Vanilla

A simple addition to the master dough results in deliciously scented rolls.

We mix finely ground oats and almonds into the biscuit dough for extra texture, flavor, and nutritional value.

Rich with chocolate and studded with bits of toasted almonds with a faint coconut flavor, this heavenly dessert is a special finish to a holiday meal. Because the leavening comes from aeration, it is essential that the ingredients be at room temperature before assembling the batter.

A yellow cake gets filled with jam then cleverly surrounded by a rhubarb mousse by using a larger spring-form pan as a mold. A jewel-like rhubarb glaze creates a finishing touch. If you have small, early tri-star or wild strawberries to garnish the top, so much the better!

When we say simple, we mean it. And simplicity is exactly what you want when the local strawberry season arrives, and you'd rather be outside than indoors at the stove—even though you want to celebrate berry season with an easy, spectacular dessert. Ta da! We've solved the problem. Borrowing and expanding on South American alfajores, those addictive buttery sandwich cookies filled with dulce de leche, we've made one big, flat cookie base (no hassling with tart pans), spread it with dulce de leche, and then topped it with a soft pillow of whipped cream for freshly sliced strawberries. It doesn't get better than this!

In the winter months, there's nothing like the bewitching, slightly exotic flavor of Key limes or the larger regular limes (a.k.a. Persian) to transport you mentally to some warm tropical spot, preferably an island with an endless beach. This cake, with its tart lime filling offset by billowy drifts of sweet, marshmallow-like frosting, should do the trick. Key limes are smaller than Persian limes and often come packed in a net bag, but don't despair if you can't find them. Persian limes make an excellent substitute (see Cooks' Notes, below, for more details on buying limes). Another helpful hint: Because there's grated zest in both the cake and the filling, grate all the zest you need first, before you start juicing.

Martin Cate, owner of the rum-centric Smuggler's Cove bar in San Francisco, shares his spiced rum recipe below. The secret: Start with good rum, and don't overinfuse the mixture.

Nadine Levy Redzepi created this incredibly rich, moist cake. "Fat with fat—what could be better?" asks her husband. Serve it for dessert or with coffee or tea for breakfast.

These are like the best Pop- Tarts you've ever had. Raspberry jam is traditional, but try any fruit preserve.

Sometimes we spread jam between the layers; other times we simply dust the cake with powdered sugar.

Sweet meets salty in these oatmeal-raisin cookies flecked with crisp bacon bits. They're great for breakfast or an afternoon snack alongside a cup of coffee.

Barigoule is typically a stew of artichokes. This version blends vegetables in a bit of vanilla-scented sauce.

Bake in large decorative paper molds (found at kitchen supply stores), or simply line standard muffin tins with your favorite liners.

Crunchy edges and soft centers make Lahey's cookies a classic.

A lot of commercial red bean ice creams are just your basic, junky, mass-produced ice creams made with inferior ingredients like gums and thickeners, with a little of the red-bean paste called anko stirred in. Not so the following: a custard-based, from-scratch ice cream, enriched with enough anko so that you really get both its flavor and the extra creaminess contributed by its starch. The vanilla is optional; some feel it detracts from the red- beaniness, but I think it enhances it. If you want to go to town with this one, serve it in scoops sprinkled with a little matcha (brightly colored powdered green tea), and offer matcha-flavored meringues alongside; you can make them from the egg whites you'll have left over from the ice cream. Those who are allergic to dairy products can make this using canned full-fat unsweetened coconut milk: substitute 4 cups for the milk and cream.

Apples are very versatile—they work well with a variety of nuts, spices, and natural sweeteners. Rome Beauty apples hold up especially well during baking. Here, pecans, vanilla, and dark brown sugar create a winning combination of flavors in skillet-baked apples, irresistible served warm from the oven.

The peaches and cherries in this quickly prepared dessert are a great source of vitamins A and C. Vanilla beans are available in many large supermarkets and most specialty food shops; you can substitute one teaspoon pure vanilla extract for the one-half bean used below (don’t use imitation vanilla, which contains artificial ingredients).

Custard serves as an incomparable ice-cream base. Also called French ice cream, frozen custard usually consists of a combination of egg yolks, milk, and cream. What makes it different from other ice cream, such as Philadelphia-style (which contains no egg), is the base, which is a variation of crème anglaise, a cold sauce that often accompanies soufflés, cakes, poached fruit, and meringues. (To make the sauce, simply follow the recipe below, substituting 3 cups whole milk for the skim milk and cream and omitting corn syrup; do not freeze after straining and chilling.) Unlike many store-bought versions, ice cream made from scratch has a deeply luxurious texture. It’s voluminous and soft, able to envelop whatever delectable flavors you plan to blend into it. And as long as you have an ice-cream machine, there’s not much to the preparation. It’s just a matter of cooking the custard, chilling it, and then letting the machine handle the bulk of the work. Ice cream has the best texture when it has just finished churning; it’s somewhere between soft-serve and regular ice cream. If making ice cream ahead of time, make sure to take it out of the freezer 15 to 30 minutes before serving (depending on the room temperature) to soften slightly.

White cakes, as opposed to butter cakes like the one on page 428, are made with egg whites only, and they offer another good lesson in how French meringue can help give loft, or leavening, to a cake. (The heat of the oven causes the beaten whites to expand; in this case, they are helped by a chemical leavener, namely baking powder.) It’s important to beat the whites until they are stiff but not dry, and to make sure that you fold them into the batter very gently, in parts, so that they retain their volume. First, you fold in just a third of the beaten whites to “lighten” the creamed batter (so it is easier to incorporate the rest without overmixing), then you very gently fold in the rest and quickly transfer the batter to the prepared pans, lest it lose any volume. True to its name, the cake remains pure white inside after baking, save for the brown flecks of flavor-enhancing vanilla seeds.

It’s impossible to walk into any bakery in Italy without seeing a lattice-covered jam-filled tart called a crostata, so when I penciled out a short list of the desserts I would want to make at Mozza, it was only natural that crostata was on that list. For the longest time, I just couldn’t decide how I wanted to serve it. An unadorned crostata seemed fine for a bakery, but it looked too naked on the plate to serve alone at the Pizzeria. At the same time, I was struggling with how to incorporate another Italian favorite, panna cotta, into our repertoire. Somehow, in the course of all of my experimenting, I got the idea to substitute the creaminess of gelato, the most obvious accompaniment to a fruit tart, with the creaminess of panna cotta, and I put the crostata and panna cotta together. It worked, solving both problems at the same time. We drizzle the panna cotta with saba, Sardinian grape must. What we created was a dessert built of all Italian elements that, though you would never see them together in Italy, somehow work. I’m proud of that. The recipe makes twelve crostate, four more than you will serve with the panna cotta. I based the yield on the number of crostate the dough would make—and I figured you could find someone to eat the extras. You will need twelve 1/2-cup miniature brioche molds to make the panna cotta, though you could use 2-ounce ramekins—your panna cotta will taste just as good, it just won’t look as pretty. The crostata dough is the same as the Pasta Frolla (page 276) with toasted sesame seeds added. Dahlia and I got the idea when she was working on a sesame-seed biscotti. We didn’t like the biscotti enough to include them in our repertoire, but we really liked the subtle flavor and crunch that the seeds added to the dough.