Baking

The creamiest, most intense chocolate pudding you'll ever taste.

These little scallop-shaped cakes are a classic teatime treat in France.

Bev Heinecke of San Anselmo, California, writes: "Many of our favorite family recipes come from my mother-in-law, Hannah, who was a wonderful cook. When my sons were younger I made her chocolate macaroons and pancakes all the time. I don't make them quite as often as I used to, but they're still a hit with my husband."

Like so many homemade French desserts, this pound cake, tenderized with yogurt instead of butter, is utterly simple and versatile: Enjoy a slice for breakfast with a steaming cup of coffee, or serve it after dinner with fruit coulis or whipped cream.

This lightly sweet brioche is the coffee cake of Alsace (where it is also known by its German name, kugelhopf). It can be baked in an eight- or nine-cup crown-shaped kouglof (or kugelhopf) mold, a fluted ring mold, or a tube or Bundt pan. While the cake is best on the same day it is baked, leftovers are delicious toasted.

A far is a custardy pudding cake, similar to a clafouti but with a dense, smooth, flan-like texture. This one, studded with brandy-soaked prunes and raisins, is the signature pastry of Brittany, served for breakfast as well as dessert.

Rose water lends a subtle floral flavor to the scones; it can be found at some supermarkets, specialty foods stores, and Middle Eastern markets.

Editor's note: This recipe is excerpted from Maguy Le Coze and Eric Ripert's book the Le Bernardin Cookbook. To read more about Ripert, click here. Eric: We used to have a captain who would sell this cake to our female clientele by saying it was like the heart of a man: hard on the outside and meltingly soft on the inside.

A corkscrew shape gives these light cookies a new look.

If you are also making the duck pozole , prepare this dessert while the stew simmers.

TREND: Deconstructed desserts (breaking down a dish into its essential components, then serving the parts as a whole) WHO: Gale Gand, pastry chef at Tru in Chicago and host of Sweet Dreams on the Food Network WHAT: The elements of Black Forest Cake — chocolate cake and pudding, cherries, whipped cream, and kirsch — are reimagined as sensuous, separate bites and sips.

TREND: Roasted fruit WHO: Diane Rossen Worthington, author of The Taste of the Season: Inspired Recipes for Fall and Winter WHAT: Cooks have known for ages that roasting completely transforms meat and vegetables, taking them to new depths of flavor. Fruit is now getting the treatment, and this winter comfort dessert comes from a cookbook author who really knows about cold-weather cooking.

TREND: Exotically flavored chocolate WHO: Katrina Markoff, CEO of Vosges Haut-Chocolat in Chicago WHAT: Markoff, one of the first to infuse chocolate with unexpected ingredients, named this Asian-tinged creation after one of her most popular truffles. Its Japanese flavors — ginger, wasabi, and black sesame seeds — are the building blocks for an inspired cake.

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." Crushed gingersnap cookies, marmalade, and raisins set this pie apart from the American version.