Beautiful buttermilk muffins - berry-streaked with sugar-sparkled tops, big flavor, and buttermilk-tender texture.

A rustic, minimally structured, custard-topped, crusty-edged, herb-scented corn-quinoa skillet bread.

The little black dress of my tart repertoire - bittersweet chocolate with a thin brown sugar crust. The filling is a dark chocolate ganache, the consistency of thick frosting, set off by the crispness of the crust, finished with a dusting of cocoa powder, and a pinch of sea salt.

I made these for Lottie & Doof's 12 DAYS OF COOKIES. They are tiny, bite-sized holiday cookies made with two kinds of ginger and lots of shaved chocolate. The turbinado sugar crust gives them a bit of crunch which is a nice contrast to the ooey-goey chocolate.

Rustic orange-scented oat scones peppered with currants inspired by a recipe in Romney Steele's new Big Sur-based My Nepenthe cookbook.

An apple and carrot-flecked shortbread recipe inspired by a recipe I came across in Good Tempered Food by Tamasin Day-Lewis.

These cheese straws look like wispy tree branches. Wayne calls them cheese twigs, and they never last very long around here. Crispy, cheddar-flecked, and rustic - it's the buckwheat flour that lends these slender creations their convincing shade of brownish gray.

I made these cookies for Wayne to eat when he finished the San Francisco Marathon. The batter is made with pureed white beans, lots of oats, and whole wheat flour. The resulting cookies are sesame coated and flavored with aniseed, lemon zest, olive oil and chopped dates. They are beautifully tender, licorice-scented, with a bit of crunch from the sesame seed coating.

An all-natural carrot cake recipe. It is dense, rich, rustic, walnut-studded and carrot-flecked. Sweetened with dates and ripe bananas, it doesn't need any added sugar beyond that. Topped with cream cheese frosting.

One of my favorite cookies - a carrot oatmeal cookie sweetened with maple syrup. They are made with fragrant coconut oil, plenty of chopped walnuts, rolled oats, and a bit of fresh ginger. They also happen to be egg-free and vegan.

A simple thumbprint cookie recipe. Made with whole wheat pastry flour and oats, and sweetened with honey instead of granulated sugar.

The perfect bite-sized chocolate chip cookie. Tiny, thin, golden, crisp, a bit nutty with plenty of shaved chocolate.

This ginger cookie recipe is made special with three kinds of ginger and a hint of lemon zest. Cracked and sugar-crusted on the outside, dense and moist within.

My friend Sante shared his hermit recipe with me - a simple, drop-style, spice cookie loaded with tiny currants, chopped walnuts, and finished with a bit of icing.

Powder-kissed and pretty, these Swedish Rye cookies are perfect for holiday cookie enthusiasts who are after a not-too-sweet, shortbread-style butter cookie.

A deliciously unfussy and relatively healthy apple cake recipe. Red-skinned apples punctuate a buttermilk batter and a final sprinkling of sugar before baking lends a nice top crust.

Kids love these animal-shaped cookies. They bake up fragrant, golden and crisp and are made from whole wheat pastry flour, a dollop of coconut oil, shredded coconut, ground walnuts, a touch of salt, and as little sugar as I thought I could get away with.

A wonderful coffee cake recipe made from fresh wild huckleberries using maple syrup as a sweetener instead of white sugar.

A savory peach gnocchi in a champagne shallot sauce inspired by a trip to Valparaiso, Chile.

A rustic, cherry cobbler recipe made from fresh cherries - though you can certainly try this recipe with other types of summer fruit and berries.