superfine sugar

What makes these cookies truly “perfect” isn’t anything radical; it’s simply an attention to detail. The pastry chef Ravneet Gill was meticulous in developing her recipe, and all of her instructions exist for a reason. When she tells you to chill your dough overnight, don’t think you can skip over that. (If you do, your cookies will spread.) When she instructs you to roll the dough into balls before transferring them to the fridge to rest, do as she says, and you’ll get a nice plump, domed cookie instead of a sad flat one. Don’t go swapping in milk chocolate for dark, and chop the chocolate into large chunks for those dramatic, dense puddles of goo. One allowance: If you don’t have Maldon salt, another flaky salt or even kosher salt will do.

Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks), softened

dark brown sugar

all-purpose flour

baking powder

baking soda

kosher salt)

dark (bittersweet) chocolate, chopped into large chunks

Put the butter and both sugars in a stand mixer or mixing bowl. Cream together using a paddle attachment on medium speed, a handheld electric whisk or a wooden spoon for 1 to 2 minutes until paler but not fluffy. (Do not mix for too long; if you beat the mixture until super light and fluffy, that will cause the cookie to deflate later when cooking.)

Add the egg and beat over medium speed until evenly combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (all the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt), then fold into the butter mixture using a rubber spatula until combined.

Add the chopped chocolate and fold into the dough until evenly distributed.

Immediately scoop out heaping 1/4-cup portions (about 60 grams), roll into balls and place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 12 hours. (If space is tight, you can condense them on one sheet before refrigerating then redistribute among two sheets before baking.)

The next day, heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Make sure the dough balls are evenly spaced out among two baking sheets, as they will spread. Bake the cookies for 13 minutes (or 15 minutes if baking from frozen), until the cookies are puffed and golden at the edges. You want the middle to be ever so slightly not-quite set.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet; they will continue firming up as they cool. Once cooled, eat! (These cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The balls of dough will keep for up to 2 days in the fridge or 2 weeks in the freezer.)

Just east of Bologna, Italy, the walled city of Ferrara is known for la torta tenerina, a kind of chocolate cake with an almost creamy interior and a thin, crisp crust. It’s a simple confection, and even still, it’s said that every baker and home cook has his or her own recipe. This version comes from Eleonora Masiero and Ennio Occhiali at Cusina e Butega, a combination bakery and restaurant.

Italian Flourless Chocolate Cake

unsalted butter

70 percent “top quality” dark chocolate

eggs,

potato starch

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Line bottom with parchment.

In a large bowl, using a mixer or by hand, beat the 7 tablespoons butter with the confectioners’ sugar until smooth and creamy. Melt chocolate in a pan on top of stove. Pour warm chocolate over the butter and sugar mixture and beat until smooth. Whisk in egg yolks one at a time. Stir in potato starch.

In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in superfine sugar and continue beating until firm peaks develop. Fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.

Scrape the batter out of the bowl, and spread it in the pan. Bake for 18 minutes. Cake will rise and top will look dry and a little crackly. Remove pan from oven, place on a rack and allow to cool completely, about 2 hours. Cake will sink a bit.

Unmold cake, peel off parchment, then invert onto a serving dish so the crackly surface is on top. Generously sift confectioners’ sugar over the top, then serve.

With only a little practice you’ll produce lovely little mounds of meringue with curls like chocolate kisses on top. And when you grow tired of pale white ones, add a couple of drops of food coloring, or follow the recipe modification for cocoa-flavored meringues.

Vanilla Meringues

egg whites,

cream of tartar

salt

vanilla bean, seeds scraped vanilla extract

superfine sugar.

Heat oven to 200 degrees. Use an electric mixer to beat egg whites with cream of tartar, salt and vanilla. When whites begin to hold stiff peaks, gradually add half the sugar. When peaks become glossy, gently fold in remaining sugar.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and use a pastry bag with a star tip or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut out to form small mounds of meringue mixture, each about an inch wide and tall.

Bake meringues until hard, about 2 hours. Meringues are ready when they release from parchment paper. Turn oven off, prop door open and allow meringues to sit in oven for another hour or so.

A pavlova is among the best desserts to serve at a dinner party, as it brings the wow factor but is also very forgiving. If the meringue cracks in places, you don’t need to fuss as you’ll be covering it with cream and fruit. You can play with the flavoring of the cream and change up the fruits. If you can’t find kumquats, feel free to swap them out for muscat or green seedless grapes, or an orange, peeled and sliced into rounds. You can make the meringue base up to two days in advance, as long as you let it cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Keep it in the coolest part of your kitchen, away from direct sunlight, to avoid any humidity. 

