Coconut

An elegant and easy dessert that you can bang out in under an hour.

If you’re ever in Sydney, Australia, there is a breakfast place in Darlinghurst called bills. The name is simple, and the place serves simply some of the best food I’ve ever had. When you order coffee, the waiter brings out small plates of warm toasted coconut bread freshly dusted with powered sugar. After one bite, my girlfriend and I decided to go back for breakfast every morning for the rest of our trip. This bread really holds up if you wrap it in plastic or put it in a storage container. You’ll still be snacking on it days later.

Chewy with nuts, coconut, dried fruit, and chocolate chips. Using my quick one-bowl method, you can stir up the cookie dough in the same time it takes for the oven to preheat.

Using lightened-up coconut milk and Neufchâtel versus cream cheese trims 35 grams of fat. What's left? Rich, creamy goodness.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. This is a classic old-school Christmas recipe from my grandmother, Ethel Hughes Johnston, which uses candied fruit and coconut. If you can't find green candied cherries, you can get by with just red ones. They'll still look festive.

Frozen yogurt! I mean let's face it: Everybody loves a good frozen yogurt. Adults, tweens, teens, kids, whoever. You've seen it a hundred times at your local ice cream parlor on Sunday in the summer: 9:00 p.m. and the place is packed! A line around the corner, kids playing, everybody's happy; it's the sweet life. For a diabetic, that could go two ways: One way is horribly wrong, and that's if there're no sugar-free items on the board. Or, totally great because they do offer some special items for people with some sort of dietary restriction. Or there's Plan C, which is that you make a batch of this silky, creamy, coconut yogurt at home and relax with the fam on Sunday night. Let the others rush to the corner store and wait in line; your only fear will be whether or not your family leaves you any.

This traditional Thai-style soup is my personal favorite. I love coconuts, and this soup is all about the coco. I like to use different ages of coconut meat to get varied textures. A more mature nut makes a chunky soup, while a younger one makes a creamy soup. I also like to use a variety of hot peppers: jalapeño, serrano, and even the super-spicy Thai chile, just to get a wide range of spiciness. Some peppers are hot as you eat them, others after you eat them; my favorites are hot only when you stop eating them.

Thailand has been heavily influenced by Indian culture. India's religion, music, and especially their food have all become part of Thailand's heritage. Curries are often thought of as an Indian thing, but Thai versions of curry are just divine. Serve this dish with Tom Yum , if desired.

Classic baked Alaska is turned on its head with these individual desserts from Elizabeth Falkner of San Francisco's Citizen Cake. Coconut, pineapple, passion fruit, and a rum-soaked sorbet lend a tropical twist. To save time, use store-bought pineapple sorbet.

This old-fashioned classic has many renditions but we love this one best; feel free to substitute milk, white, butterscotch, or bittersweet chocolate chips for the semi-sweet and almonds, walnuts, or peanuts for the pecans.

These paletas may seem very time-consuming, but the sweet and subtle flavor of fresh coconut is well worth the effort. You can prepare the shredded coconut up to a week in advance and refrigerate it in an airtight container. Choose a coconut that feels heavy for its size and inspect the eyes, making sure there’s no liquid around them, as that indicates a rotten coconut. I usually like to buy two just in case one is bad. The worst thing that can happen is that you have extra coconut, which you can store in the freezer or dry in a 250°F oven to make dried shredded coconut.

The subtle taste of pumpkin merges effortlessly with coconut milk in this classic Italian dessert that provides a taste of fall flavors.

Everybody knows now that the undisputed king of mangoes is the Indian Alphonso. It is intensely sweet and has an unbeatable perfumed aroma. I'd go as far as saying that you haven't tasted a real mango until you've tried an Alphonso (and nobody is paying me for this). The season, though, is very short—mid-April to the end of May—so try to prepare this salad then.

This crumbly shortbread is studded with dried currants, which are tiny raisins made from Zante grapes. The currants must be soaked overnight, so you'll need to plan your craving a day in advance.

Two years before I was asked to teach a class at De Gustibus Cooking School in Macy's Times Square, I did the backroom kitchen work for two different chef friends who were teaching there. The head assistant, Amaral Ozeias, who during his long tenure has seen every great chef and TV personality pass through the doors of that kitchen, quietly motioned for me to come into his office. He pulled out the prettiest little yellow truffle and proceeded to recite the recipe, one of his all-time favorites. This kind gesture was the most delicious favor he could have done for me.
Parve
Non-gebrokts

Room temperature ingredients make all the difference in this cake. You can get more loft from non-chilled egg whites, and room-temperature butter is easier to cream (beat together) with sugar than the straight- from-the-fridge stuff. The fluffy egg whites and properly creamed butter and sugar mean tender, light cake. And room-temp butter and cream cheese will translate to creamy, smooth frosting instead of a sticky mess filled with lumps.

This salty-sweet granola makes a great snack and is good with yogurt. Skip the salt if you're serving it with milk.

This aphrodisiac-laden mocktail comes from NYC's Museum of Sex and is a perfect way to set the mood on Valentine's Day. This recipe makes enough vanilla elixir, chile elixir, and coconut sea salt for eight drinks; if you're making only two, refrigerate both elixirs and store the salt in an airtight container at room temperature (they will last up to two weeks). To make the Azteca alcoholic, add two ounces of rum or vodka to each drink.

Even easier: Buy fresh pineapple that's already been peeled.