301 recipes. Page 6 of 13
Bread, cookie, and cake baking recipes
Instead of browned mince, this Tucumán-style filling starts with a whole piece of matambre, a thin beef flank cut, simmered about two hours and then diced by knife, and its broth is split between filling and dough so both carry the beef flavor. The filling is spread out and chilled before shaping, as beef fat in the pastry softens quickly against anything warm.
Cooked on a covered pan over low heat instead of in the oven, these flat yeast rounds develop a cornmeal crust on both faces and an open, irregular crumb inside. Toasting crisps the edges of those holes, and butter, jam, or a runny poached yolk sinks into the gaps. They are the usual base for Eggs Benedict and just as good split and buttered at breakfast.
Ensaymada traces back to the Spanish ensaimada of Mallorca, but the Filipino version turned into a soft, buttery brioche finished with butter and salty cheese. Each bun rises tall with visible spiral layers because the dough is rolled into ropes, coiled loosely, and baked in muffin tins. Powdered Parmesan stands in for the grated cheddar or Edam common in the Philippines, giving a lighter salty edge against the sweet crumb. The butter and cheese wait until the buns have cooled completely, or the cheese turns soggy. It shows up at Christmas, and the rest of the year as a breakfast bun with coffee or hot chocolate.
Pancetta, garlic, and Parmigiano Reggiano season this savory Italian pie, whose filling is 600 g of chard blanched, squeezed hard, and packed between two thin sheets of dough. Water left in the chard soaks the thin bottom crust, so the leaves are wrung out thoroughly and the cooked filling is cooled before it is spread on the dough.
In the Philippines, bibingka is sold outside churches after the dawn Masses of the Christmas season, baked in clay pots lined with banana leaves over charcoal. Coals above and below cook both surfaces at once and keep the inside moist, while the leaves leave a green fragrance and faint dark marks on the underside. This version swaps all that for a round pan in a regular oven, and it leaves out the salted duck egg and coconut slices that vendors press on top midway. Rice flour and coconut milk give a texture somewhere between a rice cake and a sponge cake: a little chewy, but still soft and springy.
Browned butter does most of the work: cooked until the foam settles and the solids turn hazelnut brown, it gives these little almond cakes a toasted, nutty smell that plain melted butter lacks. Only egg whites go into the batter, along with almond flour and a spoon of honey. The inside bakes up dense and moist while the edges turn dark and crisp.
Rolled paper-thin from a dough with no yeast, the base ends up far thinner than pizza and is scattered lightly with creme fraiche, onion, and bacon. This Alsatian flatbread puts tangy creme fraiche where pizza would have tomato sauce and cheese. A very hot oven chars the edges in minutes, and it is cut and eaten while the crust still snaps.
The vanilla custard is thickened with cornstarch on the stove before it goes into the pastry, so once the tart is baked and chilled it slices into clean, upright wedges. In Paris bakeries it sits in the case by the slice, its top freckled with caramel-brown spots.
Sliced almonds go into a caramel cooked from cream, sugar, honey and butter, and small spoonfuls of it bubble up again in the oven and spread into thin amber rounds studded with nuts. Once cool they set hard as glass, snapping cleanly before the caramel turns a little chewy. The backs get a thin coat of melted dark chocolate.
Plenty of olive oil coats the pan and pools in the finger dimples. As the bread bakes, the bottom and top almost fry in it, while the wet dough inside stays chewy with big, uneven holes. Rather than long kneading, the dough is lifted and folded during the rise to keep its bubbles. Rosemary and flaky salt are the basic finish, and olives, cherry tomatoes, or thin potato slices pressed into the surface change it up.
Egg white, sugar, flour and butter spread into paper-thin circles, which must be folded the moment they leave the oven. Only two bake at a time, since they set quickly as they cool. A thick center stays chewy even after folding. Printed paper or ballpoint ink should not go inside, and any message belongs on the wrapping instead.
