Fruit

Greece is more synonymous with flaky, honeyed pastries than gooey brownies, but amid the hills of Crete, Epicurious member Lisa Lindy swirls a figgy-cherry caramel into a chocolaty batter before baking it into a moist-in-the-middle brownie. These fruity delights will provide sticky fingers and happy faces on kids and adults like.

This buttermilk cake begins with a fluffy, vanilla-infused batter that’s topped with tart, sweet berries and covered in sugar, and then baked until golden brown.

Forget the boring “welcome to the neighborhood” pound cake of yesteryear! This dessert gets an aromatic lift from lavender syrup and fresh blueberries. The syrup can be made with either dried or fresh lavender flowers: dried will tint the syrup a pale purple, and fresh will infuse it with a more powerful floral taste.

Get a taste of North Africa with this lamb slow-cooked with stewed apricots, tomatoes, cinnamon, ginger, and lemon. To complete the Moroccan theme, serve the winter stew atop couscous. Alternatively, pair it with crusty bread for a heartier meal. Just be sure to save some leftovers, as the meat will be even tastier the following day.

These slow-cooked duck legs take several hours to braise, but the hardest thing about this recipe is waiting for the tender meat to finish cooking. Make this inexpensive yet elegant dish for a dinner party and watch as guests break into a smile after the first bite. Dried fruits and a hearty dry red give the sauce its rich appeal. Serve with buttered noodles, mashed potatoes, or fluffy quinoa.

Inside this beautiful pork roast is a sweet and savory fruit surprise: apricots, prunes, and apples. A coat of bacon keeps the meat moist as it cooks. Stuff and wrap the pork a day ahead to let the flavors marinate. The port sauce not only provides a lovely glaze for the meat but is also a great topper for side dishes like mashed potatoes and green beans.

This thick Moroccan stew gets its name from the conical earthenware pot traditionally used by North African cooks and known for producing moist, tender meats and vegetables. Here you can accomplish the same effect by slow-roasting beef short ribs in a pot at 325°F. The best part is that the short ribs can be prepped up to two days ahead of time.

Just before serving this light and simple buttermilk cake, drizzle the warm, syrupy berries on top. Serve for casual get-togethers or a birthday party, paired with a dessert wine.

Need a festive centerpiece for a holiday dinner? Choose this recipe, which calls for a tender cut of inexpensive meat. Although the instructions seem complex, preparation time and effort can be considerably reduced with some advance planning so that the day of serving, all you need to do is reheat.

With a recipe as simple as this, there’s no reason not to make dessert. The fruit comes out soft and tender, while the crumble is crisp and light golden brown. Experiment with other seasonal fruit combinations: raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries are other summer options, while apples, pears, and quince are perfect for fall. All are delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Take full advantage of summer’s bounty with this luscious pie that needs only 40 minutes of active prep time. Choose the ripest seasonal berries from the farmers’ market to create the gooey filling—the tartness of blackberries will perfectly mix with the sweetness of sugar and tapioca.

This amazingly easy recipe is a perfect, slightly sweet ending to a decadent meal or an afternoon treat on a lazy Sunday. After blending the ingredients, all you need to do is let the mixture sit in the freezer.

This soul-satisfying, butter-crusted, fruit-filled dessert is a straight-up American classic. The flaky, beautifully woven topping offers a tempting peek of whole cherries in all their fresh, tart glory, with none of the gelatinous, sticky-sweet filling you find in most cherry pies. It’s so easy and popular you might want to double the recipe and make two.

This unassuming rice salad from Mustard Seed Market & Café in Akron, Ohio, is so unusual it’s likely to shift everyone’s attention from the main course. Dates and cinnamon, two Middle Eastern staples, are paired with cashews, green onions, and cilantro and are punched up with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Use a cast-iron pot to get what Persian-style rice is best known for—the crispy toasted bits. Topped with a fried egg, it’s a casual supper; paired with simple roasted fish, it’s a proper formal meal.

Bright orange, cooling mint, sweet raisins, and earthy pecans—yep, this wild rice salad by Epicurious member Jruz has pretty much nothing in common with the salty kitchen-sink rice salad from the school cafeteria. Try this alongside pork tenderloin or roasted poultry for a welcome change from starchy mashed potatoes.

This dessert is so stunning your guests will wonder if it’s art or food. Orange-hued mango sorbet, deep purple blackberries, and cloudlike vanilla ice cream fit together in a mosaic of luscious, vibrant flavors. Indulge your creative side and layer the ingredients decoratively, filling any cracks with blackberry purée. When everything is assembled, freeze the sweet terrine anywhere from three hours to five days.

Amaretto makes this a grown-up treat. If you want the kids to enjoy these as well but don’t want to forgo the almond flavor, use a nonalcoholic Amaretto syrup such as Monin. Or omit the syrup. Just be sure to stick with thick Greek-style yogurt for an unbeatably luscious, creamy pop.

This refreshing dessert from Epicurious member Danita Sam Lai of Los Angeles is a crisp, delicious treat. Limoncello and Grand Marnier are optional but recommended, as the alcohol imparts a pleasing softness to the finished sorbet. Keep in mind that alcohol slows the freezing process, so freeze overnight before serving—unless you’re one of the many folks who likes a slightly slushier sorbet, in which case a few hours in the freezer will do nicely.

This deconstructed praline version of fondue wows time and again thanks to its simplicity and unexpected flavor. While it’s great any time of year, it’s especially suited to the summertime, when you want to keep cooking to a minimum and you have an abundance of berries, melons, peaches, and grapes at peak flavor. This setup is ideal for parties, as it encourages interaction; there’ll be no wallflowers when you set this out.

This variation on the classic biscotti from home cook Andrea Daly in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which first appeared in Bon Appétit, integrates almond extract and dried cranberries, packing both sweet and tart flavors into each biscuit. The inclusion of fruit gives them a characteristic chewy-crisp texture. These visually appealing treats make great holiday gifts, excellent accompaniments to tea and coffee, and lovely endings for a holiday feast.