Electric Mixer

PARSNIPS HAVE A DEEPER, MORE SOULFUL FLAVOR than carrots, and this hearty root vegetable takes center stage in our version of a carrot cake. Sweet and spiced with ginger and cloves, this moist cake makes a great birthday cake or anytime cake.

THE KEY TO THESE SWEET AND CHUNKY apricot bars is using the highest-quality apricot preserves possible. Look for the word preserves on the label rather than jam or jelly; preserves have more fruit chunks. (Artificial colors are sometimes added to apricot jams, jelly, and preserves, so check the list of ingredients on the label.) These are a great dessert for a picnic or a bake sale because they’re easy to transport and stay fresh for days.

IF YOU THINK YOU DON’T LIKE GINGER, these cookies are sure to change your mind. With cloves, cinnamon, and ginger, these soft, chewy cookies have a bite all their own. Ground ginger has a more intense flavor than fresh and is ideal for baking. The only way to improve on these cookies is to sandwich vanilla ice cream between pairs of them. (See photograph on page 174.)

SNICKERDOODLE IS ANOTHER NAME FOR a vanilla butter cookie covered in cinnamon sugar. Light and soft in texture, they’re simple to make. Cut them into shapes, such as triangles, before baking and dip the pieces in melted chocolate once they’re cool for a fun dessert. They also make the perfect cookie for ice cream sandwiches. (See photograph on page 174.)

IF YOU KNOW A CHOCOHOLIC, THEN START BAKING. These intense chocolate cookies are made with three types of chocolate—unsweetened, semisweet, and cocoa powder—for maximum flavor, but have a light-as-air texture. They are incredibly satisfying without being dense or heavy.

GOOD TO KNOW Made by beating egg whites—no yolks—with sugar until stiff peaks form, meringue provides a versatile, fat-free base for all kinds of desserts. Here, scoops of meringue are poached until just firm, then chilled and served with raspberry purée.

WHY IT’S LIGHT You can have your cupcake and eat it too when you prepare smaller portions and finish them with glazes and syrups rather than buttery, creamy frostings and other high-calorie toppings. Here, the little cakes are drizzled with a lemon syrup to complement the lemon (and lime) zest and juice in the batter

WHY IT’S LIGHT Next time you crave a rich tasting brownie, reach for one of these lighter cookies instead. They’ve got just as much chocolate flavor, but far less butter—and thus less fat—per serving.

GOOD TO KNOW There’s a reason it’s called angel food cake—not only is it light as air and divinely delicious, it’s also virtually fat-free. The cake gets its lofty texture from a dozen whipped egg whites folded into the batter; it makes an excellent partner for fresh berries or berry sauce (see note). To make a chocolate version, see the variation below.

Although the origins of spritz cookies are fuzzy—some say they come from Scandinavia, while others cite Germany—I'm inclined to believe it's the latter, because spritzen means to squirt in German, which is how these cookies are formed: The dough is squirted from a cookie press. You can make any shape you want, but we love these old-fashioned washboard strips. If the idea of yet another piece of kitchen equipment deters you, rest assured these cookies are so delicious, you'll be baking them more than once a year. A cookie press is not expensive and with all the different shapes you can make from the dough, it will more than pay for itself in fun and entertainment over the years for the child in all of us.

If you've been looking for a chocolate sugar cookie that doesn't wimp out, delivering the dark chocolate hit you crave, this is the one for you. The thin coating of melted bittersweet chocolate, along with a festive sprinkle of crushed candy canes, only enhances the depth of flavor inherent in the cookie's deep brown color.

When it comes right down to it, the simplest holiday cookie is, hands down, this sugar cookie. No rolling pin or sheets of wax paper are required.

The Linzer cookie, thought to have originated in the city of Linz, is based on the Linzertorte, one of the most famous and beloved confections in Austria. The cookies are like mini versions of the torte, which consists of a buttery dough, rich with ground almonds or hazelnuts, spread with jam—usually raspberry or apricot these days, but originally with black or red currant jam or jelly—and then topped with a lattice of more dough before baking. You don't see Linzertortes often on this side of the Atlantic because the Linzer cookie is so much easier to make and delivers the same wonderful interplay of flavors. With its snowy dusting of confectioners' sugar and glistening red raspberry jam filling, which peeks out from the center of the sandwich cookie, it definitely screams "holiday."

