Baking

Working on this book has taken us new places, and also back to explore taste memories from the past and from travel. Sometimes we've stumbled on childhood tastes, and sometimes we've gone looking for them. This dark gingerbread is from scribbled notes I found in an old cookbook of my mother's. I don't know where she got the recipe, but I do know that she made it regularly, especially in winter, when its rich, warm scent would draw us into the kitchen at dinnertime. Serve it as a snack or for dessert.

This variation on the classic Irish apple cake has a top and bottom crust made from a biscuit-like dough. You can cut this cake into wedges or dish it out with a spoon like a cobbler.

A tweed cake gets its name from the classic wool fabric it resembles. The effect is achieved by folding coarsely grated chocolate into the batter before baking. If you can't find matzo cake meal, you can grind batches of regular matzo meal in a clean electric coffee/spice grinder until it's the consistency of flour.

Scented with nutmeg, these distinctive light little cookies have been a family favorite for many years. They are easy to make, melt in your mouth, and are far better than store-bought meringue cookies.

For more information about melting chocolate, see Meltdown.

These delicious small pastries are easy to make, and they're sure to disappear quickly.

This recipe yields enough cookies to make the crust for the Tropical Cheesecake and the crumbs and garnish for the Banana-Cream Parfaits .

Marty Rosencranz of River Vale, New Jersey, writes: "Even though I am a professional chef — at the Valley Brook Golf Club in New Jersey — when I cook at home I make dishes that are good but fast. I took two years to perfect the recipe for my chewy chocolate cookies. They're so good that they are now a signature item on the club's menu." Butterscotch chips could easily stand in for the peanut butter chips.

Semolina flour, made from durum wheat, is sometimes labeled "pasta flour."

Using frozen puff pastry for the crust makes this quiche-like tart super-easy.

Chocolate-covered raisins turn into fudgy pockets of intense chocolate and chewy raisins in these easy brownies.

"One Saturday morning I came up with this bread recipe, and now my family asks for it all the time," writes Priscilla Unger of Alberta, Canada. "My husband insists on having his first slice while the loaf is still warm from the oven, but I prefer mine toasted and topped with marmalade." The slightly sweet bread is great with butter and preserves.

These Christmas cookies are topped with white icing and silver dragées for added elegance. Look for the dragées in the cake decorating section of your supermarket.

This recipe creates enough batter for a 3-quart bundt pan, but it can also be baked in smaller pans, though baking time will vary accordingly.

Since the crust is made with purchased puff pastry, this delightful savory tart comes together easily.

For a curved tuile-like shape, these cookies may be draped over a rolling pin after their second baking, while they are still warm. If the cookies become too brittle to form on the rolling pin, return baking sheets to oven for a few seconds to allow the cookies to soften.