Stand Mixer

These green-and-red-studded biscotti look vaguely Christmassy but are good any time of year. Feel free to swap in other nuts or dried fruit—this combo is particularly pretty but you could use golden raisins, almonds, or hazelnuts as well. To make the biscotti even more decadent, dip in melted chocolate.

These scones appear atop our deli case every morning, although not for long—we always sell out within a couple of hours. Unlike many scones, they’re not too sweet. Pair with a cup of coffee and the newspaper and you have the formula for a perfect Sunday morning. If you’re serving a crowd, this recipe can be doubled. You’ll need an extra-large bowl for your mixer, or you can make them by hand.

This glorious galette, or rustic pie, will accommodate just about any fruit, but its open top makes a particularly pretty frame for the jeweled hues of summer’s stone fruits and berries; my favorites are apricot/blueberry for the beginning of summer, and peach/blackberry for the Fourth of July. Fig/raspberry, though not stone fruit, is great in the late summer and early fall. You could trim the dough into a neat round, but I prefer the rustic look of jaggedy edges—and leaving it untrimmed ensures that not a bit of the buttery dough goes to waste. Serve with plenty of fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

I’m particularly proud of our house-made sausages, which we have been making and selling at the Market since day one. They’re delicious, and they’re also free of the fillers, additives, and preservatives common in commercially made sausages. You don’t need a meat grinder or a sausage stuffer to make sausage at home. You can use preground pork shoulder, mix in the spices of your choice, and form them into patties or kebabs. Here I share three of my favorite spice combinations: a classic breakfast sausage, a hot Italian variety, and a sweet Spanish-style chorizo. If pork is not your thing, ground chicken or turkey that has a 15 to 20 percent fat content will work as well.

This dough is quite versatile and works for savory empanadas just as well as for sweet tarts and turnovers. It’s also incredibly easy to work with; not only does it resist sticking, but it’s almost impossible to overwork. (The secret is the cream cheese!) If you can, make a double batch of the dough and freeze for later use.

This is my favorite cake of all time. The buttermilk adds a nice acidity and helps create a moist, light crumb that is a perfect complement to the fruit. This works just as well with pears, apples, and stone fruits; for best results, use fruit that is ripe but not too soft.

This is a wonderful, simple cake that stays very moist thanks to the almond paste. Although this version calls for plums, you can adapt it for every season by substituting blueberries, cooked apple chunks, ripe fuyu persimmons, or other types of stone fruit.

The combination of strawberry and rhubarb is a classic for good reason: the juicy-sweet strawberries are perfectly balanced by the tart rhubarb. Our version features a crumb crust on top, which works well with a very juicy fruit filling such as this one; a traditional pie crust topping would get soggy. The crumb also provides crunchy textural contrast to the soft fruit inside.

Before we were married, my wife, Anne, used to court me with this tart. She was a pastry chef at San Francisco’s now-razed 42 Degrees restaurant, and they sourced cheese from the same distributor as we did at the Market. Whenever the restaurant got their cheese shipment, Anne would give the delivery guy this tart, and he in turn would deliver it to me on his next stop. I guess the way to my heart truly is through my stomach! Whether you’re being wooed or not, this is a fabulous, timeless tart featuring an easy-to-mix shortbread crust and a tart, rich filling. Top it with whatever fruit is pretty and in season. If you are lucky enough to have access to Meyer lemons, you can replace up to two-thirds of the regular lemon juice with Meyer lemon juice.

Olive oil cakes are a traditional Italian treat; this one is unusual in that it uses whole oranges and lemons, not just their zest. This barely sweet dessert—a sophisticated amalgam of heady olive oil, aromatic fruits, and toasted almonds—will win you friends wherever you serve it. Be sure to use good-quality olive oil in this recipe. I prefer a Tuscan blend with a bit of peppery bite to give the cake an interesting dimension. I love serving this cake with whipped crème fraîche that has been lightly sweetened.

The chocolate cookies that Ritz-Carlton chef Rob Wilson made for the 2009 Workshop delivered two surprises: tiny nuggets of chopped dark chocolate and little bursts of fleur de sel, a coarse French salt extracted by hand from seawater. The salt, although unexpected, seemed to heighten the chocolate flavor. Chef Wilson used cake flour to make the cookies especially tender. He served them with Crème Fraîche Sorbet (page 186), but vanilla ice cream would complement them as well.

