The Perfect Pantry®

Recipe for cardamom-brown sugar snickerdoodles cookies

What I love about snickerdoodles: even if you're not a baker, and I am not, you always have all of the ingredients you need to bake these cookies right in your pantry. Cream of tartar might not be in constant rotation, but you know you have it somewhere in the rear of your spice rack, and even if it's almost ancient, like mine, it will give these cookies the bit of puff they need. The cardamom in this recipe lends the cookies a grown-up air, but kids will love them, too. We sprinkled ours with a pinch of extra cardamom after they came out of the oven. If you like your cookies sweeter, top the cookies before baking with demerara or another large-crystal sugar.

Chocolate chocolate chip waffles recipe

Chelsea, Alex and I dubbed these waffle brownies when we took our first bites during Wafflepalooza, and I promise that when you taste these chocolate chocolate chip waffles, you'll understand. I'm a coffee-with-waffles girl, as a rule, but these waffles beg for a glass of cold milk, just like the very best brownies. For all the chocolate chips and cocoa powder, the waffles aren't as dense as you'd expect. In fact, they're almost fluffy. In our house, these are "special occasion" breakfast waffles, the kind my husband Ted might make on Christmas morning. They also make a fine (and fun) dessert, with a drizzle of raspberry sauce on top. You can make them ahead, freeze in a single layer on a sheet pan, then pack into ziploc bags; to serve, simply pop them in the toaster.

Recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip biscotti

Did your family dunk? We did. Oreos in milk, and for the older set, chocolate chip cookies in coffee. If you didn't grow up in a dunking family, you might not know that biscotti are twice-baked Italian cookies, so crispy that the best way to eat them is to dip them in coffee, or tea, or vin santo, a Tuscan dessert wine. The biscotti absorb the liquid, and just before they fall apart, you pop them in your mouth. Almost every recipe for pumpkin cookies or cupcakes or custard calls for half a cup of pumpkin pureé, so you're sure to have a little container of leftover in the refrigerator, just enough for these pumpkin chocolate chip biscotti, or you can substitute canned squash pureé. These cookies will stay crisp for a few days in an airtight container.

Recipe for crispy oatmeal cookies (and ice cream sandwiches)

When life hands you the perfect recipe for the perfect thin, crispy-but-not-too-crisp oatmeal cookies, seize the opportunity and turn them into the perfect ice cream sandwiches. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. Just head directly for the freezer, get out your favorite ice cream, and transform these cookies into everyone's favorite party dessert.