Cranberry

This tart treat is welcome on any Thanksgiving table.

Perfect for autumn holiday meals, this pie is best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

A cobbler is the easiest way to get to something similar to a pie—meltingly tender and juicy fruit with a crusty topping—without having to make, roll out, and crimp pie dough. Biscuit dough, in general, is easy and fast to assemble, but the cream dough below is a real cinch because you don't even have to blend butter into the flour mixture; you just pour in heavy cream and stir, then pat it out with your hands. A round cutter is your default shape but feel free to rummage through your cookie cutter collection for something fun, such as a leaf or diamond.

When you've got a native berry that's the foundation for a must-have sauce on every Thanksgiving dinner table across the country, you can count on lots of variations. Just check the Internet. This cranberry chutney is essentially a classic sauce, jazzed up with the more vibrant flavors of pineapple juice, pepper flakes, and clove. The good news is that while it's supermarket-friendly—not hard to find ingredients—it tastes remarkably more complex and nuanced than the short ingredient list would lead you to believe. Aim to make it several days ahead so that the flavors have time to mingle and mellow.

Cranberries are transformed with sweet, subtly earthy dried figs and velvety, slightly spicy Pinot Noir into a chunky, jamlike chutney. Orange zest infuses the mix with its bright citrus flavor and essential oils. Ginger works well in both savory and sweet preparations, and its touch of heat bridges the wine and fruit here. You can serve this chutney instead of the standard cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving, but it is also wonderful with pork and venison dishes, spread on a sandwich, or as an accompaniment to a cheese plate.

As with any pastry, the trick here is to keep the diced butter cold, which makes for light scones, the only sort of scones to have. I like to cut these into triangles, but rounds are lovely, too. My favorite is cranberry scones. The rich red color of the cranberries against the pale golden scones makes me wish they could just sit out on my counter all day long wrapped loosely in a kitchen towel. But once you and your family experience the moist flakiness of these lightly sweet scones, you'll know why they never seem to brighten your kitchen counter for very long.

This sweet-tart relish has 7 fewer grams of sugar than the canned kind, and it supplies disease-fighting antioxidants.

This recipe is inspired by a cranberry pie from Sarah Chase's book Cold Weather Cooking. My friend Barbara Liberman calls it "easy cake"—I call it delicious. When cranberries are in season, serve it with vanilla ice cream and your friends will love you.

When the cranberries in this buckle bake, they split open just enough to absorb the cake batter while retaining a firm outer shell and a slightly tart bite. Half are folded into the batter and half are distributed on top with the Vanilla Crumb, creating a red-jeweled delight. This recipe is great for a holiday breakfast or brunch.

Unlike their cousin the blueberry—which is sometimes used in savory cooking, although almost never successfully—cranberries are not at all sweet and so make a much more natural companion for meat. One trick I’ve learned over the years is that dusting the meat with a sprinkling of sugar makes the browning process go much more rapidly and leaves behind a caramelized residue that lends a great complexity to the final dish. It’s not an appropriate trick for every occasion, but it’s perfect for this gutsy, appealing, and unusual pot roast. Most pot roasts depend mightily for their flavor on the juices exuded by the meat itself, but since the meat’s contribution here is minimized by the powerful cranberry-based combination, a faster-cooking cut like tenderloin works perfectly, reducing the cooking time to just over an hour.

This scrumptious dessert serves up sweet, seasonal fruit in filling, foolproof portions. And whole-grain oats top it off with a fluffy cobbler cap that's lusciously lowfat.

Food editor Andrea Albin, who developed this menu, says that her mom, Veronica, who lives in Houston, should get all the glory here. Raw celery and toasted almonds lace cooked cranberries with terrific crunch.

A towering dessert on the holiday sideboard always gets attention. And the oohs and aahs will only get louder when you cut in to reveal its moist crumb dotted with ruby-red cranberries and topaz-colored pear. Its scent of vanilla and spices is very inviting, while the brown sugar and cinnamon glaze is, of course, the icing on the cake.

It's easy to understand why apple crumble pie (sometimes called French apple pie in diners and old cookbooks) is so immensely popular: It packs all the flavor and fragrance of a traditional apple pie underneath a carapace of nutty, buttery, cinnamony crumbs. Adding cranberries to the filling evokes a familiar fall color and provides pleasant tartness to balance the sweetness.

This deep-dish crumb-topped pie combines several winter fruits and confirms that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The pears become soft, the apples remain slightly firm, the figs add texture and sweetness, and the tart cranberries pop in your mouth, making this rustic pie a sensory treat. Be sure to plan ahead, as this recipe calls for chilling the dough for one hour, chilling it again after you roll it out (this reduces shrinkage of the crust during baking), and then baking the pie for over an hour. It is an hours-long process, off and on, but it is worth every minute. Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a glass of apple or pear brandy (preferably from Clear Creek Distillery), it is the perfect final touch to a dinner party.

This delicacy only tastes decadent—the cake is so low in fat, you can afford to splurge by adding coconut and a luxurious sauce.

Vanilla is arguably one of the best scents in the world, and it permeates this tender cake in the form of a simple vanilla sugar. A zesty cranberry filling lies beneath the crumble top.

Cranberries add sparkle to the meal.

In this chutney-like compote, quince lends a ripe-pear creaminess, and pearl onions a lush sweetness, to tart cranberries.

Classic stuffed cabbage is a time-consuming endeavor. This unorthodox version, which uses dried cranberries and a combination of beef and pork, is much easier—and, we like to think, even better.

To the traditional orange-cranberry combination, we’ve added Mediterranean touches: dates for their honeylike sweetness and a splash of balsamic vinegar to balance the flavors.

Throw everything in the pan, and voilà! Cranberry sauce. It’s just five ingredients simmering on the stove, but it tastes beguilingly complex. Tangerine juice and zest, fresh ginger, and plump golden raisins add a citrusy, spicy sweetness to tart, bursting cranberries.

Cranberries might seem out of place in a salsa, but their zesty crunch anchors this mix of roasted pineapple, onion, and cilantro. Besides, what would Thanksgiving be without cranberries?