Sugar and Spice

Every fall, as the SAVEUR Test Kitchen fills up with pumpkins, pecans, maple syrup, and the rest of the classic Thanksgiving ingredients, we start dreaming of creative ways to use them. The recipes in this year's Thanksgiving feature for roasted sugar-glazed pears and pumpkin cheesecake set the bar high: The elements are absolutely canonical, but reinterpreted, they let some fresh air into our holiday traditions. Like many cooks at Thanksgiving time, we relish introducing new dishes to complement the old standbys, and so came up with the three following fresh takes on the holiday dessert, designed to pique the appetite even after all the excesses of the feast.