Baking

Chef Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Virginia, shared this recipe as part of a St. Patrick's Day feast he created exclusively for Epicurious. Although this dessert originated in Bakewell, England, chefs and cooks around England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales have created their own adaptations. Chef Armstrong's version, which is based on his mother's, is halfway between the classic Bakewell tart and the classic Bakewell pudding. This recipe calls for a quick puff pastry, but in a pinch you can use the store-bought frozen variety. Leftover puff pastry can be used to make Cheese Straws or Palmiers.

These are some of the best brownies we've ever had—fudgy in the middle and chewy on the outside with a shiny, crackly top. The browned butter adds a rich, nutty flavor.

The batter for this classic chocolate soufflé can made the day before, so all you have to do is bake and serve.

Crispy, oversize cookies with a hint of butterscotch flavor.

To create patisserie-perfect macaroons, Sandra Holl uses very finely ground almond flour. To remove the larger pieces, sift the flour before using.

Trish Newcomb makes her Granville Gourmet Whoopie Pies with shortening, but the cookies and filling can also be made with butter. In the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen we added a layer of chocolate ganache for a more intense chocolate flavor.

This classic French bread is rich and slightly sweet, with a soft, golden crust and a yellow, buttery, cakey crumb. It is widely eaten in France – with coffee for breakfast, as a roll with dinner, or as a base for any number of desserts. At River Cottage, we like to toast brioche and serve it with a smooth chicken liver pâté and a little fruit jelly. Contrary to popular belief, as bread goes, brioche is pretty straightforward. The dough is very soft to handle though, so kneading in a stand mixer is easier. You can make and bake brioche all in one day, but it benefits from sitting overnight in the fridge – the very soft dough stiffens as it chills, making it easier to shape.

Of course you can put what you like on your scones, but I'll usually opt for a traditional cream tea of jam and clotted cream. Cream tea etiquette is fiercely disputed in the West Country. The Cornish put strawberry jam on their scones first, then the clotted cream; in Devon and Dorset, it is customary to do it the other way around. Personally, I prefer raspberry jam and I always put jam on first, even though I live on the Devon-Dorset border.

This recipe took almost three weeks of trial and error before I perfected it. But the fantastic result was well worth the aggravation! With three kinds of chocolate for flavor—cocoa powder, cacao nibs, and chocolate chips—you won't miss the fat and sugar in the standard version of this most beloved cookie. Pour a glass of (skim) milk and get happy.

I love how a cream cake comes together so easily, its tender crumb and its neutral pound-cake-like personality. But until I started playing around with different sugars, it always seemed too bake-shop bland. Like shortbread, the rather neutral ingredients show off whatever sugar (or flour) you use. Maple sugar is subtle and warm, while the superdark organic brown sugar or muscovado make a caramel-like cake that calls out for ginger and a bit of pepper. In the end, it's a great cake for fall and winter, when we turn to apples, pears, and dried fruits.

Yes, you are reading the ingredients list correctly: there are black beans in these brownies. You really have to taste the brownies to believe them. The beans add moisture and texture not to mention fiber and protein. These brownies have such a great fudgy texture because the cocoa powder and just a little espresso powder are the only dry ingredients (besides a bit of Truvia). For an extra jolt of chocolate flavor and about 15 more calories stir 1/4 cup dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs (such as Kopali Organics) into the batter just before pouring it into the pan. These brownies are even better the next day.

A thin layer of frangipane, a rich almond pastry cream, elevates this simple, classic French dessert into something special. It's made in the style of many French fruit tarts: thin-crusted and only lightly sweetened to let the fruit truly shine. Americans have eagerly adopted French-inspired freeform tarts, even giving them a French name, galette, a word that the French generally use to describe a round, squat pastry, cookie, or buckwheat crêpe. The most famous galette is Galette des Rois, two disks of puff pastry filled with frangipane and eaten on Epiphany. I considered calling this dessert a tart, but decided against it because that term can put off people who are worried about dealing with fussy doughs and trying to achieve picture-perfect results. This pastry is intended to be rustic, and for that reason, it's often my go-to galette. Or tart. Speaking of tart, if your apples are particularly tart, you could sprinkle a bit more sugar on top of them before baking, but if you serve a sweet accompaniment alongside, as I usually do, additional sugar probably won't be necessary.