Dessert

There are only three ingredients in this cherry compote recipe (and one of them is booze).

Portland-based Salt & Straw adds a drop of vinegar and a hint of pepper to balance the sweetness in this strawberry shake, plus a splash of rum to make it deliciously grown-up. If you're making this for the under-21 crowd, just omit the booze.

People's Pops and Kim Crawford Wines have joined forces

Berries get a subtle herbal note from tea-infused whipped cream.

Simmer butter until its milk solids brown to unleash its nutty alter ego. Use it to bring deep flavor to baked goods, like these financiers, or as a sauce for fish or pasta.

If you can’t make it to Paris to taste Fabrice Le Bourdat’s glazed madeleines (the best in town) you might as well learn to make them at home.

The cream puff is the Eiffel Tower of Parisian pastries: iconic, beloved, and displayed everywhere. The recipe is so irrefutably timeless that even Pierre Hermé, France's most famous (and endlessly innovative) pastry chef, still uses the formula he learned as a 14-year-old apprentice.

You'll need a special mold for this canelé recipe.

Try this artful Italian brittle for Passover.

Serve this icing spooned over cake or ice cream.

Bake this festive spice cake in your favorite Bundt pan or pudding bowl, or feel free to use an 8" springform pan. You can top the cake with Luscious Chocolate Icing (see recipe) or simply dust it with powdered sugar.

This citrus cake is decorated with thin slices of candied orange peel. If you have any left over, roll them in sugar and dip in melted icing for a sweet treat.

Chef Raymond Vandergaag dresses up this pistachio cake recipe with whipped cream and truffled honey, an unnecessary but welcome gilding of the lily.