10,000 bitter recipes

Cherry-filled sheet cake with a buttery dough base, canned cherry pie filling, and a crunchy walnut streusel topping. An easy crowd-sized dessert baked in one pan.

Mardi Gras king cake made from a rich buttery brioche-style yeast dough, shaped into a traditional oval ring, and topped with corn syrup and colored sugar. Hide the baby and let the good times roll.

Eggnog thumbprint cookies filled with rum-spiked buttercream and dusted with nutmeg. A buttery shortbread base with a creamy holiday filling. Perfect for Christmas cookie tins.

Christmas cream wafers sandwich tinted buttercream between sugar-coated, fork-pricked butter wafers. A retro holiday cookie that comes together with just five ingredients in the dough.

Buttery cream wafer sandwich cookies with a rich fudge filling made from unsweetened chocolate and coffee. Delicate, flaky, and sugar-crusted with a dark chocolate center.

Sauteed halibut with kiwi chardonnay sauce: pan-seared fillets in golden butter, topped with a bright kiwi beurre blanc. A restaurant-style fish dinner with tropical fruit flair.

This recipe includes a very simple sauce that enhances sauteed, broiled or baked fish. It can be made in camp if you brought parsley and usually impresses any old "fried fish angler."

Microwave-poached sole fillets bathed in a creamy white-wine shrimp sauce. An elegant fish dinner from the 1980s microwave-cooking era, ready in 40 minutes without dirtying a stovetop pan.

Cinnamon mini muffins with nutmeg and allspice, brushed with melted butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar while warm. Bite-sized breakfast treats that taste like a donut without the deep frying.

Oyster house apple pie with a flaky butter-shortening crust and a pre-cooked spiced apple filling. Old-tavern recipe with a glossy clove-and-cinnamon glaze.

Caramel pecan bars with a buttery shortbread crust topped with pecan halves in a honey-brown sugar caramel finished with cream. Makes 50 bars from one jelly roll pan.

Mocha crumb cake built on a boxed cake mix spiked with cold coffee and warm spices, finished with a broiled brown sugar granola topping. A quick-to-mix sheet cake with bakery-style crunch.

Buttery pecan coconut cookie balls with a hint of almond, baked golden and finished with a tropical pineapple honey glaze or a roll in powdered sugar. Makes about 6 dozen bite-sized treats.

Traditional Austrian Ischli cookies with ground almonds, sandwiched with raspberry jam and topped with mocha chocolate icing. A classic European holiday cookie worth the overnight chill.

No-bake chocolate cake with melted chocolate, butter, crushed cookies, candied fruit, cherries, and almonds. Refrigerate overnight for a dense, fudgy slice.

Ischler cookies are an Austrian classic from Bad Ischl: ground-almond shortbread rounds sandwiched with raspberry jam and crowned with espresso-spiked chocolate icing. Spa-town pastry royalty.