Baking

When making the candied almonds, stir them until the caramel transforms into a dry, crystallized coating.

Writer Peter Jon Lindberg's Swedish grandmother Alice Lindberg made these cookies each Christmas. The recipe makes about 9 dozen cookies, making it great for holiday parties and edible gifts.

The idea here is to concentrate a few strong complementary flavors to create a cake that is pleasantly bitter and not too sweet. Tartine chiffon cake is made with whole-grain dark buckwheat flour, and then layered with blood orange marmalade and bergamot-infused blackout chocolate ganache. The ganache sets quickly, so cut your cake layers and have your filling and syrup on hand when ready to assemble.

No one has to know these moist, chewy, decadent chocolate cookies are totally wheat-free.

Most gluten-free flour mixes rely on rice flour or cornstarch, which can create a gummy texture. But the main ingredient in Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour is garbanzo flour. The muffins we made with it had the best flavor, texture, and color out of all the brands we tried.

We can't stress it enough: Pack the mixture as tightly as possible into the loaf pan. This is essential for the slices to hold together when cut.

For a moist cake, be sure to use finely ground polenta labeled "quick-cooking" or "instant"; cooking times listed on the package will be five minutes or less.

Had kasha or soba? You've tasted buckwheat. The flour has an earthy, mineral flavor that pairs especially well with tart fruits, like these cherries.

Approach the clafoutis batter as if you're making waffles! It's no more complicated than that. This recipe resonates with me because it is so simple and versatile and, at the same time, elegant. Most often I make a clafoutis in a black cast iron skillet or heavy pie pan because they retain the heat well. You can certainly use individual ramekins, a tart mold, or even a crêpe pan. When you bake a clafoutis, it will puff up like a little soufflé, browned on the edges, but creamy within. I try to serve it immediately, because it will inevitably fall and deflate—but not to worry: This will happen and it's just as delicious anyway. If you understand this basic batter, the sky's the limit: it's a perfect blank canvas for almost any fruit you can think of: from choppable fruits like mango and banana, to cherries preserved in brandy. It's a recipe to draw upon all the year long. Variations follow, but here's the basic batter.

The success of a dessert as simple as apple pie depends on using perfect ingredients: tart, flavorful apples like Sierra Beauty, good buttery pie dough, and just enough sugar to bring out the flavor of the apples. You can always make a double-crusted pie, but for something different, try this one with its crumb topping.

This gluten-free crust is inspired by the very popular gluten-free cakes we've baked at CakeLove for years. Here, I've added freshly ground golden flaxseeds, which add a wonderful, nutty aroma and taste to the dough. The rice flour lends sweetness, and millet is a good substitute for the starch component in flour, but it doesn't do much in the way of binding. That task is left to the tapioca and egg white, which help hold the dough together as you roll it out.