Macarons, with their crisp shells and soft fillings, are the current darlings of the pastry scene. Admittedly tricky to make, their finicky nature has resulted in countless, wildly different recipes to produce ‘proper’ macarons, with thin, crisp, un-cracked shells and bubbly ‘feet’ at the base. This recipe uses an Italian meringue as its [...]
A Charlotte is a classic French dessert composed of a mold of liqueur-soaked ladyfingers and filled with a Bavarian cream or mousse filling. Delicious, but fiddly to make, what with trimming all those ladyfingers to fit and getting (and keeping!) them positioned in the mold just so. This recipe solves that problem brilliantly: fuse the components of a decadent chocolate-rum Charlotte with the assembly technique of an English trifle.
Linzer Torte is a holiday tradition in Austria and Hungary, a nutty, spiced cookie dough surrounds a filling of tart-sweet raspberry or apricot jam, then is topped with a lattice of the same nut dough. Named after the city of Linz, Austria, it’s the oldest-known torte in the world — the oldest surviving recipe dates back to 1650. It’s a cinch to make, but since the jam is a major component of the torte’s flavor, the jam needs to really shine. And if you make home-made jam, this dessert is going to be your new best friend — what better way to showcase your creation?