Pastries

This dessert comes from Boulevard restaurant in San Francisco, California. The pastry chef, Karen Shaw, created the treat.

The espresso-flavored cream puff pastry and fluffy coffee and chocolate custard filling vary from the traditional plain pastry and praline buttercream. Delicious on its own, this is even better with the chocolate caramel sauce.

Here's a terrific light version of an American summer classic.

A moist and flavorful banana-nut muffin with a distinctly tropical twist.

An appealing dish from Matt's in the Market in Seattle, Washington.

Millefoglie con Crema alla Grappa e Rabarbaro Millefoglie is the Italian version of the French pastry mille-feuille (meaning "thousand leaves"), which is then layered with fruit and cream, napoleon-style. We like Julia brand grappa best for this particular recipe — it's slightly sweeter and has a more well-rounded flavor than other grappas we've tasted. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

"My grandmother, who emigrated from Sweden to the United States when she was a little girl, passed on to our family a taste for cardamom," writes Lisa Tracy of Marion, Iowa.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Diane Kochilas's book Meze: Small Plates to Savor and Share from the Mediterranean Table. Kochilas also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. To read more about Kochilas and Greek cuisine, click here. Onions, cheese, and yogurt pies abound in the north of Greece, especially in shepherds' communities where dairy products are daily staples. This recipe is culled from that tradition, but instead of preparing a whole sheet pan with homemade phyllo, I have reworked it to make it accessible and more in tune with the meze style of eating.

These fresh-from-the-oven rolls are made with frozen bread dough.

Traditionally served with tea in the afternoon, scones are lovely at brunch, too.

Poach the pears and serve with traditional anise-flavored fried pastries. Start the pears one day ahead.

Anadama bread, a traditional New England yeast bread made with cornmeal and molasses (said to have been created by a woman from Massachusetts named Anna), is the inspiration for the following muffins. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Active time: 25 min Start to finish: 45 min