Baking

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other dessert classics, check out the videos.

Editor's note: This Plain French Bread (or Pain Français) recipe accompanies an excerpt from Bob Spitz's book Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, published on Epicurious on the occasion of Julia Child's Centennial. Count on a minimum of 6 1/2 to 7 hours from the time you start the dough to the time it is ready for the oven, and half an hour for baking. While you cannot take less time, you may take as much more time as you wish by using the delayed-action techniques described at the end of the recipe.

These cream puffs are a completely French invention. They look so perfectly beautiful! My children love filling them with whipped cream—and eating them, of course. These are certainly hard to resist.

Apricots have roughly 60 percent more immunity-enhancing beta-carotene—which can help you fend off colds and flu—than their closest fruit competitor, cantaloupe. Consider a slice sniffle prevention!

Pistachios contain potassium, a mineral which may help lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Bliss is a few bites away.

Peaches are amazing for your skin. They provide vitamin A, which helps prevent clogged pores, so your complexion stays clear and healthy.

Peanut butter, eggs and milk deliver 13 grams of protein in each slice of this pie. Your body uses more energy to process protein than it does for fat or carbs—now get to work!

Raspberries are packed with polyphenols, which may protect our brains, helping to keep us sharp.

Fork up a slice of this pie on days before and after a tough workout: Anti-inflammatories in blueberries can help ease muscle pain.

Use plums that hold their shape when cooked, such as black or red (avoid soft-fleshed Santa Rosas). If you prefer a taller pie, use all 5 pounds of fruit.

When blueberries are at their best (and most abundant), let their flavor shine in simple recipes. This cobbler can be assembled in minutes, and its ragged topping is both tender and crunchy. It's especially good with vanilla ice cream.

This puffy, soufflé-like pancake starts in your blender and makes a fantastic dessert—or breakfast. The honey-sweetened compote works well with fresh or frozen cherries.

This crumble-topped pie stars the flavors of an Old Fashioned cocktail. Our secret weapon: jarred sour cherries (just think of all those cherries you won't have to pit!). We like Trader Joe's Dark Morello Cherries, but other brands work well, too.

To get a super-light mousse, you'll need to properly fold together the whipped cream, egg whites, and melted chocolate.

When it comes to ice cream cakes, there are no hard-and-fast rules as to what form they can take. Some consist solely of ice cream molded and then decorated to resemble a cake, while others intersperse layers of ice cream with thin layers of cake, crisp meringue, or even crumbled cookies. Our red, white, and blue July 4th extravaganza is a gorgeous amalgam of ice cream, cake, and blueberries and raspberries cooked separately into their own jammy fillings. Frosted simply in sweetened whipped cream and topped with more berries, this cake sparkles as much as the fireworks in the sky! Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for A Fourth of July Cookout. Menu also includes Grilled Corn with Honey-Ginger Barbecue Sauce and Grilled Shrimp with Honey-Ginger Barbecue Sauce.

Although Americans chow down on plenty of crisp pretzels, there's something irresistible about the soft variety that makes them just as addictive, if not more so, than the crunchy version. When formed into bite-size nuggets, not only do they pop easily into your mouth, but they are also small enough to eliminate the temptation to double-dip in the Cheddar sauce. You can also offer up a bowl of mustard, or divide your Cheddar dip into three bowls, flavoring one with mustard and the other with caraway seeds.
You may suspect that the large amount of baking soda to cook the pretzels is a typo; it's not. Believe us, it's the secret to the chestnut-brown color they develop during baking. Without it, the pretzels would look anemic. Editor's Note: This recipe is part of Gourmet's Modern Menu for A Father's Day Feast. Menu also includes Grilled Rib Pork Chops with Sweet and Tangy Peach Relish and The Ultimate Brownie Sundae.

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This recipe is so versatile you can use any type of chocolate, nut or dried fruit. Don’t expect leftovers!