Baking

I love how the fruitiness of Cluizel Concepción chocolate, mellowed by a little cream cheese, plays against the caramel and the flowery, slightly musky acidity of the blossoms (actually, calyces) called "Jamaica flowers" in Mexico and red hibiscus in this country. (They are what gives Red Zinger tea its color.) When I first developed this recipe, I used hibiscus to flavor the caramel, but now I include it in a separate sauce where its red color makes a gorgeous contrast with the dark flan. You will find that this flan is reminiscent of the classic cream cheese–fruit paste pairing that Latin Americans like in other contexts. For this recipe, do not use the spice marketed as "cinnamon" in American stores (it's really cassia). Look for the soft, flaky true cinnamon from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), which has a much subtler and more delicate flavor. You can find it in Hispanic markets under the name canela.

Daniel Boulud always had a preference for classic French desserts, so I developed this recipe for the lunch menu when I was pastry chef at Daniel. The dessert itself is very simple: We bake an undocked, thick round of puff pastry, letting it puff up high, and serve it hot, filled with Orange-Scented Pastry Cream and topped with a buttery caramel sauce and a few Candied Pecans. The puff pastry rounds should be baked à la minute, never ahead of time, though the dough can be rolled out and cut in advance, and stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to a day. Sometimes the best desserts are the simplest.

A hint of lemon is perfect in a creamy baked custard. This one has no caramel to get in the way of the lemon flavor. Lemon juice would be too overpowering here. Instead, the subtle lemon flavor comes from steeping lemon zest in the milk for the custard mixture. The heat of the milk extracts the essential oil from the lemon zest skin, and the milk absorbs the delicate flavor. The hints of cinnamon and vanilla are there to support the lemon, not obscure it. Raspberry sauce makes a perfect complement. I wouldn't dream of serving the custard without it.

No one really knows just whose idea it was to use a sponge cake crust for Junior's cheesecake recipe. It worked, and that same base continues to delight today.

"This is as good as it gets!" Alan exclaimed as he took his fourth forkful of this creation, followed by a fifth. Picture a warm, creamy, puffy bread pudding, straight from the oven, that tastes like it was made in a praline confectionery shop in New Orleans. You start with a loaf of challah, cut it into thick slices, and pour over a rich, creamy custard. Marble it with a buttery brown-sugar praline crunch filled with pecans and flavored with cinnamon. The secret is to refrigerate the pudding for several hours or overnight before baking; it's the long soak that makes this bread pudding the best you've ever tasted!

Copious amounts of kale were sacrificed in my pursuit of a kale energy bar. On my umpteenth attempt at puréeing the leaves into gooey-green glue, inspiration struck: why not incorporate the kale in crispy kale-chip form? It only took one batch to know I had a winner. The trick to getting great bars is to make sure that the kale is super-crisp, which is a cinch so long as you dry the leaves thoroughly– I'm talking layers of clean dish towels or many turns in the salad spinner, a mere minute or two of effort, before baking. If water remains on the leaves, the kale will steam, not crisp. I don't know about you, but the prospect of steamed kale bars doesn’t do it for me. But crispy, toasted seed-enhanced bars? Yes and yes!

Adding sour cream to the dough imparts richness and a bit of tang, and doesn't thin it out too much.

Mayonnaise in the batter isn't as weird as it sounds—it's just eggs and oil, after all. It's also why this cake is so moist.

This chocolate and pumpkin mashup is surprising yet delicious. It's so good that you don't have to brûlée the top,though that effect surely makes the pie a show stopper.

We tried all kinds of gingersnaps to make this easy crust. Our favorite? Anna's Ginger Thins.

Adding barley malt syrup offers a rounder, less-sweet note in this take on pecan pie. Look for it at health food stores.

Take cornbread up a notch with this sweet-and-savory version studded with sautéed, thyme-scented apples.

Yeasted doughs might seem daunting to novice bakers, but these rolls are very simple to make.

Kierin Baldwin's pie dough method is special in a couple of ways. First, she uses a combination of butter, which lends rich flavor, and shortening, which makes the flakiest crusts. The best of both worlds. Her technique of repeatedly flattening and stacking the dough coats the flour with fat, which helps make the crust tender.

We recommend using finely ground cornmeal to give these the ideal texture.

Curry crust? Trust us: This lightly spiced crumb will win Best in Show. If you want to take it even further, add a teaspoon of toasted crushed cumin seeds, too.

We make lots of things from scratch on Thanksgiving, but pumpkin purée isn't one of them.

This zabaione (zabaglione) and lemongrass ice cream dessert is adapted from Chef Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy. It is his unique take on a lemon tart, served upside down and smashed. According to Chef Bottura, "this dessert pokes fun at our daily striving for perfection and pristine beauty. I love the dynamics of a lemon tart but hate all the fuss—cream decorations and stubborn crusts. To get around all that nonsense, we purposefully crushed our tart. Of course, it isn’t just a one-liner but full of flavored experience from the most fragile crust to the peaks of tart, sour, sweet, cured, and candied lemon on the plate." This recipe makes 2 large tarts: You can make 2 and freeze 1 (keeping all elements separate in the freezer and assembling just before serving) or you can halve the ingredients.

This is an insanely easy cake to make. It goes together in just minutes and tastes awesome: a touch ducky—more so if you use wild duck fat—sweet, but not overly so, with a little hit of rosemary to even things out. I originally made this as a sort of stunt, but it's so good I've put it into the regular rotation. If you like a sweeter cake, up the sugar to a full cup, and if you hate rosemary, skip it or sub in lemon verbena, sage, or winter savory. Serve the cake with fruit and maybe a little whipped cream. A sweet dessert white wine, like a vin santo or a Sauternes, is a perfect choice.