Although I like to focus my baking efforts on end-of-summer plums and other seasonal fruits this time of year, these coconut macaroons are too good not to write about.  I love the contrast of a perfectly-baked macaroon’s golden, crispy bottom and soft interior, and if you make these using unsweetened shredded coconut they deliver a lot of coconut flavor with just a little sweetness.  I omitted the coconut extract in the Great Cookies recipe, using vanilla instead for a more subtle flavor.A (the?) secret to a well-crafted macaroon is cooking time. You have to make a uniformly-shaped batch (about 1.5 tablespoons of dough per cookie, and molded into a dome shape) and then remove them from the oven just at the 20 minute mark.  If you can catch them at the proper moment, the white interior and golden brown crags of the exterior will leave you with a dessert that is both handsome and delicious.

Coconut Macaroons, adapted from Carol Walter’s Great Cookies

• 16 ounces almond paste
• 2 cups unsweetened coconut flakes
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar, strained
• 1/4 cup cake flour, strained
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat.

Break apart almond paste and place in bowl of a standing mixer, and add both granulated and confectioner’s sugar. Mix them all using the paddle attachment, on medium-low speed for about 5 minute. The process will be complete when the almond paste is in very small pieces. Mix in the flour.

Combine the egg whites and salt in a separate bowl, using a whisk or fork to break up the whites. Add the mixture to the almond paste and mix on low for a few seconds, until blended. Remove the bowl and fold in the coconut and extract. Let this mixture stand for 10 minutes to set.

Using a two spoons, put the mixture on your cookie sheet  into macaroon-sized balls, about 2-inches apart. Bake sheets by themselves, for 20 minutes, until tops are golden and bottoms are becoming crisp.  Let cool on cookie sheet for five minutes, then remove to a cooling rack until they are room temperature.

(This recipe is easily halved.)

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of spending a few days in Monterosso, one of the hilltop Cinque Terre towns in Italy’s Liguria region and home to possibly the most beautiful beach I’ve ever been on. At one of the town’s shops I spotted a barrel of gorgeous, rustic, locally-grown lemons, with leaves still attached, and I knew what my souvenir would be. So, after I spent a few days admiring them, still-life-like in a bowl on my kitchen counter, I obliterated them in the blender to create this whole lemon tart.

I borrowed this recipe from the Babbo baking book, but omitted the limoncello because I didn’t have it, and the 1/3 cup lemon juice because I was afraid it would make the filling too bitter, without the sweetness of the limoncello for balance. These lemons were ideal for this recipe because they were not covered with a thick layer of wax, like so many supermarket varieties; because this recipe uses the entire lemon (except for the seeds), skin and all, try to find some without that wax covering.

The end result is a sweet, citrus-flavored crust and a tart filling, studded with chewy bits of lemon rind that creates an interesting texture and a taste that reminds me of a lemon Starburst. NB: this recipe must be started one day in advance, as stated in the recipe below.

All-Of-The-Lemon Tart (adapted from Gina dePalma’s Dolce Italiano)

• 2 large, preferably unwaxed, lemons
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
• 1/2 recipe Sweet Tart Crust (below)

The day before making the tart, wash and dry the two lemons, and slice them as thinly as possible. Remove the seeds and toss the lemon slices with the sugar in a bowl; cover and refrigerate overnight.

On a floured board, roll out the crust dough into a round 11 inches wide, and fit into a 10-inch fluted tart pan, trimming off excess edges. Refrigerate while you make the filling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put the entire contents of the lemon slice bowl into a blender, and blend until the mixture is pureed (a few larger bits are okay).

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yoks, heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. Add the pureed lemon mixture to the egg mixture, and whisk until well-combined. Remove the tart shell from the refrigerator and place on a baking sheet; pour the filling into the shell, and bake for 50 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees, rotating halfway through baking time and removing when the top of the tart is lightly browned (filling will not be completely set). Let cool completely, and dust with confectioners’ sugar, before serving.

Sweet Tart Crust

• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Zest of one lemon
• 1.5 sticks unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Place dry ingredients and zest in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the cubed butter and pulse until mixture is sandy, with no large lumps of butter remaining.

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and heavy cream; add to butter mixture and pulse until the dough comes together in a ball. Remove from processor, shape into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until ready to use.

