Classic Recipes Reimagined (2024)

Feel free to top these rich brownies with bacon and pecans. To enhance the smoky flavor, mix in some of the bacon fat into the batter.

Recipe: Bacon-Bourbon Brownies with Pecans

Kat Kinsman, managing editor of CNN's Eatocracy food blog, is known for clever drinks like this lemonade. It's perfect on its own as a mocktail, but Kinsman recommends adding a shot or two of rye whiskey.

Recipe: Tomato Lemonade

This intensely flavored homemade mustard gets its complexity from a mix of black and yellow mustard seeds, rich dark beer, and a mix of sweeteners and spices.

Recipe: Spicy Beer Mustard

William Werner likes carrot cake but was curious to experiment with the classic. So he added cocoa to the batter, resulting in this moist loaf with a chocolaty crumb topping.

Recipe: Cocoa-Carrot Cake with Cocoa Crumble

This is a brilliant marriage of two classics: cornmeal-dusted green tomatoes and a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich.

Recipe: Fried Green Tomato BLTs

Here is a terrific, if unlikely, combination of cinnamony sautéed apples with slices of sharp cheddar cheese, served on top of hot dogs tucked into pretzel rolls.

Recipe: Hot Dogs with Cheddar and Sautéed Apples

A sweet tea–infused marinade tenderizes and lightens these oven-fried chicken breasts, while the accompanying caramelized-onion gravy grounds the flavor in something beyond traditional fried chicken.

Recipe: Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts

Three different types of cheese — goat, sharp cheddar, and Parmigiano-Reggiano — plus sour cream and egg yolks, make this recipe from chef Ben Vaughn of Restaurant Grace in Memphis especially rich.

Recipe: Three-Cheese Mac and Cheese

Here we use both naturally low-fat buttermilk and fat-free sour cream to make a tender, rich corn bread.

Recipe: Peppered Corn Bread

In this fun incarnation of Caesar salad, grilling romaine with a light brushing of oil boosts its flavor while adding few calories. For the dressing, chef Kerry Simon ingeniously swaps in low-fat mayonnaise for egg yolks.

Recipe: Seared Romaine Spears with Caesar Dressing

At Trummer's on Main in Clifton, Virginia, chef Clayton Miller makes a highly seasoned, Indian-inflected tomato jam with ginger, cinnamon, cumin, and cayenne. It's a terrific accompaniment to his hush puppies — cheekily nicknamed "shut-your-piehole puppies" by the cooks in his kitchen.

Recipe: Hush Puppies with Green Zebra Tomato Jam

Give classically sweet-salty popcorn balls a smart update with chipotle-spiked caramel for a spicy kick.

Recipe: Spicy Popcorn Balls

Using polenta (cornmeal) in addition to white flour in these pancakes makes them especially satisfying, as the ground whole grain delivers lots of fiber and a good amount of protein.

Recipe: Cinnamon Polenta Pancakes

Moon pies are classic Southern sandwich cookies. Rebekah Turshen, the pastry chef at Nashville's City House, spreads crispy sugar cookies with chocolate and peanut butter, then sandwiches them around a marshmallow filling.

Recipe: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Moon Pies

Get more ideas for updating your favorite dishes with these Food & Wine:

Modern Variations on the Classics

Lightened American Classics

Cooking at Home: Comfort Classics