Our Best Fall Comfort Foods

Crispy bacon, extra-creamy cheese sauce, pears sauteed in brown sugar and butter. It took our Test Kitchen three tries to get all the pieces right for this fall comfort food. Oh man, was it worth it.

Bacon-Pear Macaroni and Cheese

Long, slow simmering melds flavors in this recipe from the Spice House in Evanston, Illinois.

Colossal Chili

These sweet oven-roasted carrots are a perfect complement to a holiday menu, but they're easy enough to be a weeknight side. This comfort food recipe comes from Big Cedar Loge in Ridgedale, Missouri.

Cinnamon Carrots with Maple Thyme Butter

Cooked this way, short ribs give you a delicious, dressed-up dish with hardly any work. A hint of licorice from fennel accents the recipe.

Short Ribs over Cheesy Polenta

A few pinches of pantry spices jazz up the traditional sour-cream gravy. This cozy weeknight dish dances on the line between comfort food and curry.

Cinnamon-Spiced Beef Stroganoff

How do you get your family to eat fish? By serving them tilapia coated with potato chips, herbs and honey-mustard dressing.

Potato Chips Meet Fish

Orange and chocolate: a cookie match that tempts everyone to take seconds. This recipe comes from Jill Drury in Milwaukee, who loved to bake cookies with her grandmother. "For the longest time I couldn't decide which cookie I liked best, until one day Grandma had me mix my favorite flavors: chocolate and orange," she says.

Valencia Delights

Apples, dried cranberries and grapes meet crunchy celery and wheat berries in this colorful salad tossed with apple-cinnamon dressing.

Wheat Berry Waldorf Salad

Sugared bacon and melting cheese curds or string cheese make a mouthwatering filling for these behemoth burgers. The recipe comes from chef/owner John McClure of Starker's Restaurant at Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.

Starker's Bacon and Cheese Curd Burger

This recipe from Linda Kay Drysdale of Riverview, Michigan, won the $10,000 top prize in one of our Best of the Midwest recipe contests. Linda's recipe calls for chops cooked in a pressure cooker, which reduces cooking time to a fifth of the oven version. Watching calories? Half a chop satisfies most people.

Cranberry Sausage-Stuffed Pork Chops with Pumpkin Gravy

"My recipes are like my children. I'd hate to single one out as a favorite," says Zoe Caywood, who worked for many years as a miller at War Eagle Mill just east of Rogers, Arkansas. These biscuits are from one of Zoe's cookbooks. The recipe blends wheat and all-purpose flours for a fuller flavor than traditional biscuits.

War Eagle Mill Buttermilk Biscuits

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but this hearty supper soup takes just an hour to make. The secret? Deli-roasted chicken and precooked sausage. Pair with breadsticks or a crusty baguette for a perfect winter meal that will fill your house with good smells.

Chicken and Kielbasa Winter Stew

A sugared crispy pastry covers sweet juicy berries in this traditional dessert from the Monte Ne Inn near Rogers, Arkansas.

Ozark Blackberry Cobbler

Shape and bake the chicken meatballs ahead of time, then pop them in your slow cooker with cranberry and barbecue sauces.

Cranberry-Sauced Meatballs Appetizer

The Inn at Irish Hollow in Galena, Illinois, serves this creamy, curried soup throughout the fall and winter. You can make your own crème fraîche for the garnish, or use purchased crème fraiche or sour cream.

Spiced Pumpkin Bisque

Cinnamon, brown sugar, oats and finely crushed grahams shape this moist cookie made even more irresistible with a thumbprint filling of marshmallow crème and an upside-down milk chocolate candy.

S'More Cookies, Please

Garlic and fennel flavor this dish with northern Minnesota heritage.

Porketta Roast

Deborah Biggs of Omaha completes this amazingly moist dessert with Maple Whipped Cream. 

Spiced Pecan Sweet Potato Cake

Choose from several varieties of bread, including challah, whole wheat and cinnamon-raisin, for these easy French toast sticks. The Maple-Apple-Nut Topping makes this a standout dish. The recipe was inspired by RAGBRAI vendor Breakfast Delights.

French Toast Sticks with Maple-Apple-Nut Topping

Graham crackers form the base for this bar cookie with layers of marshmallows, brown sugar, almonds and coconut. "I've made these cookies since 1984," says Georgine Simmonds of Genesee, Michigan. "They're one of my family's favorites."

Caramel Heavenlies

You'll have more Honey-Thyme Vinaigrette than you need for this fresh-tasting potato salad; keep the extra dressing on hand for another potato or pasta salad. The recipe is from Chicago chef Myk Banas.

Fingerling Potato Salad with Honey-Thyme Vinaigrette

Buttery-sweet individual tarts get topped with dried tart red cherries, figs or dates at Salty Tart bakery in Minneapolis.

Brown Butter Tarts with Sour Cherries

Like any good cook, Mary Jo Smith of Hidden Lake Bed and Breakfast in Jonesboro, Illinois, adjusts her recipes as she prepares them over time. She has fine-tuned the custard layer for Peach Kuchen and added spices to the peaches. If you're in a hurry, substitute a single refrigerated unbaked piecrust for the Kuchen Crust.

Peach Kuchen