Claire Saffitz
Contributor
Claire Saffitz is a freelance recipe developer and video host. Previously, she was Senior Food Editor at Bon Appétit magazine, where she worked for five years in the test kitchen. She hosted the series Gourmet Makes on the Bon Appétit YouTube channel, where she used her classical pastry knowledge to reverse engineer popular snack foods and candy.
White Cupcakes
Cake flour gives these classic white cupcakes a very fine, tender crumb, and the high ratio of egg whites to yolks ensures a snowy hue. Get the recipe for vanilla cream cheese frosting here.
Devil’s Food Cupcakes
Non-Dutch-process cocoa powder is sometimes labeled “natural,” and since all of the chocolate flavor depends on what kind you use, quality matters for these devil's food cupcakes. Get the recipe for vanilla cream cheese frosting here.
Toasted-Flour Sablés
Often pressed through a sieve and added to the batter for cakes or cookies, hard-boiled yolks prevent too much gluten from developing without weighing down the batter. The one-two punch of yolks and toasted flour makes for the most delicate, tender cookies you’ll ever taste.
BA's Best Carrot Cake
With crunch from toasted walnuts and an optional boozy punch from rum-plumped raisins, this is the only carrot cake recipe you’ll ever need.
BA's Best Hot Fudge
Chocolate can burn, which would ruin an otherwise impeccable sauce. Make sure to stir all the way down to the bottom of the pan after adding the chocolate and cocoa. This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.
Apple-Rhubarb Crumble
This simple process works for practically any fruit; gauge how much sugar to use based on the fruit’s sweetness, and try cardamom or ginger in place of cinnamon.
Candied Carrot Coins
These will be sweet and chewy when done and are the perfect decorations for BA's Best Carrot Cake.
BA’s Best English Muffins
The dough will seem fairly wet when shaping into rounds, but the high hydration is key to forming those trademark nooks and crannies. This is part of BA's Best, a collection of our essential recipes.
Weeknight Red Curry
This warming curry comes together in under an hour with all the deep flavor of a slow-simmered sauce.
Savory Dutch Baby
Pillowy baked Dutch baby pancakes can be topped with countless combinations of your favorite savory brunch ingredients.
Candied Carrot Coins
These will be sweet and chewy when done and are the perfect decorations for BA's Best Carrot Cake Recipe.
Bacon, Mushroom, and Spinach Pierogies
To make this vegetarian, omit bacon and add 4 Tbsp. olive oil for browning mushrooms.
Beef, Onion, and Cheddar Pierogies
These are ideally made with ground shortrib, but using chuck will give you an equally savory filling.
Cottage Cheese and Blueberry Pierogies
These sweet pierogies help balance out the savory fillings from Kielbasa, Sauerkrat, and Potato Pierogies, Beef, Onion, and Cheddar Pierogies, and Bacon, Mushroom, and Spinach Pierogies, making them perfect for any pierogi party.
Kielbasa, Sauerkraut, and Potato Pierogies
Why choose between boiled or fried? The key to these pierogies is doing both.
Homemade Gefilte Fish
Ask your fishmonger to fillet the fish for you, remove the skin and pin bones, then hack up the bones. That’s why they’ve got the waterproof apron and stainless steel equipment back there, right? The size of the individual whole fishes doesn’t matter—just make sure you have about 7 pounds total.
Marinated Lentils with Crunchy Vegetables
If you’re reading this, you’re alive. But if you’re not taking advantage of nature’s most underrated legume, are you really living?
Steak Sandwich with Parmesan Dressing
This open-faced sandwich works just as well as a salad if you’re not feeling the bread.
Hot Cross Buns
Traditionally studded with candied fruit and marked with a cross on top, these sweet yeasted English cakes are usually baked on Good Friday.
Hoisin-Glazed Pork Chops
Homemade hoisin serves as both a marinade and a sauce to punch up these bone-in pork chops.