Baking

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Nick Malgieri's and David Joachin's Perfect Light Desserts. To read Epicurious's review of the cookbook, click here. These moist, chewy cookies are so good, it's hard to believe that they're low in calories and fat. Many thanks to my friend and cookbook dealer Bonnie Slotnick for sharing the recipe.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are from Jennifer Appel's Buttercup Bakes at Home. To read Epicurious's review of the cookbook, click here. While most of my customers seem to live for the icings and toppings on my cupcakes, this "black bottom" cupcake is sure to please just as it is. It's become my all-time personal favorite.

You may want to double this recipe—the apple-walnut topping and whipped cream make these cakes disappear fast.

Adding a hint of orange zest to beloved chocolate chip oatmeal cookies gives them a faint citrus aroma and fresh bite.

Astronaut or not, anyone can enjoy these raisin-studded drop biscuits. Eat them while they're warm, because they lose their stellar appeal when cool.

Reducing a mixture of coconut liquid, cream, and sugar on the stovetop creates a wonderfully creamy filling, almost like a dulce de leche. Handfuls of fresh shredded coconut give the tarts a tropical flavor, accented beautifully by the fruitiness of prickly pears.

Evelyn Herring of Laguna Woods, California, writes: "My mother was raised in Scotland and learned to cook at a time when quality ingredients were hard to come by. She had to be imaginative, often substituting ingredients and improvising recipes. My own cooking has become Americanized over the years, but I still rely on her recipes. They're easy and always taste as good as the first time I tried them." These savory treats, called biscuits in Scotland, go well with cocktails or tea.

"Each year we receive hundreds of reader requests for recipes from restaurants around the world. And this past year there was a clear favorite — cheesecake. One of the best we tested is from Zoom in Park City, Utah. Here's their delicious version. — The Editors At the restaurant, this is served with roasted pears. The cake needs time to set up in the refrigerator overnight, so begin making it at least one day ahead.

In the late nineteenth century, the city of Czernowitz, known as the Vienna of Eastern Europe, was famous throughout Austria-Hungary for its tolerance, civic beauty, culture, and learning. Frequently renationalized over the last millennium, Czernowitz has passed through Romanian, Ottoman, and Austrian control and is now a Ukrainian city called Chernivtsi. At its cultural peak at the turn of the twentieth century, it was populated and governed by Jews from Poland, Russia, Austria, and Romania — it even hosted the first-ever Yiddish-language conference in 1908. Of course, World War II destroyed this idyll, and most of the city's Jews were deported to Auschwitz. This recipe for a classic European challah (pronounced "chern-o-vitzer") comes from the late Lotte Langmann. It is not terribly sweet or eggy, but it is generously enriched with oil. The Austrians traditionally use a four-stranded braid, but this dough holds its shape so beautifully during baking that it is a great choice for showing off any fancy shape. This has become one of my favorite challah recipes.

Inspired by the many delicious recipes I found for apple challah, I set out to create the most intensely appley version possible. I started with a sweet challah dough and crammed in as many apples as possible. To minimize surface area and hence excess apple juice, I cut the apples into very large chunks — I also like the distinctive and succulent way these show up in the baked bread. I avoided cinnamon, to let the apple flavor shine unencumbered, but finished off the bread with a sugared crust. After many tests, the final bread was such a favorite that tester Rita Yeazel worked on improving the method for days, determined to come up with an easier way to incorporate the apples. Because I wanted the apples' flavor to permeate the dough, I had wanted to add them during mixing, not shaping, but that meant a lengthy, messy, and difficult hand-knead. Now, thanks to her persistence, I roll out the dough after an hour of fermentation, when the dough is more extensible and is fairly soft, scattering the apples over it and folding the dough around them. Then, as the dough continues to rise, the apples become an integral part of it — and so the tedious hand-kneading phase is unnecessary. I suggest using Braeburn apples, which are easily available in most areas, have a good spicy flavor, and do not fall apart during baking; but you can substitute any favorite baking apple. This bread is wonderful for breakfast or with coffee. It also makes an enticing Rosh Hashanah centerpiece and a much-appreciated gift.

This is the challah I make for my family and have been tweaking for years. It is a sweet, rich, honey-scented challah. However, if you don't care for the flavor of honey, I have included a sugar equivalent. For the finest texture, highest and most defined braid, and longest keeping quality, I have reduced the liquid in the dough to the bare minimum, replaced most of the water with eggs, and kept the dough very firm. This dough is too stiff to mix in a mixer, and needs little development, so I always knead it by hand, but you can also mix it using a food processor.

A chocolate-infused whipped cream tops a caramel-filled chocolate crust in this elegant—but still single serve—dessert, reminiscent of the classic candy.

Here's Hill's take on a tart he had at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

Budino is Italian for "pudding."

Garcia likes making this bread pudding because "we buy wonderful rustic Italian loaves for the restaurant that are just too good to waste," she says.

Nothing melts in the mouth like baked bananas. Served with any kind of cream topping, it is a simple, unsurpassed dessert. Adjust the ingredients and flavors to your personal taste.