Sunset Pavlova With Sweet Vinegar and Rosemary

superfine (caster) sugar

cornstarch

apple cider vinegar

orange juice

rosemary sprigs,

lemon juice

whipping cream

mascarpone

cardamom

large ripe but firm nectarines

ripe but firm yellow or red plums

kumquats

seedless muscat grapes

passion fruits, halved and insides scraped, or ¼ cup passion fruit purée

Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Prepare the meringue: Add the egg whites to the base of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment in place and beat on medium-high speed until firm peaks form, 3 to 4 minutes. With the machine running, add the superfine sugar, a spoonful at a time, until the meringue is stiff and glossy, about 4 minutes more. 

Use a spatula to gently fold the cornstarch and vinegar into the meringue until evenly mixed through. Transfer the meringue to your prepared baking sheet and use a spatula to spread it into an oblong shape that’s roughly 14 inches long and 10 inches wide. Use your spatula to create spiky peaks across the surface of the meringue for a more rustic look. 

Place the meringue in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 1 hour, until dry on the outside but chewy through the center. Leave to cool at room temperature, about 30 minutes. Don’t worry if it cracks in places.

Meanwhile, make the syrup: Add the orange juice, vinegar, rosemary sprigs and superfine sugar to a small saucepan and place it over a medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, then cook for 6 to 7 minutes, until reduced by about half. Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and set aside to cool completely. It’ll thicken to a maple syrup consistency as it cools.

Make the cream: Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment in place. Beat on medium-high speed until soft-medium peaks form, 1½ to 2 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Prepare the fruit topping: Use a mandoline to finely shave one side of the nectarine to get very thin rounds until you hit the pit, then shave the opposite side. Chop off the narrower ends and save these to snack on. Repeat with the plums. Set both aside on a large plate, separately. Use a small serrated knife to finely slice the grapes and the kumquats into thin rounds of around the same thickness. Set the sliced kumquats on the same plate, discarding the pits. 

To assemble, use the parchment paper to help you transfer the meringue to a large serving platter or board. (Alternatively, you can serve it right from the sheet pan.) Top the cooled meringue with the cream by dolloping and spreading it across the meringue using the back of a spoon, leaving a 1-inch gap from the edges. Artfully top with the nectarines, plums, grapes and kumquats. Dot with the passion fruit. Remove the rosemary sprigs from the syrup and place these on top of the fruit then pour the syrup all over the fruit. Lastly, sprinkle with the extra chopped rosemary. Serve right away, or within the hour, as the meringue will soften as it sits.

Bibingka is a Filipino cake traditionally made with rice flour and coconut milk and baked to supreme fluffiness over banana leaves in a terra-cotta oven. These versions are built to fit in the palm of the hand. Ray Luna, who ran the much loved coffee shop Mountain Province in Brooklyn, adapted the recipe from his lola (grandmother), using self-rising flour instead of rice flour and coconut cream for extra richness. The cakes are delicious when made with just the requisite five ingredients, but for a touch of refinement, follow Luna’s lead and bake in banana leaves, to infuse a green-tea scent. The final touch: macapuno, opalescent strands from rare, prized coconuts with jellylike flesh.

Mini Bibingka

banana leaf

unsalted butter, melted,

coconut cream

eggs

self-rising flour

macapuno (coconut sport), optional (see Tip)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wash and dry the banana leaf, if using. Cut into 24 5-inch squares and use the squares to line 2 (12-cup) standard muffin tins. If not using banana leaf, drizzle a little melted butter in each muffin cup and coat the cups with it.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the 9 tablespoons of melted butter and half the coconut cream. In a separate, larger mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the superfine sugar until lighter in color.

Sift the flour into a medium bowl. Add about a third of the flour to the eggs and fold in by gently running a flexible spatula through and around the mixture until everything is combined. Then, fold in a third of the coconut cream mixture. Alternate folding in the flour and the coconut cream, making sure not to overmix and ending with the coconut cream. 

Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until set along the circumference but still loose at the center. Take the tins out of the oven and raise the temperature to 375 degrees. Top each cake with a couple strands of macapuno, if using (see Tip). 

Return the tins to the oven and bake for another 4 to 7 minutes, until golden at the edges and springy at the center when lightly pressed. Cool and serve.

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