10,000 butter recipes

Almond Cookies: tender Italian-style cookies built on real almond paste, butter, and almond extract. Pressed flat with a sugared glass for crackled, sparkling tops. Makes 5 dozen.

Original red velvet cake with old-school ermine frosting: tender buttermilk crumb tinted deep red, finished with the cooked-flour boiled milk icing that came before cream cheese took over.

Raised donuts made with a yeast dough that rises overnight for a tender, pillowy crumb. Old-fashioned homemade donuts fried golden and ready for glaze, sugar, or cinnamon dust.

Pumpkin potatoes mashed with butter and onion, served with crispy fried bacon. A simple French-inspired side dish with creamy, seasonal flavor.

Dad's basic omelet: three eggs beaten with water (never milk), cooked in butter and peanut oil for a tender, fold-in-half breakfast classic. The blank canvas for any filling.

Maple walnut poundcake with a cinnamon walnut streusel swirl and pancake syrup sweetening the batter. A dense, tender tube-pan cake that makes its own maple glaze as the streusel melts during baking.

Baked marmalade pancake: a Dutch baby-style oven pancake with puffed golden edges, almond extract, and a sweet swirl of orange marmalade and powdered sugar. Brunch theater in 30 minutes.

Hoosier bean soup with navy beans and ham hock, simmered low and slow after an overnight soak. A classic Midwestern ham and bean soup that's thick, smoky, and deeply satisfying.

Tournedos of lotte (monkfish) with lobster, sauteed monkfish medallions plated with lobster meat in a silky Cognac-cream sauce enriched with homemade lobster butter. An elegant French restaurant classic for special occasions.

A rustic pie-cake hybrid loaded with diced apples and pecans, baked in a pie plate and served warm with rum butter sauce and whipped cream.

Boston banana cream pie, a soft vanilla cake split and stuffed with fresh banana slices and homemade vanilla custard, then topped with a glossy chocolate-almond glaze.

Dark chocolate layer cake with a bright orange cream filling made with sour cream, orange zest, and lemon juice. The chocolate-meets-citrus combo is a total crowd pleaser.

Chocolate mousse cake with semisweet chocolate, orange liqueur, and whipped egg whites folded into a rich batter. Part one covers the cake layers with a thin, flaky crust.

Chewy Rolo cookie bars: a yellow cake mix base studded with halved Rolo candies that melt into rivers of chocolate caramel. Five-ingredient bake-sale magic.

The crisp, densely chocolaty cookies, with an unusually long baking time, were an annual favorite among the 20-plus recipes that Susan Couchman of Hartland remembers were made each year by her mother, Gloria Kuchler.

Panzarotti: crisp fried Italian crescents stuffed with molten mozzarella, ham, and Parmesan. Golden, puffed, and served piping hot, the antipasto showstopper worth frying a fresh batch for.