Michael Graydon Nikole Herriott

People who love black licorice will flip for these assertively flavored candies. They’ll be not-quite-black without the food coloring but still very cool looking.

A super-easy, no-mixer-needed cookie dough recipe that doesn’t dirty any bowls and leaves plenty of time for the fun stuff—baking, decorating, and eating dough scraps, of course.

This ambitious Mallomars-inspired recipe is a project: Make the (wheat-free!) cookie base and top with marshmallow on day one; enrobe in chocolate on day two.

Both types of tahini should be roughly the same consistency for this halvah recipe—ideally pretty loose and pourable—which makes it easy to marble them. Most black tahini will be great, but Roland and Whole Foods 365 Organic were the best of the white tahini we tested.

Mint julep + bubbly? This cocktail recipe combines the two delicious classics and is the ultimate way to celebrate.

In this recipe, a few textured and vibrant toppings gussy up a tender, buttery, and ultrasimple shortbread.

Left unadorned, these gummy candies look like precious gems, or they can be transformed into sparkly crunchy treats by tossing in coarse sugar before serving.

Crush candies in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Using a hand mixer is more effective than a stand mixer for this chocolate-peppermint fudge recipe.

You don’t need hours to simmer tomato sauce. This recipe shows you how to make an excellent one in 30 minutes, with 5 ingredients, in 1 pan, with very little effort.

Getting the consistency of the creamy mushroom sauce right is key for this pasta recipe. You want to reduce it just until it clings to the pasta to create a light coating.

The genius of this pasta recipe is in the contrast of the textures and flavors. If spicy isn’t your thing, sub in any fresh sausage you like.

A flavorful tomato sauce that’s a cinch to make and rock shrimp that come already peeled mean a weeknight dinner recipe has never been so easy—or delicious.

When working with a large quantity of greens, it’s much easier to sauté them if they’re blanched first. Their time in the olive oil is more for flavoring and reaching the ideal texture.

Elevating the humble onion: Roasting them in their skins retains their natural sugars, and they get meltingly soft without disintegrating.

Richly spiced gingerbread with the texture of a moist, dense devil’s food cake, this recipe only gets better if you make it ahead.

If you really want to go all out, you can brown the lamb in a wood-burning oven (erm, if you've got one handy) where it could absorb smoky flavors. For the rest of us mere mortals, that step for this recipe can be done in a hot oven.

This roasted butternut squash recipe is perfect for a dinner party—serving on a large platter encourages second helpings and all the half portions, tastes, and just-one-more bites that follow.

This bean recipe is purposely brothy; if you have leftovers, reheat and smash them—they're great on toast with an egg. Also, if you have any leftover meat, throw it in during the last few minutes of cooking for an even heartier flavor, just as we did.

Broccoli would be just as good in this pasta with recipe, as would diced winter squash such as butternut or acorn.

This pesto pasta recipe is the solution for any leftover hardy green, lettuce, or herb you don’t know what to do with. Cleaning out your fridge has never been so rewarding!