Recipes with butter

Cream cheese marbled brownies with chopped nuts. A sweet chocolate batter swirled with tangy cheesecake filling, topped with more brownie batter, and zigzagged into marble. Old-fashioned bakery classic.

Giant oven-puffed pancake (Dutch baby) with lemon, vanilla, and butter, topped with black cherries, sliced almonds, and powdered sugar. A dramatic 30-minute brunch.

Swedish ginger cookies (pepparkakor) made with dark corn syrup, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. A spiced roll-and-cut dough that bakes thin and snappy for the holidays.

Christmas crackers are sweet honey-wheat holiday cookies stamped with cookie cutters and sprinkled with sugar. Makes 45 crispy-edged rectangles for gifting or dipping.

Espresso-hazelnut shortbread cookies with real coffee grounds, toasted hazelnuts, and cold butter baked low and slow. Sandy, crumbly, and deeply aromatic with a bold coffee bite.

Golden fried clam fritters made with chopped clams, a light batter of flour, eggs, and milk, dropped by the spoonful into hot oil. Crispy New England-style seafood bites.

Classic veal saltimbocca with prosciutto, fresh sage, and a quick white wine pan sauce. A traditional Roman dish that lives up to its name: jumps in the mouth. Ready in 30 minutes.

Grandma Riel's apple pie heaps tart Granny Smiths over a flour-and-sugar bottom layer, then dots with butter under a sugar-crackled crust. A heritage double-crust pie that bakes thick and never weeps.

Helen's Beef Bar-B-Que: a tangy-sweet shredded beef sandwich filling with celery, onions, mushrooms, and a brown sugar-mustard sauce. Crockpot-adaptable, makes 10 generous servings.

Cranapple cake baked in a tube pan with cranberries, shredded apple, and applesauce for moisture. A lower-fat fall cake with a vanilla confectioners sugar drizzle.

Grilled chicken breasts marinated in lemon-garlic butter, then brushed with orange marmalade for a sticky, citrus-sweet glaze and golden char. Bright, simple grilling with pantry staples.

Salmon baked in cream with bay leaf, cloves, thyme, and onion, then served with a silky cream sauce finished with lemon juice. An elegant old-school French-style fish dish with a rich, aromatic sauce.

Classic double-crust apple pie with tart apples, cinnamon, and a whisper of nutmeg. Thinly sliced fruit and a flour-sugar coating give a clean-slicing filling that holds shape after cooling.

This recipe came about from a need to clean out my refrigerator, I had some fruit that need to be eaten and I used them this way, the result was tart, crispy and just plain good. There are a lot of combinations of fruit you could use but this one works well.

Classic Italian osso buco: veal shanks seared then braised low in white wine, tomatoes, and herbs until the meat falls off the bone. Finished with a bright parsley and lemon gremolata.

Chocolate-dipped strawberries with semisweet chocolate, butter, and vanilla. Just 4 ingredients for an elegant no-bake dessert or romantic treat that looks like it came from a chocolatier.