Frozen croissant dough is spread thinly with a paste of glutinous rice flour, milk and sugar, folded and pressed in a waffle iron. The flattened butter layers go crisp, and the rice paste makes the inside stickier and chewier than a plain croffle. Honey and a dusting of cinnamon finish it.
Pears fanned over almond frangipane, with small gaps left so the cream puffs up between the slices, make up this French tart. Fresh pears need slicing thin enough to cook through in the oven, while canned or poached ones must be drained of their syrup first.
Apples cook first in a butter-and-sugar caramel in an ovenproof pan, then bake under a sheet of pastry before the whole thing is flipped onto a plate, caramelized fruit on top. The apples are peeled, cut into thick pieces and packed upright in the pan with no gaps. After only 3 to 5 minutes out of the oven, a plate wider than the pan goes on top and both are turned over in one motion.
Small balls of butter dough get a shallow press from a thumb, and the dent becomes a cup for strawberry jam. Jam swells in the oven; each well gets only half.
There is no butter in this cocoa loaf. Mashed soft tofu and grapeseed oil fill that role, and dark chocolate chips are folded through. Wet tofu can add 3 to 5 minutes in the oven, which is why it sits in a sieve for 5 minutes first.
Swiss chard in a sweet pie sounds unlikely, but the leaves are mixed with apple, rum-soaked raisins, pine nuts, and brown sugar under a double crust. A dusting of powdered sugar once the pie has cooled through makes it read as a dessert from the first look.
Golden syrup, coarse breadcrumbs and lemon make the filling of this British tart, sticky and deeply sweet. A little wobble in the center when it comes out is fine. The filling firms as it cools. Pull the tart once the top is lightly browned, and wait until it is completely cold before slicing.
Soaked in three milks (whole, condensed and evaporated), this Latin American cake is wet enough that a little milk seeps onto the plate when you cut it, yet the whipped-egg sponge keeps its shape. It is usually served cold, after a night in the fridge.
A plain vanilla cupcake meant to sit under whatever goes on top: buttercream, cream cheese frosting, ganache. Batter fills each liner to 70 percent, and the oven door stays shut for the first 15 minutes so the centers do not sink.
Honey gives these madeleines a slightly deeper color and keeps them moist for longer after they cool. The little hump on the back forms when well-chilled batter goes straight into a hot oven.
Two plain sponges made from equal weights of butter, sugar and flour, with nothing between them but strawberry jam and whipped cream. It is named after Queen Victoria and is still a regular at British afternoon tea.
Cocoa batter is piped low and well apart on the tray and bakes into flat rounds. Once cool, they are paired by size, marshmallow cream goes onto the flat side of one, and the other closes it: an American sandwich treat.
A Basque cheesecake with its top scorched nearly black, and yuja-cheong (Korean citron preserve) stirred in so a citrus note follows the rich cream cheese. Crumpled parchment set higher than the pan leaves its creases pressed into the sides.
A cream cheese filling with yuja-cheong (Korean citron preserve) bakes as one slab over a cracker crust, then chills firm before being cut into squares. The citrus comes through after the dense cheese and keeps the finish light.
The cream cheese filling over a digestive biscuit base is flavored with yuja-cheong (Korean citron preserve) and lemon juice. A few hours in the fridge sets it enough to slice, but the yuja only really comes through after a day, so make it the day before.
Piped into a doughnut pan and baked rather than fried, these come out soft all the way through, closer to a small cake. The batter has yogurt, milk and yuja-cheong, Korean citron preserve, and the minced ginger is stirred into the yuja-cheong first so it does not end up in one clump. Overbaked, they turn dry, and checking starts at 12 minutes.
The layers in this scone come from stopping before the butter is fully rubbed in, leaving pea-sized bits in the flour. Those bits melt in the oven and push the sides apart, so a good scone splits by hand into visible layers. Yuja preserve (yuja-cheong), yuja zest and minced ginger go into the dough.
Browning the butter first gives these madeleines a nutty base, with yuja-cheong and lemon juice adding a sharp citrus note on top. Any big pieces of peel in the yuja preserve are chopped small so every mold gets its share.
This loaf starts the pound-cake way, with butter and sugar creamed first, before yuja preserve and poppy seeds go into the batter. Sliced once fully cool, each piece shows the tiny dark seeds dotted all through it.
Sized for slicing with tea, this cake bakes in a single 18 cm round. Ricotta whisked smooth with sugar forms the base of the batter, giving a moister, milkier crumb than a cake built on creamed butter. Melted butter replaces the usual creaming step, and small bits of yuja peel stay scattered through each slice.