Baking

A quick raspberry sauce adds pastry-shop polish to this cheesecake. Want extra to serve alongside the dessert? Double the ingredient amounts and reserve half the sauce.

Chocolate lover alert! These brownies are sensational: very chocolaty, moist, and delectable. It's not only their taste that is rich—they're also rich in healthy ingredients: whole-grain flour, chia seeds, walnuts, coconut oil, and I'll even include antioxidant-packed chocolate on this list. Once baked, you should let the brownies cool at least 30 minutes before cutting into them. At this stage they will be warm and gooey. These brownies taste even better the second day, so they are a great make-ahead dessert. If you plan on serving them on the day they're baked, refrigerate them for an hour or two before serving. — Myra

We love the combination of gently cooked and raw strawberries in this not-too-sweet version of the classic dessert.

Substitute whole almonds for the hazelnuts in these brown-buttery cakes, or use a combination of both.

Like a cinnamon-sugar doughnut in muffin form. You've been warned.

Italian wheat pies—filled with a rich ricotta custard studded with tender wheat berries—are associated with Easter celebrations, but according to author Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez, rice pies are just as classic and in her estimation, taste better. Eriquez had been making wheat pies for years when she had some extra dough a while back and used it to make a rice pie. "My family went berserk. They went crazy for it!" said Eriquez with a laugh. "Rice is more tender. It has a nicer taste than wheat," she explained. "If you give my family a choice, they're going to ask for the rice before the wheat." The pastry dough, pasta frolla, is delicate and tears easily, so if it softens, quickly chill it in the freezer for a few minutes. And don't worry about the tears; they patch easily.

Pizza rustica looks nothing like the Neopolitan-style pizzas we know so well in this country. That's because pizza in Italian means pie and not all Italian pies are made with a bread dough. Pizza rusticas tend to be double-crusted affairs enclosing a mixture of cheese and nuggets of various cured meats and sausages. With its rich filling, pizza rustica is often served at Easter as a way to celebrate after the lean eating during Lent. In this version, author Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez makes an open-faced pizza rustica.

It's airy, light, and sweet, but this delicate cake gets pucker and punch from vinegar in both the icing and the filling.

Making mamool by hand is in my DNA, so I forego the molds that are now available to make the process go faster. Of course, using them will not impact the taste of the cookie, but they will make a pretty design on top. They are available in Middle Eastern groceries and specialty kitchen stores. If you opt to use pistachios, soak them for 30 minutes, then drain them to help maintain their gorgeous green color. If you want to go dairy-free here, you can substitute orange blossom water for the milk.

Selling skeptics on the idea of a vegetarian dinner is easy when it's in pie form. Maitake mushrooms add heft.

IF YOU MEET A CZECH TEXAN, he or she will politely inform you it's incorrect to use the term sausage kolache when referring to a sausage-stuffed kolache. When you scrunch up your face with confusion, the person will then kindly explain that the correct term for this savory pastry is klobasnek. But wait, let's back up here for a minute. If you're not familiar with a kolache, then you may be wondering what the heck I'm talking about. Allow me to explain. A kolache is a sweetened yeast roll that's been stuffed with a fruit, cream cheese, or a poppy seed filling. The roll is either square or round, and there's a well in the center to contain the filling. With a klobasnek, the dough is wrapped entirely around the filling, and the only way you can tell what's inside is to take that first bite. You find these pastries all over Texas, though they were first introduced in Central Texan Czech communities, such as the small towns of West and Caldwell. While the origin of the term klobasnek for the sausage-stuffed version is a little vague, The Village Bakery in downtown West has claimed provenance for the term. What's interesting, however, is that these Czech pastries are more associated with Southeast Texas than with Central Texas. The two pastries are different things, but some people still insist on calling them sausage kolaches. This doesn't bother me, but I can see how it could upset some linguistic purists. No matter what you call them, however, they are good. I like to eat them for breakfast, warm from the oven when the cheese is still melted and the sausage juicy with a snap. Though they are still good a few hours later at room temperature and can easily be reheated, too.

This is an interesting twist on our beautiful soda bread. Look for dried cranberries in the larger supermarkets or any health food shop should stock them. This is my favourite bread that we serve as part of our bread selection in the evening.

For some, the beginning of spring is marked by budding crocuses and blooming daffodils. For me, it's all about the rhubarb. After a long winter of baking endless nut, citrus, and chocolate cream pies, the emergence of those leafy pink stalks from the ground is a harbinger of the coming bounty of spring and summer fruits. Some wait until strawberries are in season a few weeks later to start baking with rhubarb, but I use it as soon as humanly possible. Toasted almond frangipane is a lovely, creamy foil to the tartness of the rhubarb, and adds an extra layer of flavor without overwhelming the star ingredient.

Editor's Note: Use this crust to make Allison Kave's Nutella Pie .

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Francine Segan's Torta Mimosa . Pan di spagna, "bread of Spain," is a key ingredient in hundreds of classic Italian desserts like zuccoto and Sicilian cassata. Pan di spagna's light and airy texture absorbs fillings amazingly well, so it stacks wonderfully, allowing you to create tall, moist layer cakes.

Region: Emilia-Romagna and popular throughout nothern Italy This cake, which looks like a bouquet of mimosa flowers, is eaten on March 8th in celebration of International Women's Day—Festa della Donna—a sort of BFF day celebrating womanhood and female friendships. The cake is made from two basic recipes: sponge cake and pastry cream. Each is worth learning, as with them you can make myriad classic Italian desserts. This lovely cake is better if eaten a day or two after its made. It keeps nicely for up to a week and freezes perfectly.

Craig Strong, Executive Chef of Studio at Montage Laguna Beach, shared this recipe exclusively with Epicurious. When making his cinnamon- and nutmeg-scented coffee cake, Strong recommends having a whisk as well as a rubber spatula at the ready. The whisk is great for thoroughly blending the ingredients, but at certain points the batter is quite thick and you'll need to use a spatula.

Instead of using the traditional slices of bread, I like to use croissants for this pudding as they create a light dish. Serve with jugs of Butterscotch Sauce and Crème Anglaise so that everyone can help themselves.

Connie McEvoy, Louth: Retired farmer and craft expert As the eldest of ten, from the age of 12 I would make several cakes of this wheaten bread every Saturday based on my grandmother's recipe. We always mixed it by hand and I still measure it by hand, using four large fistfuls of wholemeal flour and two smaller fistfuls of plain flour.