Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
This rustic chocolate cake is made with two surprising ingredients: olive oil and lemon juice. Extra-virgin olive oil lends fruity, peppery flavor notes. For a less prominent flavor, use light olive oil (“light” indicates the oil is refined, not lower in fat). You could even use a combination of oils—for example, a robust extra-virgin olive […]
Venetian Cornmeal and Currant Cookies (Zaletti)
Zaletti are buttery, crisp Italian cornmeal cookies studded with raisins or currants. The dried fruit usually is first plumped in grappa, a fiery Italian brandy, but we opted instead to use orange liqueur for its more nuanced flavor. We then upped the citrus notes with grated orange zest. The cooled cookies will keep in an […]
Snickerdoodles
There’s nothing quite like the smell of cinnamon sugar wafting from the kitchen, except perhaps discovering its source: a warm tray of snickerdoodles. Their crinkled tops and pillowy thickness come from a blend of butter and coconut oil—a natural alternative to shortening. Historically, snickerdoodles were actually a type of coffee cake, which is why […]
Peanut Butter Miso Cookies
These sweet-salty, chewy-crunchy treats are our adaptation of the wildly popular peanut butter–miso cookies from Falco Bakery in Melbourne, Australia. Umami-rich white miso makes the cookies taste full and complex. Because misos can vary in sodium content, look for one with about 300 milligrams per 12 grams of miso. Turbinado sugar is a coarse sugar […]
Braided Lemon Bread
There's just something about lemon that brings a smile to even the dullest of days: its bright yellow color and zippy taste can't be beat. This Braided Lemon Bread is a sweet, egg-enriched dough surrounding a sweetened cream cheese filling with a luscious layer of lemon curd and a sprinkling of pearl sugar. The […]
Chocolate Birthday Cake
This tender, dark chocolate cake, layered with a fluffy, not-too-sweet, white Ermine icing, also known as boiled-milk frosting, is inspired by the memory of a Chuck E. Cheese chocolate birthday cake from the early 1990s. This style of devil’s food cake is also a staple of the refrigerated cases in supermarket bakeries, and starts […]
Dakota Bread
This hearty loaf from the breadbasket of America can contain a daunting number of flours and seeds. We rely on seven-grain cereal mix to shorten the ingredient list while still providing hearty texture and complex flavor to the Dakota bread. Starting the bread in a hot oven creates an initial “spring,” and lowering the temperature […]
Tony’s Master American Pizza Dough with Starter
This is what I’d call the quintessential American pizza dough, inspired by New York–style pizza: medium thin, satisfyingly chewy, and the ideal companion to mozzarella, tomato sauce, and the pizza toppings Americans love best, from pepperoni and sausage to olives, mushrooms, and other vegetables. It’s the dough I teach first to new students, and […]
Triple-Oatmeal Cookies
These buttery brown sugar cookies may be loaded with crunchy pecans and tart cranberries, but they’re all about the oats: rolled for the heartiness of a granola bar, steel-cut for a toothsome chew, and flour for a tender crumb. Pick up a bag of oat flour online or in stores, usually in the baking […]
Chocolate Cherry Layer Cake
If you love chocolate-covered cherries, this festive layer cake is just for you. With tart cherry juice in the batter and freeze-dried cherries in the whipped cream frosting, it's a bright and fruity twist on an otherwise classic chocolate cake. The flavor of the cake itself depends on rich, full-fat cocoa powder, whether natural or […]
Swedish Apple and Almond Cake
Where we stay in Sweden the gardens are filled with apple trees heavy with fruit every Autumn. Although I love the summer in Sweden, the Autumn is quite unique and equally special. This apple and almond cake is a wonderful way to celebrate the seasons fruit and is heavily spiced with comforting cinnamon and cardamom.
Plum Cake Spiced Almond Crumble
In this adaptation of a recipe from the award-winning book “Suqar” by Greg and Lucy Malouf, wedges of sweet-tart fresh plums melt into a rich, buttery cake, the whole thing finished with a nutty brown sugar and spice crumble that complements the plush, tender crumb hiding just beneath. This fruit-forward cake is ideal for […]
Stella Parks’ Classic Banana Bread
This is my favorite recipe for banana bread, loaded with coconut oil, oat flour, and thick Greek yogurt so it's always tender and moist. I use a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves to boost the natural flavor of banana, making this loaf less spicy than banana-y. If you really want to step up your […]
Strawberry Dream Cake
Strange as it may seem, the vast majority of existing strawberry cake recipes turn to strawberry Jell-O for flavor. Hoping to avoid this artificial solution, we performed test after test to figure out the best way to season our cake with actual strawberries. Any strawberry solids wreaked havoc on the tender cake, but strained […]
Italian Cream Cake
Chockablock full of nuts and coconut, this gorgeous Southern layer cake isn’t as well known as it deserves to be. It’s time to spill its secrets.We loved the idea of loading this layer cake with coconut and pecans, but the added bulk spelled destruction for the tender crumb and didn’t enhance the flavor. Toasting the […]
Caramel-Espresso Yule Log with Meringue Bracket-Style Mushrooms and Chocolate Crumbles
The first step in making a successfully rolled cake is choosing the right cake. We picked chiffon for its whipped egg whites, which provided resilience; its oil, which provided moist tenderness; and its baking powder, which provided an extra lift. While many recipes involve rolling the warm cake into a sugar-coated towel to “train” it […]