If you choose to bake only one cookie from this collection, make it these bites. The crisp cookie base provides the perfect contrasting setup to the luscious caramel-flavored dulce de leche—caramelized milk—hidden under the creamiest cheesecake layer. The final snazzy drizzle of dulce de leche is not essential, we know, but it makes the bites downright irresistible.

When it comes to making bread, many things affect the outcome, some more obvious than others. Most important is the flour. You cannot make good bread from mediocre flour. Choose flour that is unbleached, untreated, and free of additives. All flours, and especially whole-grain flours, will eventually spoil and taste and smell rancid. Try to buy flour that’s relatively fresh; your best bet is to look for a local organic food retailer with a rapid turnover who sells in bulk. The water makes a difference, too; both its temperature and its quantity influence texture. The type of leavening agent and the length of time bread is allowed to sit and rise will both affect the outcome enormously: quickbreads made with baking soda or powder are tender and almost cakelike, while breads leavened with wild yeast and given repeated slow risings will be the chewiest and crustiest, with the most complex flavors. Weather also affects bread: humidity, heat, and cold each exert their influence. All this makes baking ever-changing and forever fascinating. There is a world of breads: quickbreads such as cornbread and Irish soda bread that are easy to put on the table on relatively short notice; wonderful flatbreads such as tortillas fresh off the griddle or whole-wheat-flour puris that puff up when they’re fried or pita bread grilled over a fire; and the classic yeasted breads of France and Italy—including my everyday favorite, levain bread. Levain bread is leavened with a natural starter of wild yeast and allowed a long, slow fermentation and rising period in canvas-lined baskets. Traditionally, before each batch is baked, some of the starter is held back to leaven the next batch. Rather than give a recipe for a levain-type bread (which is a little complicated to make at home), I offer instead a recipe for a dough that’s versatile enough to be formed and baked as a flat crusty focaccia or a traditional pizza. (Kids love to stretch out the dough and make their own pizzas.)

Made in a Bundt cake pan, this half flan, half chocolate cake is a decadent marriage of two dessert classics. The batter for the chocolate cake is made first, then poured into the Bundt pan, followed by the flan batter. The batters may appear to mix but they completely separate while baking, with the flan ending up on the bottom. I like to eat the cake warm, but traditionally it is chilled for 24 hours before serving.

As we well know, chocolate has been around for a very long time, dating all the way back to pre-Columbian Mexico. Once considered a gift from the gods by the Mayans, and after being introduced to Europe, reserved for Spanish royalty, chocolate has become a worldwide favorite when preparing desserts. You’ll find it in cakes, tarts, dessert sauces, and soufflés, as you see here. Mexican chocolate, available in Latin markets and some supermarkets, is flavored with cinnamon, almonds, and vanilla. It makes for an unmistakable—and irresistible—soufflé.

Not only is this giant layer cake a stunner, it is absolutely delicious with its creamy guava filling and fluffy buttercream frosting. We had a guava tree in my mom’s garden, and when the fruit was in season, we ate our share of guava cakes, guava tarts, guava water, and pretty much guava anything. This is my homage to my mom’s guava tree.

The fact is, I could come up with a hundred different cajeta recipes. Cajeta, a caramel-like spread traditionally made with goat’s milk, is readily available all over Mexico and is known as dulce de leche in other parts of Latin America. Cajeta, which translates as “small box,” used to refer to the box in which the cajeta was sold. Now you can find it in a glass jar, a much more convenient presentation. It is found in many supermarkets and Latin markets and is available in different flavors, the most common being wine and strawberry. Any flavored cajeta would work well in this recipe. Whipped with cream and a little sugar, it is a perfectly sweetened filling for this tasty treat—which is just as delightful as it is messy to eat.

This is a decadent and classic Mexican cake that you have to make at least once in your life (and if you do, I guarantee you’ll make it again). A firm-textured cake, it holds up to being soaked in three kinds of milk/cream (hence the name tres leches). Traditionally it’s topped with sweetened beaten raw egg whites, which could be dangerous for small kids and pregnant women, two groups that really enjoy this cake. An Italian meringue, which is made of cooked egg whites, is the perfect solution.