Baking

KITRINA KOULOURIA ASTYPALITIKA Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Aglaia Kremezi's book The Foods of Greece. To read more about Kremezi and Greek Easter, click here. I first saw these biscuits on Holy Thursday in Astypalaia (an island of the Dodecanese). In a bakery there I saw pan after pan full of yellow biscuits about to be baked for the second time. I thought they were the baker's specialty and asked if I could buy some. To my astonishment I learned that they belonged to the women of the village, who had brought them there to be baked. I was offered one to taste, and tried to figure out what was giving them their strange flavor. I had never seen or tasted anything like those biscuits anywhere in Greece. The week before Easter it is customary throughout Greece to bake Easter biscuits, but the ones I was familiar with were sweet and contained many eggs. These were savory — I could taste pepper in them — but I could not figure out the rest of the flavors. When I asked, I was told their main flavoring was saffron. In the fall, after the first rains, the women of the island climb the rocky hills of Astypalaia in search of the crocus flowers from which they collect about 1/3 ounce of saffron threads — enough to color and flavor the dough made from 28 pounds of flour that they usually bake. Astypalaian women don't like commercial saffron, believing that the saffron gathered from their own hills is best. And, of course, they are right. As I learned later, these saffron biscuits are found only on this tiny island. In Athenaeus, bread with saffron is described as one of the foods served during ancient symposia, but in modern Greece — although we now cultivate and export a lot of the precious spice — we use hardly any saffron in our cooking. I believe that this recipe must be a very old one, and that is the reason it contains no sugar. The women of the island keep the tradition and bake a lot of these yellow biscuits every Easter. They send some to their relatives in Athens and keep the rest in large tin boxes to eat with fresh farmer's cheese or with their coffee for the rest of the year. Adjusting the recipe given to me by Virginia Manolaki for 8 cups of flour was quite an ordeal. Commercial saffron seems to be weaker than the Astypalaian variety, so I had to use more. Finally, I came up with the version that follows, which is very near the real thing. Serve the biscuits with fresh cheese or with coffee.

Utensils needed: Mixing bowl; whisk; wooden spoon; large bowl; three 6-inch loaf pans, lightly buttered and dusted with Wondra flour; wire rack
Baking time: Approximately 25 minutes
Storage: Wrap tightly. Keep at room temperature up to 1 day; refrigerated, up to 1 week; frozen, up to 3 months.

East meets West in this famous Dutch milk tart, which is usually baked in a deep enamel dish, though a quiche tin may be used. In summer, pastry dough was made late at night, wrapped in a damp muslin cloth and hung in a draft to keep cool. For the lightest crust, the tart was baked before sunrise. The custard was flavoured with dried naartjie (tangerine) peel, blanched almonds and peach kernels, and coconut milk or sweet wine were sometimes added. Some modern cooks add a dash of almond essence.

(Topfenstrudel) Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Rick Rodgers's book Kaffeehaus: The Best Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. Rodgers also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Austrian cooking, click here. Not every café has a full-time baker. At many, it's just Mama in the kitchen and often Mama doesn't feel like (or doesn't have enough counter space for) hand-pulling strudel dough. This classic recipe layers store-bought filo dough with a Topfen filling in a pan to make a deep-dish dessert. Thanks to Gerda Hofer for this recipe.

Crumbly and melting, easy and irresistible, at the catering company, we keep the dough for this shortbread on hand in the freezer for in-house treats and for extra hors d'oeuvres or snacks for a party that balloons at the last minute. I first tasted this shortbread when my friend Gail Monaghan passed it around in a silver basket before a dinner party at her house. I took one bite and said, "OK, where's the pen? Hand over the recipe (there was a "please" implied): this is amazing and I need to put this in my book." She very angelically wrote it out nicely, and here it is.

Peppermint buttercream is sandwiched between homemade chocolate cookies; then the sandwiches are rolled in crushed candy canes.

This spoon bread is as tender as a soufflé but much simpler to make.

Crisp, buttery maple cookies get a sparkly sugar-crystal coating.

These popovers are like individual Yorkshire puddings. To make a dozen large popovers, just double the recipe and use two pans.

A big dose of lime (from lime juice, zest, and oil) really makes these sing.

Improv: Substitute lemon peel for the orange peel, and cinnamon for the cardamom.

Healthy bonus: 1 serving of fruit per slice, protein and riboflavin from eggs, calcium from yogurt, fiber, and nearly 1/3 of the RDA for vitamin C from berries

Healthy bonus: 1/2 serving of fruit per slice, potassium from bananas, iron from walnuts

Spiced cakes, like the warm miniature madeleines served at Aix, in Manhattan, seemed the perfect pairing for the hibiscus tea sorbet and basil and orange ice creams . Unlike the madeleines that Aix pastry chef Jehangir Mehta makes, ours are the traditional size.