Stand Mixer

This is a whole-wheat version of basic white sandwich bread. It's a little less soft but a lot more wheat-y and substantial. The use of bread flour gives this bread a lighter texture, while the milk powder and oil help soften it. TIME SCHEDULE:
Dough starter (sponge): minimum 1 hour, maximum 4 hours (or overnight refrigerated)
Minimum rising time (including starter): about 4 hours
Oven temperature: 450°F, then 400°F
Baking time: 40 to 50 minutes

A comforting dessert that's a cross between a soufflé and a cake.

These beautiful, gossamer soft rolls make the perfect complement to any dinner. Mashed sweet potato is responsible for the moist texture and gorgeous color. TIME SCHEDULE
Dough starter (sponge): minimum 1 hour, maximum 4 hours (or overnight refrigerated)
Minimum rising time (including starter): about 4 1/2 hours
Oven temperature: 400&Deg;F
**Baking time:**12 minutes

Steamed raisin pudding, or spotted dick, as it's also called, is a traditional English dessert cake that is steamed instead of baked. It can be portioned into 8 ramekins or steamed in a large bowl and turned out as a whole cake. If you're using the ramekins, rather than spooning in the batter, you may want to transfer it to a large pastry bag and pipe it in—this will keep things neat and produce evenly proportioned cakes.

This is called a meringue buttercream because its foundation is egg whites, not the more traditional yolks. That makes it very light, satiny, and easy to spread—a plus if you're making a many-layered cake like the one in the preceding recipe. The base for this buttercream yields two different-flavored frostings: espresso coffee and bittersweet-chocolate mocha.

What better way to celebrate the holidays than with something fabulous? In this elegant European-style cake, thin layers of different flavors come together in each bite. Fine-textured spongecake, soaked in espresso syrup, plays off of crisp hazelnut meringue, while the coffee and mocha buttercreams intensify the richness of a collapsed chocolate soufflé. The faint, bitter edge of dark coffee essentially saves this dessert from itself.

This recipe works with most fruit. For extra yum, add mini chocolate chips.

Avoid the temptation to add too many toppings; a pizza should be more bread than topping. In fact, the basic dough in this recipe may be used to prepare a delicious grilled bread as well as the base for pizza. Shape the dough as you would for individual pizzas, and then grill it over hot coals for about 2 minutes on each side, until it is blistered and browned. After the dough is turned, drizzle with olive oil and scatter it with fresh herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, or rosemary.

These can be layered between sheets of parchment and stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.

Chef Daniel Patterson of San Francisco's Coi shared this surprisingly easy recipe for making fresh butter and its delicious by-product—buttermilk—with Epicurious. The buttermilk can be used to make Patterson's Yuba "Pappardelle" with English Peas, Fava Leaves, and Basil . Test-Kitchen Tip: Making butter can be an extremely messy process—as the buttermilk begins to separate, it will splash out of the bowl with each turn of the beaters. Even if your mixer has a splash guard, be sure to wrap sheets of plastic wrap from the rim of the bowl right over the top of the mixer (splash guard and all) to seal off any open spaces.

In the States, we tend to be familiar only with the bready, crisp-topped version of focaccia­, but this Pugliese take on it—towering, savory, and so light it's almost cakelike—will surely become a new favorite. Food editor Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez learned the secret to a springy, rich variety—a potato mashed into the dough—from her husband's cousin Lucia Erriquez (yes, with two r's) Castellana, who comes from Bari. A salty top and tangy tomatoes that go almost buttery on the crust will have everyone reaching for a second piece.

This cake was inspired by Devil Dogs, the bone-shaped chocolate cakes with irresistible white goo sandwiched between their layers. You'll want to dive headfirst into this version, a tall layer of moist, dark devil's food with fluffy marshmallow frosting.

A new take on pineapple upside-down cake. Here, a sticky brown-sugar caramel drips down the sides of a super-moist banana cake.

Leave it to the French to come up with the classiest way of doing an ice cream sundae. Hide the grown-up coffee ice cream inside a crisp puff of pastry (the same dough that cream puffs are made from), then drizzle it with full-bodied chocolate sauce.

We like to use California apricots (sometimes labeled "Pacific") in this dessert. They tend to be a deeper orange, and they have a tang that's occasionally lacking in the Turkish or Mediterranean varieties.

Though Treviso is recognized as the birthplace of tiramisù, the precise origins of this phenomenally popular dessert are shrouded in mystery. Imagine my excitement, then, when my friend Celeste Tonon, proprietor of Ristorante da Celeste, passed on to me the original procedures for making this luscious assemblage of ladyfingers (savoiardi) and Mascarpone cream, which Celeste learned from his mentor Speranza Garatti, the true mother of tiramisù, he claims. Her creation was made and served in individual portions, in a goblet or coppa, which I suspect gave rise to its name, which means "pick me up" in the Venetian dialect. One of the delights of making tiramisù is its versatility. This recipe makes a family-style dessert in a large dish, but you can easily compose single servings in dessert glasses, wine goblets, or even elegant teacups for a more impressive presentation, in the style of Signora Garatti's original "coppa imperiale." And while the conventional version of tiramisù calls for espresso-soaked savoiardi, I've found that other flavors can be incorporated into the dessert with great success. Here, the brightness of fresh lemons and limoncello liqueur lace the cream and soaking syrup to make for a tiramisù that is refreshing and irresistible.

A little cornmeal gives the cake a crunchy texture. The sweet-tangy ice cream and the tart compote help dress up the dessert for this holiday dinner.

Honey and dates make this dessert perfectly sweet (but not too sweet) and sticky. Pecans add a nutty crunch.