Our favorite recipes of 2012 included Thomas Jefferson’s Chicken Fricassee, a savory dinner dish served over rice, and the Cream Cheese Coffee Cake, which pairs perfectly with a steaming cup of Joe. Here are our 10 Golden Whisk Award winners.

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THOMAS JEFFERSON’S CHICKEN FRICASSEE

Hands on: 30 minutes Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes Serves: 6

Prepare this dish with whatever chicken parts your family prefers and serve over rice. Dinner for six as elegant as any served on White House china can be prepared in its entirety in less than two hours.

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon paprika

3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup water

1 cup dry white wine

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 medium onion, diced

2 cups fresh small mushrooms (about ½ pound)

1 cup half-and-half

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

In a small bowl, combine salt, nutmeg, pepper and paprika. Sprinkle evenly over chicken pieces.

In a Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken pieces and cook until well-browned on both sides, 7 to 10 minutes total per piece, depending on size. Do not crowd pan. When chicken is browned, remove from pan and keep warm. Continue until all chicken is browned and removed from Dutch oven. Add flour to fat in Dutch oven and cook until flour is lightly browned, about 1 minute. Whisk in water and wine and stir until smooth. Return chicken to pot and bring liquid to a boil. Cover pot, reduce heat and simmer chicken 45 minutes, rearranging chicken if necessary during cooking time so all pieces spend time in the liquid.

While chicken is cooking, in a medium pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and mushrooms. Cook until vegetables are lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in half-and-half, sage and parsley. Keep warm.

When chicken is finished cooking, arrange on serving platter. Stir mushroom mixture into chicken cooking liquid, combine and pour over chicken. Serve hot.

Adapted from a recipe in “Capitol Hill Cooks: Recipes From the White House, Congress and All the Past Presidents” by Linda Bauer (Taylor Trade Publishing, $26.95)

Per serving: 364 calories (59 percent from fat), 26 grams protein, 9 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 22 grams fat (9 grams saturated), 99 milligrams cholesterol, 463 milligrams sodium.

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SCOTCH EGGS

Scotch eggs are good for breakfast, lunch, tea or supper. If you don’t want to deep-fry the eggs, you can bake them at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the sausage is cooked through. If you don’t have fresh sage available, try substituting ¼ teaspoon of a dried Italian herb blend.

4 small or medium eggs

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 small onion or 2 shallots, minced

1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage, or to taste

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

½ pound bulk sausage

½ cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1 tablespoon milk

½ cup dried bread crumbs

Oil for frying

In a medium saucepan, carefully place eggs and add water to cover. Have a bowl of ice water ready. Bring water to a boil, cook eggs for 5 minutes and then remove eggs to ice water. When eggs are cool, peel and set aside.

In a small skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook until it turns translucent but does not turn brown, about 4 minutes. Add sage and garlic powder. Remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, combine onion mixture with sausage and divide into 4 portions. Cut a 12-inch piece of plastic wrap and spray lightly with cooking spray. Add 1 portion of sausage and top with a second piece of lightly sprayed plastic wrap. Lightly roll out sausage to ¼-inch thickness. Remove top sheet of plastic wrap and place a peeled egg in the middle of the sausage. Lift the bottom plastic to wrap sausage around egg. Remove plastic and pat sausage to ensure even coating around egg. Refrigerate sausage-wrapped egg and continue with remaining eggs and sausage.

Put flour in a pie plate. In another pie plate, beat eggs and milk. Put bread crumbs in a third pie plate. Dip each sausage-covered egg into flour, then egg mixture, then bread crumbs. Arrange eggs on a dish. May be made ahead up to this point, covered and refrigerated for 1 day.

When ready to serve, in a Dutch oven, heat 3 inches of oil to 350 degrees. Carefully add 2 eggs to hot oil and cook 7 minutes or until sausage is cooked through. Remove eggs from oil and drain. Keep warm and repeat with remaining sausage-covered eggs. Cut eggs in half and serve warm. May also be served cold.

Per egg: 365 calories (55 percent from fat), 15 grams protein, 25 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 22 grams fat (8 grams saturated), 308 milligrams cholesterol, 392 milligrams sodium.

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COLLARD CASSOULET

Hands on: 20 minutes

Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Serves: 6 (side-dish portions)

By adding a bit more meat and cheese, you can turn Alabama chef Frank Stitt’s collard gratin into a main dish. I found that a 1-pound bag of pre-washed collards worked perfectly; canned beans would also taste fine and save time.

