If you’re like me, the slightest hint of the holidays brings back a flood of food memories. My favorite is a steaming loaf of gingerbread fresh from the oven and slathered with whipped cream—just like the one my great-grandmother used to bake. But as much as I crave gingerbread’s familiar flavor and the warm, fuzzy feelings it stirs up, I often find myself growing weary of loaves and cutout cookies long before Saint Nick arrives on Christmas Eve. So what do I do to spice things up? I take other popular desserts and infuse them with the holiday spirit using gingerbread’s defining ingredients: molasses and the spice trio of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

For the holiday sweets in these pages, I sifted through my recipe files and selected desserts with the same rustic simplicity that had endeared me to gingerbread in the first place and then gave them a gingerbread twist. So, for example, my pear cobbler has a gingerbread biscuit topping that adds an element of surprise to this classic crowd-pleaser.

我在一个湿润的香菜烤面包蛋糕上淋上了甜美的蛋酒奶油奶油奶油，我通过在gingersnap壳和馅料中添加糖蜜和香料来使奶油奶酪蛋糕双重美味。（顺便说一句，芝士蛋糕在假期里是一个真正的福音，因为必须向前迈进，以便可以在一夜之间放松。）最后，天鹅绒般的辣椒冰淇淋是一种出乎意料且美味皮匠。

When it comes to ground spices, freshness is key

Before you bake any of these desserts, check your ground spices for freshness. An old spice can mean the difference between a pleasantly spicy dessert and one that’s downright bland. Grinding whole spices is the best way to ensure that they’re fresh. But it can be time-consuming, especially when you’re juggling baking with tree-trimming, gift-wrapping, and all the other little tasks of the season. So bottled ground spices are fine if time is short. To make sure they’re as fresh as possible when you buy them and that they stay fresh, follow these simple steps:

• Inspect the expiration date on spice bottles并选择最遥远日期的人，理想情况下是六个月或更长时间。
• Throw away old spices.Discard bottled spices if they have been open longer than six months.
• Store spices properly.Though you might be tempted to store spices (ground or whole) in pretty containers above your stovetop, where they’re handy, they will stay fresh longer in a cool, dark cabinet or a corner of your refrigerator.