Meringues are so French to me; one of my favorite things about Paris is looking into the windows of pastry shops and seeing huge meringues piled on top of each other in the display cases.  I had never tried making them because they seem so high-maintenance–you can’t make them on a humid day, they take a long time to bake, and you have to beat the egg whites very thoroughly.  However, these are really easy, and a good way to use up extra egg whites.

Chocolate Chip Meringues (adapted from smittenkitchen.com)

• 2 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 oz chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat egg whites until foamy; add salt and cream of tartar and beat on medium-high speed until they hold soft peaks.  Continue beating on medium-high and stream in sugar gradually; beat until mixture holds stiff peaks, about 5 minutes.  Fold in chocolate.  Spoon mixture onto a lined baking sheet (you can make them small or very large), and bake at 300 for 10 minutes.  Reduce heat to 250 and bake for another 45 to 50 minutes, or until the bottoms are slightly brown.  The outsides will be firm and the insides will be hollow, with a marshmallow-y filling.

Makes 12 2-inch-in-diameter meringues.

I am especially attracted to recipes that bill themselves as “even better the next day”–as a baker who doesn’t always have a crowd to bake for, it helps being able to extend the life of a dessert (and if it is eligible to become breakfast, all the better).  So when I found this recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking, I figured it would be practical enough.  And healthy (bananas)!  And, as much as I like it a day or two old, it is AMAZING right out of the oven.  Even though it was 10 pm by the time I finished making this, I kept sneaking back into the kitchen to  trim slivers as it was cooling.  After a day or two, the texture changes from fluffy–almost bouncy–to dense, closer to pound cake, with a more concentrated, banana-y flavor. 

I served this accessorized with slightly-sweetened whipped cream and sliced strawberries, which added a sweet-tart element–really good.  You could also dust it with powdered sugar, and I don’t think you would get any complaints if you served it plain.

Classic Banana Bundt Cake (from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking:  From My Home to Yours)

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 4 very ripe bananas (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups), mashed
• 1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter and flour a 9- or 10-inch Bundt pan.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Beat in eggs one at a time, for about a minute after each, then mix in vanilla.  Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in mashed bananas.  Keeping the mixer on low, add half of the flour mixture (batter will likely appear curdled), the sour cream or yogurt, and the rest of the flour mixture, just until flour disappears–do not overmix.

Bake 65 to 75 minutes, or until inserted cake tester coes out clean.  Start to check the cake after 30 minutes, and if it is already a dark-gold color, cover the cake with a piece of tented foil to prevent an overly-browned exterior.  Cool the cake in its pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then unmold the cake onto the rack to finish cooling.  Store tightly wrapped in plastic.

This New York Times recipe makes the perfect chocolate chip cookie.  The downside:  it’s pretty fussy.  The amount of cookie dough it yields is quite large, and not easily divisible; it uses two types of flours (bread and pastry), neither necessarily a pantry staple; and must rest at least 24 hours, 72 to produce the best results.    I rejiggered a recipe for White Chocolate-Butterscotch Cookies, from the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, into fast, easy chocolate chip cookies.  These may lack the caramelized and more complex flavor of the NYT recipe, but they are plenty buttery, soft-with-crispy-edges, and delicious.  And easier.

Fast and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 8 oz chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Scrape down sides of mixer and beat in egg until well-combined.  Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in dry ingredients just until combined; mix in chocolate chips. 

Drop rounded tablespoon-fuls of dough 2 inches apart on cookie sheets; bake just until edges turn golden brown, and the middles are slightly underdone (about 9 minutes).  Cool for 5 minutes on sheets, then remove to a cooling rack.

A more descriptive name for this could be Cookie Dough Pie.  The filling is composed of very basic ingredients (eggs, sugar, a little flour, butter) and accessorized with chocolate chips, walnuts, and whiskey; when it comes out of the oven, it’s not exactly custardy (due to the flour) and not exactly cakey, with the sweetness of pecan pie filling but not the gelatinous texture.  It is also surprisingly easy to make, especially if you have pie crusts on standby.  The most important part of the process is achieving volume while beating the eggs, dry ingredients, and butter to make the filling; this will ensure a rich, but not-too-dense, end result.

To get clean slices, this pie definitely needs to set for a couple of hours, but try to be patient–it is easily revived by doing as the authors suggest and popping it into the microwave for 15 seconds; the filling gets soft, and the chocolate chips turn warm and melty.

