A buckle is a cousin to a cobbler. While a cobbler has a fruit filling topped with biscuit dough, a buckle is topped with cake batter. But that's not all. The topping on the buckle buckles and sinks as it bakes. The result is hills and valleys in the cake, much of it soaked with juices from the fruit. (Conversely, we have seen recipes where the fruit is placed on the batter and allowed to sink through the batter.)

What makes a it buckle and sink? Quite honestly, we haven't derived a secret formula for successful buckles. We have done some experimenting. When the batter is too dry, the cake stays on top, it doesn't sink and buckle. When it is too wet, it's a gooey mess. So maybe that is the secret formula.

Try these buckles:

Caramel Swirl Crumb Cake
This is really a buckle. (You can see the hills and valleys in the photo.) It's one of our best-selling products. Try it now and save 15%.

Blueberry Buckle
Make a scrumptious Blueberry Buckle. Simply add frozen blueberries to our Caramel Swirl Crumb Cake. Plus save 15%.

Pecan Peach Buckle with Orange Sauce
Add peaches and pecans to our Caramel Swirl Crumb Cake to make a delicious Pecan Peach Buckle with Orange Sauce. Plus save 15%.

Cobblers and crisps are very forgiving. They're perfect fodder for freelancing. You can mix and match fruits for the filling. You can add the topping of your choice. You can make them as sweet as you like. And everyone likes cobblers and crisps.

Today, we're going to explore the world of cobblers and, to a lesser extent, crisps. We'll give you some techniques and guidelines for making these desserts with the goal of arming you to take our recipes or the recipes of others to build desserts that are perfect for your family and uniquely yours.

Our super cranberries are cold-processed-not hot- processed. They are raised for the fruit, not to be juiced and more of the juice and pectin are left in the berries. You can taste the difference; they just taste better.

And you can have them for free with any order of $25 of our mixes.

Cranberries and apples were meant for each other. The tartness of the cranberries accents the sweetness of the cooked apples perfectly. It's like an apple pie with extra flavor. And it's easy . . . much easier than a pie. And if you really want to make this dessert delectable, use our super cranberries . . . cold-processed with more juice and pectin than others. (You can get them free with a $25 order.)

A pastry blender is an essential for crisps, pies, streusels, and biscuits-any recipe that requires cutting the butter or shortening into the flour. We use our pastry blenders a lot. It's the best way to cut butter into flour without developing the gluten and creating a tough product. It's one of the secrets of great pastry.

We'll give you one free with your order of $25 in mixes.

This recipe sounds more exotic than it is. You can purchase guava nectar concentrate in the frozen food section of the grocery. The apples are cooked in a guava sauce made with this concentrate. The guava juice reminds us slightly of strawberries. Slivered almonds add a wonderful crunch to the streusel topping. This is a very good dessert.

Use this recipe to mix and match flavors. Use cranberry, raspberry, mango, strawberry, peach or any of your favorite juices in place of the guava nectar.

Cobblers and dowdies, crisps and crumbles, buckles and betties--what are all these desserts?

Many eating apples don't bake well. They turn mushy and unpleasant. A good baking apple should be hard enough to hold its shape and its distinctive flavor should survive the oven.

Because there is a dizzying array of apples and you're going to need to find the right apple for that terrific dessert you're going to bake, we thought we would point you to our Easy Apple Reference Chart.

You could win this cookbook! Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home. This is a very attractive hard cover book with beautiful photography and a wonderful narrative.

If you order $25 or more of our mixes, we'll put your name in the hat to get one of these books. (Actually, we'll use a random number generator to choose the winners from those subscribers who order.) But you must be a subscriber and you must purchase to win.

Rhonda Chapman in Utah, B.B. in Oklahoma, Pat Eland in Ohio, Helen S. in England, and Jayne Sizemore in New Mexico all won cookbooks in December.

In our last recipe bulletin, we presented a free chicken recipe collection with favorite recipes like Chicken and Dumplings and Chicken Chili with Black Beans plus some tips for using your crock pot and how to safely use and cook with chicken. It's free.

Here are some other dessert recipes to try:

Cranapple Crumble
Luscious Little Cakes
Mormon Peach Cobbler with Fresh Peaches
Baked Apple Pancakes
Cranapple Rolls
Quick Crisp
Mormon Peach Cobbler
Strawberry Shortcake

If you missed our last publication with great chicken recipes review our archive of newsletters on our "Past Newsletters" page.