Baker Without Borders

A few weeks ago, a friend and I visited a Greek bakery in my neighborhood, where we spotted a tray of dome-shaped cookies coated in a shiny chocolate glaze. My friend, who grew up in Athens, had never seen anything like them, and we were both intrigued. The decadent treats turned out to be chocolate-covered melomakarona,

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This decadent twist on cinnamon rolls features white chocolate chunks baked directly into the dough, and a filling made of cinnamon, pecans, and raspberry preserves. Inspiration for this recipe came from two sources: a pecan and white chocolate viennoise (enriched sweet bread) I often buy at a French bakery in New York City, and a

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Made of little more than flour and potatoes, this flatbread recipe is one of the easiest and fastest I have yet to prepare. I first came across it on the blog Happy Foods Tube, where I learned that potato flatbread is a staple in Slovakia, often served alongside cabbage and duck. This bread is also

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For my latest column in The Knockturnal, I wrote about a simple, flourless cookie with only one source of fat: pecans finely ground into a buttery paste. I had come across a recipe for three-ingredient peanut butter cookies online, and wondered how a butter-and-oil-free cookie would taste with a less conventional nut butter, such as

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Grapefruits are in season this time of year, and ginger adds warmth to cold-weather desserts. Both are ingredients I associate with winter, so I thought: why not combine them in one dessert? The result was my take on a classic French fruit tart, with a ginger-almond crust, layer of vanilla custard, and slices of fresh

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Crisp on the outside, gooey in the middle, with pools of melted chocolate, these have all the best elements of a classic chocolate chunk cookie, with a twist: sea salt is added to the dough and also sprinkled on top before baking. The original recipe, from the Smitten Kitchen website, calls for using bittersweet chocolate

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I had some fresh thyme leftover in the fridge from baking a Sicilian whole orange cake, and planned to use it in a batch of lemon-flavored dinner rolls.  Then it occurred to me that lemon and thyme would be even better suited for challah, with its rich, brioche-like consistency. Lemon zest adds a hint of

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Made with the peel, pulp, and juice of an entire orange, this cake is extremely moist and flavorful.  A friend baked one for me a long time ago, using a recipe from an American cookbook. But it turns out these cakes originate in the Siciliy region of Italy, where oranges, particularly the deep red blood

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Sufganiyot, round, jelly-filled doughnuts, are a popular Hanukkah treat. I finally got around to making these towards the end of the holiday, but they are so delicious that I plan to make them all year round. I lightly adapted a recipe from the New York Times, swapping orange zest for a pinch of cardamom, a

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The other day, I came across a recipe for turmeric sugar cookies on Food52. I loved the idea of brightening cookie dough with turmeric, an earthy, orange-hued spice used in savory cooking throughout the Middle East and South Asia. So I developed a recipe of my own. Turmeric pairs naturally with its cousin, ginger. Using that

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