Baked’s Tuscaloosa Tollhouse Pie

• 1/2 recipe pie dough, chilled
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into pieces
• 1 tb whiskey (I used Southern Comfort)
• 3/4 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
• 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips

On a lightly-floured surface, roll out dough to form a 12-inch round.  Press into a pie dish, folding under edges.  Freeze crust while you make the filling.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a bowl, whisk together flour and sugars; set aside.

Fit an electric mixer with its whisk attachment, and beat eggs on high speed until foamy, about 3 minutes.  Switch to the paddle attachment, and mix in flour and sugars on low.  Turn mixer to high and beat for 2 minutes; add butter and beat on high until combined.  Scrape down sides, add whiskey, and beat on high for another minute, then fold in walnuts and 3/4 cup of chocolate chips. 

Pour filling into chilled pie shell, scatter remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chips across the top, and bake for 25 minutes.  Cover edges of crust with foil and bake for another 25 minutes; remove from oven when inserted knife or pie tester comes out clean.  Cool on a cooling rack completely (at least one hour) before serving.

I knew I had to make these cakes when I opened up my January issue of Gourmet; what I did not know was that it would turn into a prohibitively expensive venture.  The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of vin santo, which, as a novice dessert-wine drinker, I had no idea costs at least $40 per bottle.  Fortunately, my local wine store is staffed with people who are incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to both wine and food, and they led me to a tawny port, which would ideally replicate many of the vin santo’s qualities for about $15.  Now, if you happen to have a bottle of vin santo in-house, or are a fan of dessert wines and don’t mind investing, I would love to hear how these turn out when made as intended by Gourmet.  

However, for the non-oenophile, tawny port seems to do the job.  The flavors of the orange zest and the grapes blossom in the oven, and the port produces a warm, baking-bread fragrance that permeates the entire apartment.  The mini cakes, baked in a muffin pan, are tastefully spare and unadorned, and would make a chic counterpoint to a substantial winter dinner of pasta bolognese or cassoulet.  The only caveat:  these are best served warm and fresh from the oven; after a day or so they lose their lovely aromatic quality and fluffy texture.

Port-Spiked Grape Cakes (adapted from January 2009 Gourmet)

• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 2 large eggs
• zest of one orange
• 2/3 cup tawny port
• 1 1/4 cups seedless red grapes (7 oz)

In a bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another bowl, rub zest into 2/3 cup sugar with your fingers, until sugar is damp and zest is well-incorporated.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Butter and flour a muffin tin.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter with the zest-and-sugar mixture on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with wine, beginning and ending with flour and mixing until just incorporated.

Toss grapes with remaining tablespoon of flour, then fold into batter.

Divide batter among muffin cups. Sprinkle with remaining 2 Tbsp granulated sugar. Bake until golden and springy to the touch, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then loosen with a knife and remove. Cool to warm, 5 to 10 minutes more (tops of cakes will sink a bit when cooled).  Makes 12 cakes.

I love this cake!  Falling somewhere between angel food and pound cake, it has a sweet, crunchy outside and fluffy inside.  It tastes both tropical and comforting, thanks to the complimentary flavors of coconut and cinnamon. Although not mandatory, I recommend toasting the shredded coconut, just for a couple of minutes, in a dry skillet before mixing it into the batter; the added toastiness really amplifies the coconut flavor and lends itself especially well to the cinnamon.  This is the perfect cake to serve in the afternoon alongside coffee or tea.

Cinnamon-Coconut Tea Cake (from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking:  From My Home to Yours)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Pinch of salt
• 3/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup canned unsweetened coconut milk (shake well before opening)
• 4 tb (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a 9- or 10-inch Bundt pan.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a small, dry skillet, toast the shredded coconut over medium heat until golden-brown, 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool, then whisk into flour mixture.

In a small saucepan, combine the coconut milk and butter; heat over medium, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted.  Remove from heat.

In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the eggs and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and nearly doubled in volume, about 3 minutes; beat in vanilla.  Reduce mixer speed to low and add dry ingredients, mixing just until combined.  With mixer running, stream in coconut milk mixture and beat until batter is smooth.  Pour into pan and bake for 60 minutes, until top is golden and inserted cake tester comes out clean.

Let cake cool 10 minutes, then invert onto cooling rack to come to room temperature.

When the beloved Brooklyn bakery, Baked, issued its first cookbook, I was all over it.  The founders/authors, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, began with a mission and ended up with a great story:  to create The Best Bakery in an industrial expanse, serving all-American treats with friendly service, while overcoming logistical challenges and having their signature product, brownies, featured as one of Oprah’s “favorite things.”  I would have bought this book for that brownie recipe alone, but fortunately, it offers plenty more fodder for inspiration, albeit with a few complications.

