Apple Cider

This sweetly refreshing summer cooler contains no alcohol, but the wild-berry tea and pureed strawberries give it that sangria color. For guests who prefer their beverages a bit more spirited, B. Smith recommends adding white Muscat or light rum to taste.

Mincemeat pie is a classic dessert, but the booze-soaked fruit that goes into it is equally delicious spooned over ice cream—or, even better, mixed in, as in this frozen treat.

Chunky apples, plus onion, thyme, and cider make this comforting dish especially appropriate for the holidays.

This luscious combination of hot cider and Averna is our favorite way to spike cider these days. Sweetened with citrusy Grand Marnier and enriched with salted butter, it’s the perfect hot drink to enjoy outdoors.

The classic treat gets a double dose of cider goodness from a syrupy reduction that is both mixed into the dough and used for the shiny glaze.

Appalachian apple stack cake is communal cooking at its finest. Originally, each layer was baked at home by individual cooks, likely in cast-iron skillets, then brought together and assembled for church suppers and gatherings. Instead of the spongy cakes we're used to today, these layers are more like cookies—firmer, so they slowly soften beneath liberal applications of apple butter and cooked apples. This recipe stays mostly true to those principles. Instead of individually baking the layers one skillet at a time, though, use a cake pan to trace a pattern on parchment paper and trim circles of rolled dough to fit it. Bake two layers simultaneously (more if you have a convection oven). The edges of the cake layers won't be as perfectly neat as if you'd baked them in skillets or cake pans, but that's all right. This is a rustic cake.

When we opened Ko, we did so with a deep-fried apple pie. It resonated so much with people that we decided to use the apple pie as inspiration for a cake. We already had the crumb-into-ganache-into-frosting down and we loved the pie crumb we had developed for a few Noodle Bar and Ko desserts seasons before. This cake will make you seem like a genius, though all you are doing is layering apple pie fixins between layers of slightly nutty (with brown butter) cake. Leftovers make especially delicious impromptu cake truffles (see page 122).

Sparkling cider, rather than sugar, gives our batter its touch of sweetness. The cider also ramps up the apple flavor and adds to the beignets' lovely golden hue.