Recipes with water

Melomacarona, traditional Greek honey cookies made with oil instead of butter, dipped in warm honey syrup and topped with chopped walnuts. Egg-free and butter-free.

Hot oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, and sunflower seeds, ready in 15 minutes. A no-sugar-added, diabetic-friendly breakfast topped with milk or yogurt for a wholesome start.

French-style lemon tart with bright citrus filling, candied lemon slices on top, and a dusting of powdered sugar. Puckeringly tart, silky smooth, and a showstopper on any dessert table.

Pressure-canned white beans with ham hocks, brown sugar, chili sauce, and mustard. A classic batch canning recipe that fills your pantry with smoky, sweet baked-style beans.

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.

Hot-sauce chili simmers cubed beef chuck with green chilies, hot pepper sauce, chili powder, and cumin into a no-bean Texas-style chili. Two-stage cook for fork-tender beef.

Swedish cardamom braid bread with raisins, a classic Scandinavian yeast bread shaped into a beautiful three-strand plait. Soft, fragrant, and lightly sweet.

Rich chocolate truffle cake made with a full pound of semi-sweet chocolate, barely any flour, and whipped egg whites for a dense, fudgy texture dusted with powdered sugar.

Fluted sandwich cookies filled with tinted vanilla buttercream in three pastel colours. A pretty bakery-style cookie with a cut-out window on top showing the green, pink or yellow filling underneath.

Fresh blueberry pie with a clever twist: whipped cream lines the bottom and sides of the baked shell before the cooked-and-fresh berry filling pours in. Three hours of chilling sets it into a cool, lush slice.

Raisin cookies use a boiled-water cooking method that plumps the raisins into the sweet brown sugar syrup before baking. No eggs, no butter required. Frugal Depression-era cookie that still satisfies.

Honey whole wheat bread recipe with vital wheat gluten for a lofty rise, plus a 50/50 blend of bread flour and whole-wheat flour. Soft sandwich crumb, gentle sweetness from honey, makes two loaves.

Stovetop oatmeal with cinnamon, plump raisins and toasty walnuts, finished off the heat so the oats turn creamy and soft. A filling, high-fiber breakfast bowl ready in about 10 minutes.

Yeasty sourdough starter is the shortcut version: unbleached flour, a packet of dry yeast, and water mixed into a thick batter and left warm for a day. A fast track to bread baking when you don't want to wait two weeks for a wild starter.

Peanut butter oatmeal chippers fold quick oats, peanut butter chips, and chopped pecans into a cinnamon-nutmeg cookie dough. A spice-warmed twist on the classic oatmeal cookie.

Homemade red chili sauce from dried red chili pods, garlic, and salt. Just three ingredients blended smooth for enchiladas, tamales, burritos, and any Mexican dish that needs real chile flavor.