Black olives, rosemary, and thyme go into a dough that is shaped like a leaf and slashed open before baking, so the edges and thin parts crisp while the thicker strips between the cuts stay soft and chewy. The olives are patted dry first. Wet ones loosen the dough and leave the salt bunched in one spot.
A smooth, glossy top and a ruffled foot around the base are the signs of a well-baked shell. The almond-meringue shells give way from a thin crisp skin to a chewy center, and pairs of them sandwich a buttercream made with melted dark chocolate.
Cherries or plums are laid in a single layer, and a thin batter of eggs, milk, sugar and a little flour is poured over just until the tops of the fruit peek through. Straight from the oven the edges are puffed and golden; after a few minutes they sink and the custard settles. Spooned out warm, each serving gets soft fruit, a moist middle and some of the browned edge.
Leavened with baking powder instead of yeast, the dough is patted flat by hand and fried until the edges brown and the middle puffs unevenly. This version follows the recipe by Rosanna Sanders-Wallulatum published by Oregon State University and does not stand for every Indigenous community's way of making it. Light kneading and a 30-minute rest keep the dough tender. An even thickness, center included, prevents a browned outside over a raw middle.
The ratio is what makes these fudgy: little flour against plenty of butter and dark chocolate gives squares that are dense and chewy rather than cakey. The center looks underdone when the pan comes out, then sinks and firms as it cools. Walnuts or pecans folded in add crunch.
Batter poured in a thin stream into hot oil fries into a lacy disk of crossed strands. Unlike a twisted yeast doughnut, nothing is kneaded or proofed; the width of the stream decides the texture. Piling batter in one spot leaves a raw center, while strands that never overlap fall apart when you flip the cake. Dust it with powdered sugar and eat it warm, since a covered funnel cake steams itself soft.
In this Greek pie, sheets of filo, each brushed with butter, are layered around a semolina custard, and a syrup of sugar and honey goes on after baking. Semolina leaves the custard faintly grainy in a way a flour-thickened one is not, and lemon zest scents it. The syrup is cooled to lukewarm before it meets the hot pie, which keeps the top layers crisp while the bottom soaks it up and turns soft.
Eaten across France around Epiphany in January, this pie seals an almond frangipane between two rounds of puff pastry. A small porcelain charm, the feve, is hidden inside, and whoever gets it in their slice is king or queen for the day and wears a paper crown. This version adds a little rum to the frangipane. A leaf or swirl pattern scored into the egg-washed top bakes into a sharp, glossy design.
Toasted puffed rice and sesame seeds, the core of gangjeong (Korean puffed-rice and seed sweets), are folded into a brown-sugar cookie dough. A little glutinous rice flour in with the wheat lets the dough spread thin, and the baked cookies crumble lightly when bitten.
The croffle, a café favorite, is made here from store-bought frozen croissant dough and finished savory with garlic butter and grated Parmesan. Left shut in the waffle iron too long, the pastry dries out hard, which is why the first one gets cut open to check for raw dough before the rest go in.
Seventy percent dark chocolate and butter far outweigh the flour, so the cake bakes dense and close to a truffle rather than a sponge. Separating the eggs and folding in a meringue keeps it from being heavy, and it melts softly instead of sitting like fudge.
Instead of buttercream, a cooked coconut and pecan filling made with egg yolks and unsweetened evaporated milk fills the layers and covers the top. Slices end up with a textured center between soft cocoa layers rather than the uniform richness of a dense chocolate gateau. The cocoa is natural unsweetened, not melted sweet chocolate or Dutch-process. With nothing spread on the outside, the coconut-pecan layers show from the side.
Kokuto, the Japanese unrefined cane sugar, goes into both the dough and the syrup, and ordinary light brown sugar will not give the same flavor. The baked slab is cut into triangles and dipped in warm syrup, and what clings to the surface slowly works its way into the cut edges. Unlike an iced biscuit, this Kagoshima sweet keeps its coating damp rather than drying it into a shell. The slab rises with baking soda, not baking powder.