it can be made year-round; the figs’ seeds give the bread a nice crunch.

If you use miniloaf pans, reduce the baking time to forty-five minutes. This bread is delightful as soon as it cools, but it’s even better the next day, when the flavors have had a chance to develop.

If you use miniloaf pans, reduce the baking time to forty-five minutes. The recipe comes from Deanna Caceres Cahn, a former brand manager in the Martha Stewart Signature furniture group.

Be sure to use unsulfured molasses—not sulfured or blackstrap—in this recipe. Also, buy the freshest, moistest dates you can find.

Try sprinkling granulated sugar over the tops of the unbaked muffins (one tablespoon should cover all twelve) to give them a bit of crunch.

This pie is as sweet and sticky as a pecan pie. Serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or cut the sweetness with a dollop of sour cream or unsweetened whipped cream.

This recipe was in Mrs. Rowe’s self-published cookbook, Mrs. Rowe’s Favorite Recipes, which is no longer in print. A note at the bottom of the page gives low-fat options, like using low-fat cream cheese and margarine. Give it a whirl if you like, but you’d be missing out on the true-blue flavor of this pie. The coconut and pecans will need close attention while toasting; don’t let their heavenly smell distract you. In fact, they continue to cook for a minute or so after being removed from the heat, so stop cooking them just before they look the way you want them to—golden brown and crunchy. Try the Chocolate Cookie Crust (page 21) for contrast, or the Gingersnap Crust (page 22) to cut the sweetness.

The icy strawberry filling in this pie is pleasantly complemented by the luscious whipped cream. The pie tastes just like a margarita—the tequila flavor adds quite a zing. The recipe calls for freezing the whipped cream on top of the pie, but you can also freeze just the strawberry part and add the whipped cream when you serve the pie.

Stephen Harriman, a writer for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, says, “For some reason, I was expecting the peanut pie to be a pecan pie look-alike. Instead it looked more like a lemon meringue or banana cream pie. If you like peanuts smooth, you’ll love this.”

Smooth, firm, and creamy, this pie is naturally a lovely shade of pink, so you need not add the food coloring unless you want a deeper color. After 6 hours in the freezer, it’s slice-able but still soft. Left overnight, it’s firm but still creamy—a little piece of strawberry heaven.

This recipe was found in a notebook belonging to Bertha, one of Mildred’s sisters. It was clipped out of an old newspaper and pasted onto a page of the notebook. It’s a festive-looking and showy pie offering a delicate almond-coconut flavor and a spongy, frothy texture somewhere between meringue and marshmallow, with a hint of chewiness from the coconut. It makes a delightful addition to any holiday table.

If you have never made your own whipped cream, you’ll be surprised by how easy it is—and by how much better the flavor is. Soft peaks barely hold together and make a lovely plop on the pie, but the cream doesn’t hold up well in this state, so use it quickly. Medium peaks will peak but flop over a bit, and stiff peaks will stand up straight. Stiff is what you want if you are folding it into something else. If you have any left over—most people don’t because it’s so delicious and easy to eat—it can keep in the refrigerator for a few days in any storage container, but you might have to whisk it a bit before serving.

Pile this meringue on as thick as you can for a splendid-looking pie. Meringue is a perfect opportunity for the home baker to get creative with the spatula. You can smooth it over, swirl it around, or make fancy peaks. No one way is better than the other. Mrs. Rowe insisted on using a chilled bowl for the mixing. It’s a bit of a mystery why, as modern bakers claim it’s unnecessary. Maybe her eggs were so fresh that they were still warm and she needed to bring them down to room temperature by using a chilled bowl. In any case, the bakers at Mrs. Rowe’s restaurants still use chilled bowls. Weeping can happen with any meringue. A “weeping” meringue occurs when the sugar solution comes out of the meringue in drops. Sometimes a weeping meringue makes a slimy layer on top of the filling. The meringue will still taste yummy, but it won’t be as pretty. Sealing the edges of the meringue is an important step in helping to prevent weeping; it also helps assure that the filling won’t spill over. Just add some water to your fingers and press the meringue to the crust along the rim.

Less puffy and showy, but just as delicious as Mrs. Rowe’s Meringue (opposite), this family recipe is a tougher breed. The salt and cornstarch fuse and stabilize it, making it easier to manage and giving it a harder glaze once it’s baked, which means less likelihood of weeping.

This crust, which has a nice tangy flavor, can be used in any recipe that calls for Plain Pie Pastry (page 17) or Vinegar Pie Crust (page 19). It’s a good idea to chill the crust for at least 15 minutes before baking; this will help the crust stick together better.

Bakers have long swirled dark and light batters together to make marbleized cakes. This version, baked in cupcake tins, relies on equal parts milk and cream for richness. Creating the two-tone appearance is as easy as a few strokes with a knife or skewer. There’s no need to be precise; each cupcake’s unique pattern is part of its charm. They’re pretty enough to leave unadorned, but if you prefer, drizzle the cupcakes with milk glaze (page 63) or top with dark chocolate frosting (page 302).

The maple is among the most prized trees in the American Northeast, beloved for its bright fall foliage as well as the syrup made from its sap in the spring. Here the crimson autumn leaves are cast in marzipan and placed atop maple-flavored cupcakes and frosting. Keep these cupcakes in mind for Thanksgiving or a leaf-peeping picnic in the country. Unfrosted cupcakes, still warm from the oven, are great for breakfast. For where to find the leaf cutters, see Sources, page 342.