Cookie

After they are sandwiched with rich chestnut filling, these cookies are partially dipped into melted chocolate. Crème de marron is chestnut puree sweetened with brown sugar and vanilla. It is available at large supermarkets.

This recipe is based on the famous Key lime pie from Joe’s Stone Crab restaurant in Miami Beach. If you can’t find Key limes, use fresh juice from regular limes. The bars are best garnished with whipped cream and lime immediately before serving.

These petite pastries feature the flavors and textures of pecan pie—tender, buttery crust, crunchy pecans, and brown sugar filling—all in one bite. Mascarpone, an Italian cream cheese, lends richness to the dough; look for it in the dairy section of large supermarkets, or at Italian specialty stores.

The key to success with these cookies is to bake no more than two to three on a sheet at one time. Shape them as quickly as possible after removing from the oven, because they begin to firm up as soon as they are lifted off the baking sheet. To avoid wasting cookies, try the shaping process with a circle of paper first.

Tuile (pronounced “tweel”) means “tile” in French. Once the cookies cool, their shape takes on the appearance of a curved roof tile.

The flavor of these dense bars is reminiscent of Black Forest cake, a classic German dessert that originated in the country’s southern Black Forest region, renowned for its sour cherries and kirsch (cherry brandy).

To achieve the most volume, whisk egg whites in a metal bowl set over a pot of simmering water until just warm to the touch. Toast the almond slices by placing them in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and baking at 325°F, stirring occasionally until fragrant, about 10 minutes.

We spread apricot preserves between these meringues, but another filling, such as raspberry jam, would be delicious, too. The meringues should be baked no more than one day before sandwiching them.

Who ever heard of baking a dessert in a cast-iron skillet? You have now! The heavy pan ensures that the shortbread cooks evenly to a beautiful pale color top and bottom.

Don’t be surprised at how sticky this dough is as you’re trying to shape it into a log for the first baking! After it comes out of the oven, it’s easy to cut into biscotti slices. Cooking the slices slowly on both sides gives it that nice biscotti crunch.

The original recipe for these cinnamon cookies is written on an index card in my sister Beth’s earliest cursive handwriting, and it is probably the first recipe I remember her making when we were girls. She still makes them every Halloween.

The tradition of making homemade treats for gifts is still alive and well in the South. In the early to mid-1990s, I worked on videos and photo shoots in Nashville with a girl named Maria Smoot. She is responsible for some of the most beautiful hair-styles in country music. I found a tin of these cookies in my mailbox one Christmas with a sweet note from Maria. What was even sweeter was that she included the recipe.

One of our girls doesn’t like chocolate! Hard to believe if you’re a chocolate lover like me, but I’m always looking for a chocolate alternative for dessert around my house. Fortunately, this was Beth’s specialty growing up, and I’ve stolen her recipe for my own.

I started making these cookies in the eighth grade, and they just might be responsible for my love of cooking. It wasn’t just that they are gooey and awesome, which they are; it was also that people complimented me on my cooking skills, and that gave me confidence. It later worked out in the singing thing, too! Exactly how chewy these cookies are depends on how big you make them. I make mine a little bigger than the recipe calls for because I like them soft in the middle. They are best served with a really cold glass of milk … or more cookies!

I love these brownies plain, but Garth likes them frosted, so I usually make some Coconut Frosting (page 172) on the side just for him. The unsweetened baking chocolate keeps the brownies from being too sweet. I know, sweets are supposed to be sweet, but trust me, these are just right!

Graham crackers are the embodiment of nostalgia. I'd always been happy with the ones in the red box at the supermarket—until I tried our homemade ones. The difference in texture is immediately apparent. These cookies are less flaky and crumbly than the store-bought version, and they have a great snappy crunch. We also use a high-quality cinnamon, which has a nice spicy quality.

If you want to rein in this over-the-top recipe a bit, feel free to serve the cookies on their own.

A rich dose of stout adds big flavor to these fudgy, chocolate-glazed brownies.

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.

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.