Season 11

One of my favorite sources for dessert inspiration is the work of several renowned pastry chefs and cookbook authors from the 1980s and ’90s. One such author is Flo Braker, whose impeccable (and impeccably written) recipes are models of the craft. One of Flo’s famous recipes is her Crystal Almond Pound Cake, so-called because the sugary glaze crystallizes into a crunchy shell around the cake. Here I apply Flo’s glazing technique to my olive oil-based Meyer lemon Bundt cake. Because incorporating too much lemon juice into the batter can weaken the structure and throw off the leavening, I add it to the glaze for extra fresh lemon flavor. The olive oil in the glaze helps to preserve the cake and keeps it moist and delicious for an entire week.

Today we have a simple recipe for you that celebrates one of my favorite flavors in baking, Butterscotch. Follow along as Claire Saffitz makes the most delicious Butterscotch Blondies.

I am slightly embarrassed to admit that as a dessert person, and more specifically as a cake person, I hadn’t spent much time getting to know tres leches cake, a beloved Latin American dessert, prior to this book. But, as tres leches is a sponge cake soaked liberally with three kinds of dairy (usually sweetened condensed and evaporated milks, and one other), I knew we’d be a good match. At the time I developed this recipe, I’d been playing around with the idea of a sponge cake lightened with whipped cream rather than egg whites. The whipped cream contributes butterfat as well as air, producing a sponge that is light but firm—absolutely perfect, as it happens, for tres leches cake, which needs sufficient structure to be able to absorb all that liquid. When I tasted my first test, the delicate flavors of cinnamon and cream called out for a toasted nut, so I added finely chopped toasted hazelnuts to the batter. The result is a slightly unusual but very special cake.

S’mores desserts are typically a little maximalist for my taste. But over the past couple of years I’ve been lucky to spend a portion of my time in the Hudson Valley, about ninety minutes outside of New York City, where, thanks to the regular occurrence of indoor and outdoor fires, I rediscovered my childhood love of classic s’mores. It got me brainstorming ways to translate s’mores into a more refined dessert, and since nothing is more refined than a chocolate tart, that became my starting point. The filling is a basic ganache lightened with whipped cream to give it a mousselike texture (a genius technique I learned from Dorie Greenspan, who uses it for the topping of her chocolate Lisbon Chocolate Cake). It’s set inside a thick graham cracker crust and topped with my homemade marshmallow (note that you should wait to prepare the marshmallow topping until after you’ve filled the tart)

To make these pinwheel cookies, phyllo dough is brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with cardamom sugar, rolled into a spiraled log, and sliced and baked. In the oven, the melted butter and cardamom sugar mingle and caramelize on the sheet pan, forming a glassy surface, while the phyllo bakes up flaky and golden all the way through. The cookies are so shatteringly tender that they give palmiers, a buttery French cookie made from puff pastry (and one of my favorite cookies), a run for their money

Claire Saffitz Makes Vinny's Tiramisu-Inspired Wedding Cake (+ Eggs Giveaway) | Dessert Person

I’ve been captivated by the idea of a pudding cake ever since I saw a recipe for one by the pastry chef Kristen Murray of Maurice luncheonette in Portland, Oregon, many years ago. Prepared more like a soufflé than a cake, it’s a mixture of citrus juice, dairy, egg yolks, and flour, lightened with beaten egg whites and baked in a water bath. As it bakes, the egg whites rise to the surface and the batter miraculously separates into a light sponge on top and a curdlike layer on the bottom. The typical all-lemon version is lovely, but here I use blood oranges for their vibrant color and sweet-tart flavor. You can leave the cake in the baking dish for serving, but I prefer to turn it out so the pudding layer is on top. Serve it with fresh blood orange slices for a bright and light winter dessert.

“Pudding,” in the UK, as I understand, is a generic term that can refer to any number of desserts. In a bit of wordplay, this recipe translates the British pudding banoffee pie, a tart filled with sliced bananas, dulce de leche, and whipped cream, into an American custard-style pudding. Banana and dulce de leche are cooked into a silky, smooth custard and then layered with whipped sour cream, digestive biscuits (though you could use graham crackers), and more dulce de leche. To give the dessert a shareable quality, I assemble it large-format. Any glass serving dish or bowl with a 2-quart capacity works, but assembling it in individual glasses is an option, too.