Baking

Condensed milk is the secret ingredient that gives this popular Spanish dessert its silky texture.

Australian crystallized ginger is especially moist; it's sold at some supermarkets and specialty foods stores.

Rosemary and black pepper make this bread anything but typical. Wedges are delicious with plenty of butter and your favorite preserves.

Coconut milk enhances the taste of the white chocolate; kumquats add tang.

This savory tart hails from France and features cottage cheese, sour cream, bacon slices, onion, and freshly grated Parmesan. You've never know by looking at it, but it's actually very easy to make and ready in under an hour. 

These tartlets use a crust that's especially easy to make: It gets pressed into the pan, rather than rolled out.

This recipe's a family favorite from my Auntie Delores. It's actually a version of bibingka, a Pilipino dessert. I call it coconut cake, because I don't know how to translate "bibingka" into French, and Laurent and I mostly speak French. At home we simply cut it into squares. For a fancy restaurant-style presentation, you can cut it into various shapes using cookie cutters. If you want to cut out shapes, lining the cake pan with parchment paper will make it easier to unmold the cake. Packages of coconut are usually 14 ounces, but an ounce or two more or less won't make a difference.

Light and fluffy, these impressive desserts look, smell, and taste extraordinary — meringue gives them a cloudlike texture, while quince adds a delicious fragrance and beautiful pink hue. And they're very manageable for a small dinner party if you make your crêpes and prepare the quince ahead (see cooks' note, below). Bring them both to room temperature when you sit down to dinner; when it's time for dessert, you'll only need to beat your egg whites and assemble the soufflés for baking.

Be sure to use regular peanut butter — not old-fashioned or freshly ground — for the best consistency in the cookie batter and the filling.

Use a Bundt pan or any other decorative ten-cup fluted pan.

These crumbly cookies are extremely easy to make, and they improve with time. We recommend baking them a couple of days ahead — if you can resist the temptation to eat them immediately.

Get ready for the most deliciously tangy adult nibbles that have ever made you lick your lips. These are not only easy to prepare, but the dough can be frozen and kept for when guests drop by unexpectedly.

Here, the beloved grits of the South are baked into a tender, cheesy roll that embraces all the elements of a country-style breakfast. Just slice and serve.

There may be no better way for a yeast-phobic (or time-pressed) cook to put a fetching basket of fresh bread on the table. The secret is a biscuit dough so simple to make and handle that you'll find yourself baking these twists for weekday family meals as well as special dinners.