Baking

John and Tori Nicholas of Indianapolis, Indiana, write: "We had such a wonderful time exploring New Orleans that my wife and I are now hopelessly hooked on the Big Easy. We play lots of Cajun music, and last week we rented the movie A Streetcar Named Desire. The best part of our trip was the chocolate bread pudding at Red Fish Grill." The sugar topping becomes crunchy when baked, creating a perfect contrast to the creamy chocolate pudding underneath.

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 4 hr

Traditional biscuits are so intimidating to novices in part because most recipes require you to make them at the last minute. I wanted to come up with something anyone can do, and this is it. The yeast makes the day! The dough is easy to work with, and both dough and baked biscuit can be made ahead.

Blackberries turn a familiar spice cake into a sophisticated finale.

When freshly baked, these appealing cookies are chewy, crisp, and tender all at the same time. If stored in an airtight container for a day, they are still delicious, only softer.

"I was married last spring, and my husband and I spent our honeymoon in Del Mar, California, at L’Auberge Del Mar Resort and Spa," writes Leah Morgan of Shoreline, Washington. "While we were there, we enjoyed the cinnamon-raisin French toast. I would love to surprise my husband by re-creating this special breakfast at home." You’ll need to buy unsliced bread from a bakery to make this super-thick French toast.

"I never had a cookbook until I moved here in my twenties to do some graduate work at the University of Oregon," writes Fanny Carroll of Eugene, Oregon. "I fell head over heels for this guy (now my husband), and he gave me Pellaprat's Modern French Culinary Art for Christmas. Still, many of the everyday dishes I made when I was raising my daughters are recipes I learned from my mother while I was growing up in the suburbs of Paris. She was quite a cook, and with a husband and seven kids to feed, everything had to be fast." Called gougères in French, these cocktail snacks are irresistible.

This bread is slightly sweet, like some corn breads, and works well as an accompaniment for the island pork tenderloin salad . It also makes a nice island-style tea bread when served in the afternoon with lime marmalade and hibiscus tea.

Brushed with sweet orange syrup, filled with almond cream, and covered with toasted almonds, even the most run-of-the-mill store-bought croissants are transformed into something heavenly.

Connie Capani of Binghamton, New York, writes:"I am 100 percent Italian, so perhaps it's no surprise that I love food: To Italians, it's like a security blanket. I learned how to make spaghetti and other Abruzzi favorites from my mother. Looking at food magazines is what got me interested in venturing out into American culinary territory. I wanted to know how to make a "gravy" that didn't include tomatoes. These days, I work only part-time as a substitute teacher, but I still don't want to be in the kitchen the whole time when my husband and I entertain. " Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

These nut meringues are also called erstesternen ("first stars"), a reference to the heavenly signs indicating the end of a fast day. They are traditionally served by German Jews at the meal following Yom Kippur.

This dessert combines two confections that are popular in Chile: caramel and the small cream puffs called profiteroles.