1 pound collard greens, stems and tough ribs removed

5 garlic cloves, 1 crushed and 4 chopped

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 medium onion, chopped

1 small red bell pepper, cut into ½-inch pieces

3 cups cooked white beans, ½ cup cooking liquid reserved

½ cup (plus more, if desired) diced or chopped cooked ham-hock meat, sausage, chorizo or bacon

1/3 cup (plus more, if desired) freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Salt and pepper

½ cup (plus more, as needed) medium-coarse fresh bread crumbs

In a large pot, cover the collards with salted water and boil over medium heat until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain well and chop into small pieces. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Vigorously rub the inside of a 10- or 12- inch gratin dish with the crushed garlic. Discard the crushed garlic and set the dish aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 8 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the collard greens, stir to coat, and cook for 1 minute. Transfer to a large bowl.

Stir in the beans, meat, roughly half the Parmigiano-Reggiano, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. If the mixture seems too dry, add enough of the reserved bean cooking liquid to moisten. (If you don’t have liquid, use water.) Spread the mixture in the prepared dish. Top with the bread crumbs and remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano. Drizzle with remaining olive oil.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake until the filling is hot and bubbly, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the top of the gratin is golden and crusty, another 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Adapted from “The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook” (UGA Press, $24.95).

Per serving, based on 6: 294 calories (37 percent from fat), 15 grams protein, 33 grams carbohydrates, 9 grams fiber, 12 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 10 milligrams cholesterol, 273 milligrams sodium.

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CORN FRITTERS WITH SUMMER SALSA

Hands on: 36 minutes Total time: 46 minutes, including salsa Makes: about 24 fritters

Many Southern corn-fritter recipes use a little corn and a lot of batter, yielding a hush puppy-like bread suitable for fish fries. Athens cookbook author Rebecca Lang’s fritters are flat little cakes that are dense with corn kernels. Corn is the star here, and the simple tomato salsa plays a supporting role. Fry up a batch to nosh on while standing around the grill.

4 ears fresh corn, husks removed

¾ cup plain white cornmeal

½ cup milk

¼ cup self-rising soft-wheat flour (such as White Lily)

1 large egg

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

¼ cup vegetable oil

Summer Salsa (see recipe)

Cut kernels from cobs; discard cobs. (You should have about 2 cups kernels; if you have more, save it for another use.) In a medium bowl, whisk together cornmeal, milk, flour, egg, salt and pepper. Stir in kernels.

Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches, spoon batter by tablespoonfuls into hot oil, and flatten gently. Fry 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until browned. (If the skillet becomes dry, you may want to drizzle in a little more oil.) Drain on a wire rack. Top each fritter with 2 teaspoons Summer Salsa.

Adapted from “Southern Living Around the Southern Table” by Rebecca Lang (Oxmoor House, fall 2012).

Per serving (based on 4, fritters only): 236 calories (percent of calories from fat, 42), 6 grams protein, 30 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams fiber, 11 grams fat (2 grams saturated), 37 milligrams cholesterol, 275 milligrams sodium.

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SUMMER SALSA

Hands on: 10 minutes Total time: 10 minutes Makes: 1 ¼ cups

1 cup chopped tomatoes

2 tablespoons diced green onion

½ teaspoon diced, seeded jalapeno pepper

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

4 pitted kalamata olives, finely chopped (plus more to taste)

¼ teaspoon salt

In a small bowl, stir together tomatoes, green onion, jalapeno, lemon juice, parsley, kalamata olives and salt.

Adapted from “Southern Living Around the Southern Table” by Rebecca Lang (Oxmoor House, Fall 2012).

Per 2 teaspoons: 4 calories (33 percent from fat), trace protein, trace carbohydrates, trace fiber, trace fat (no saturated), no cholesterol, 26 milligrams sodium.

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LAURI JO BENNETT’S BLUEBERRY PEPPER JELLY

Hands on: 30 minutes Total time: 35 minutes Makes: 8 to 9 half-pints

Easy and delicious, this jelly is also good made with strawberries. If you aren’t up for doing it at home, you may order Bennett’s signature version from her website, www.laurijossouthernstylecanning.com.

2 cups finely chopped bell peppers (about 4 large peppers)

2 to 3 fresh jalapenos, seeded and chopped

7 cups granulated sugar

1 ½ cups white vinegar

9 ounces Certo (liquid pectin)

1 cup fresh blueberries (may substitute other fresh fruit such as chopped strawberries or peaches or blackberries)

Sterilize half-pint jars and lids, and set aside.

Place bell peppers, jalapenos, sugar and vinegar in a large saucepan over high heat. Bring to a rolling boil, about 5 minutes. Add Certo and bring to a full boil again, stirring constantly; cook for 1 minute. Add blueberries, and mash with a spoon to break up and extract juices. Return to a boil and cook for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Let stand 1 or 2 minutes and skim off foam.

Ladle mixture into waiting jars. Put a flat lid and ring on each jar, tighten until snug, and process in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes. (The jars must be covered by at least 1 inch of water.) Remove from pot and allow to cool. Allow jars to sit untouched for 12 hours. (After 1 hour, check to see if the jars have sealed. If the center of the lid can be pushed down, it hasn’t sealed. Store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator.) Label and store, preferably in a cool, dark place.