This book is filled with comforting, classic recipes for the home baker:  simple baked goods, cakes and cupcakes, pies, bars and cookies, and candies.   I can’t wait to try the Maple Walnut Scones, Butterscotch Pudding Tarts, or another signature of the bakery, Baked Bars, composed of a graham cracker-coconut crust and a kitchen-sink filling of walnuts, chocololate and butterscotch chips, and sweetened condensed milk.  As for those brownies:  make them.  They are calorie-laden and worth every one.

The caveat:  some of the recipes are a bit overwrought.  The Sweet and Salty Cake, which I was desperate to make and even more desperate to eat, was a huge project that included making caramel twice and lasted about eight hours.  I started to question the accuracy of the recipe when making the caramel ganache frosting.  After caramelizing sugar and adding cream, the recipe calls for one pound of chocolate and four sticks of butter–that’s a lot of ingredients for thin layers of frosting, and I found the ganache to be plenty rich after adding the third stick of butter.  Peanut Butter Crispy Bars are completely delicious, but the recipe calls for a caramel-like solution to be mixed into rice crispy treats to form the crust; this solution must be mixed in quickly to prevent hardening, and tends to stick to the teeth when one enjoys this otherwise-perfect dessert.

Similarly, I did not always find flavors and textures to be on-point, such as in Easy Homemade Granola, which had a too-pronounced flavor of honey, or Black Forest Chocolate Cookies, which seemed to lack baking soda, as the end result was crackly and puffed, not rich and gooey as promised.  The Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf could have benefited from the use of butter instead of vegetable oil, which yielded an oily texture.

This is a great book for a dedicated, detail-attentive home baker with plenty of equipment and ingredients on hand.  Those with a less well-stocked kitchen can bake from it as well, though the options will be more limited.

The Baked Brownie (from Baked:  New Frontiers in Baking)

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tb cocoa powder
• 11 oz dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a 13×9 baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa powder.

Put the chocolate, butter, and espresso powder in a large metal bowl; place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir together until melted and well-combined.  Turn off heat and add sugars, whisking to combine.  Whisk in three eggs until well-combined; whisk in remaining two eggs and vanilla.

Add flour mixture and fold in until only traces of dry ingredients remain.  Spread into pan and bake for 30 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.  Brownies are done when inserted toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs attached.  Let cool before serving.

After one wrong start, I ended up with a batch of caramel–success!  And no candy thermometer necessary (I have not found them very helpful when it comes to caramel-making), though it is important to be attentive while watching the progression of browning.  Because it is such a sensitive, finicky process, I have outlined exactly what worked for me*:

• Start with a small sauce pan that has high sides and a very heavy bottom; I used the 1 1/2-quart stainless steel sauce pan from Cuisinart.  A cheap pan will absolutely not work here; the water-and-sugar mixture will cook unevenly, burn, and fill your entire apartment with an acrid smell.  It will stay in your hair and clothes until you wash them. 
• In the sauce pan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and 2 tsp light corn syrup.  Using a wooden spoon or a spatula, stir them together gently, until all of the sugar is moistened by the water; try to avoid splashing the sides of the pan while stirring; a sugar particle stuck to the side could interfere with the caramelization process later on.
• Turn the burner to medium-high, and cook the sugar mixture for about five minutes–do not agitate it.  Once it begins to turn golden (this will probably happen along one edge, or in one spot, rather than throughout), gently turn the pan so that the browning happens evenly.
• As soon as the entire mixture is a light golden color, and one or more spots begins to turn a darker, honey color, turn off the heat and gently slide the pan from the burner.  The mixture will continue to cook in the pan.  Let sit for five minutes.
• Heat 1/2 cup heavy cream over a medium-low flame until it steams; remove from heat and pour into the waiting caramel; it will hiss and bubble, but stir gently until well-combined.  Let cool completely before using. 
• A tip I picked up from the Baked book on cleaning the caramel pan:  fill it with water, bring that water to a boil, then pour it away; any residue left over is easily wiped away.

A final word of advice:  it might take a couple of tries to get comfortable with making caramel.  I have ruined more batches than I care to remember, but hopefully these tips will prevent you from doing the same.  Let me know how it goes, or if you have your own tricks that you’d like to share!

*I found this post by David Lebovitz very helpful as well.