Old-Fashioned Desserts

Ask anyone to name the food that tastes most of childhood, and it's almost always a dessert — a warm cobbler with the juice bubbling up at the edges, a bowl of banana pudding pulled cold from the fridge, a slice of pie balanced on a saucer after Sunday dinner. Old-fashioned desserts weren't fancy. They were made from what the larder held — eggs, milk, a little sugar, whatever fruit was ripe — and they were made from memory, by hands that had made them a hundred times before.

This collection gathers the sweet recipes we've tested and written down properly so they're never lost: the custard pies and cream pies, the fruit cobblers and crisps, the milk puddings that simmered on the back of the stove, and the retro fluff salads that turned up at every potluck. Some take an afternoon; plenty come together in minutes. All of them taste of another era.

Whether you're after a showstopper for a holiday table or a humble pudding to use up a few soft bananas, you'll find it here — each one with the little techniques that make the difference between good and the way grandma made it. Pick one, and put the kettle on.