Our homemade ice-cream sandwiches get raves when we serve them for lunch at the Workshop. We assemble them with cake instead of cookies to make them easier to eat. You can use any homemade or store-bought ice cream, but this caramel-banana–chocolate chip invention from pastry chef Marcel Desaulnier, who participated in the 1989 Workshop, is beyond delicious.

Compared to cheesecake made primarily with cream cheese, this rendition of the American classic is notably light. We make it with Cowgirl Creamery (opposite page) fromage blanc, which is lower in fat than cream cheese, plus ricotta and mascarpone to enhance the texture. A thin layer of Cowgirl Creamery crème fraîche blankets the top. The result is an easy, elegant, lemony dessert to serve in slender slices with a fruit accompaniment, such as sugared berries, a raspberry sauce, or the strawberry-rhubarb compote suggested here.

This crusty soufflé rises spectacularly in the oven and makes a grand entrance when you bring it to the table. The pureed parsnips add an intriguing nuttiness to this otherwise classic dish. Make it a first course at a dinner party or the main event at a more casual autumn or winter meal. Accompany it with lightly dressed butter lettuces, perhaps tossed with some sliced avocado and blood orange segments. The recipe is from Chef Michael Smith, who participated in the 2000 Workshop.

Mud pies come in handy as a great use of leftovers or trimmings of chocolate cakes, cookies, or brownies. They are a great opportunity to get creative with your desserts, since there is really no “wrong” way to make them. The point is just to create a rich, gooey dessert with a crumbly crust. This particular version incorporates chocolate cake, chocolate mousse (which can also be served on its own or used to ice a cake or cupcakes), and fudge sauce. Additional toppings are limitless. Because they are such a messy dessert, I like to prepare and offer mud pies in individual martini glasses, wineglasses, or tumblers—it makes it much easier to serve and enjoy. You can, if you prefer, fill one 9-inch pie dish, using the same method, and slice it to serve. Cake trimmings can be collected and frozen for up to 2 months in advance, or you can bake 1/2 recipe Devil’s Food Cake (page 98) in a 9-inch square baking pan, cut it into 1-inch cubes, and allow them to sit out and get slightly stale overnight.

The base recipe for our chocolate cake is the easiest cake recipe I know. It’s an oil-based (as opposed to butter-based) recipe, so, just like boxed cake mixes, it can be mixed by hand in one bowl. For that reason, it is a favorite of mine to make at a vacation home or anywhere that I’m not sure about what mixers or baking equipment will be available. Once baked, this batter results in an airy, spongy cake with a rich chocolate flavor. It tends to rise a lot in the oven, especially in the center, so the cake layers will always have to be trimmed to make the layers flat before they are iced. Accordingly, be careful not to overfill the cake pans or cupcake wrappers.

Imagine taking a bite of the edge of a cheesecake, with a chunky piece of crust on your fork and a thin layer of the sweet-and-sour cream cheese filling gracing the crust. Now imagine having that flavor in a bite-size version that you can pop into your mouth by hand. These sandwich cookies are like mini inverted cheesecakes (by “inverted” I mean more crust than filling). The cream cheese icing, which adds a tanginess to the cookie, can be made with or without cinnamon. The sugar in the cream cheese icing acts as a natural preservant, so the cookies can be left at room temperature in an airtight container for a week.

These cookies are just as tasty eaten plain as they are in any of the variations in this chapter. Steps 6 through 12 of this recipe outline how to bake them on their own for a snack. If you are using the dough for another recipe in this chapter, stop at step 5.

The lime version of the buttermilk cookie is a tart, refreshing treat—perfect for a summer day. You can also easily substitute lemon or orange for the lime; all are especially welcome at brunches or tea parties. This recipe directs you to spoon the icing over the tops of the cookies, but if you like the playfulness of the rounded bottoms from the Mini Black and White Cookies (page 77), you can flip them over and ice the bottoms using the same technique.

This cinnamon-glazed cookie is French toast in cookie form—a breadlike texture with cinnamon-sweet flavor. You can add chopped candied pecans by sprinkling them onto the cookie after it’s iced but while the icing is still wet. This recipe directs you to spoon the icing over the tops of the cookies, but if you like the playfulness of the rounded bottoms from the Mini Black and White Cookies (page 77), you can flip them over and ice the bottoms using the same technique.