Baker Without Borders

These doughnuts are light, airy – and made with pizza dough! Pizza dough has fewer ingredients than classic yeast-raised doughnuts, or even the cake variety, for that matter: no eggs, no milk, no butter. Yet they are just as delicious, if not more, and can be fried in a relatively shallow amount of oil. For…

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This is a dairy-free, whole grain, fruit-filled version of my all-time favorite pancake recipe: Rosa Parks’ “featherlite” peanut butter pancakes. The civil rights icon scribbled the recipe on the back of an envelope, which was discovered with her personal belongings after she passed away at age 92, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was…

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The American version of Rugelach, a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish pastry, typically contains butter and cream cheese, and occasionally sour cream. Classic European (and modern Israeli) rugelach are yeast-risen, but the cream cheese dough is much simpler to prepare; all the ingredients are thrown into a food processor. My twist features Greek yogurt in place of…

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I took a classic Parisian tart recipe by pastry chef Nick Malgieri, author of one of my favorite cookbooks, The Modern Baker, and put a slight twist on it. Rather than bake mini tarts, I prepared one large one, pressing the decadent cookie dough crust into a tart pan with a removable bottom. And instead…

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My kids call these addictive, flaky flatbreads “matzo parathas.” We had set out to prepare homemade matzo for Passover, using a simple New York Times Cooking recipe. One of my sons noticed that the dough, shaped into thin discs for baking into matzo crackers, resembled parathas, a delicious Indian and Pakistani flatbread that my mother-in-law…

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If the famous Dubai chocolate bar had a cookie cousin, this might be it! These chocolate pistachio sandwich cookies don’t have kadaifi pastry in the filling, but they are just as decadent as Dubai chocolate, which went viral in 2023 and may have worsened an already-existing pistachio shortage this year. When I first experimented with…

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This is my twist on a simple pomegranate cupcake recipe I found online. The dairy-free batter is prepared in one bowl, and the gorgeous pink glaze has only two ingredients: sugar and pomegranate juice. I added cocoa powder and molasses to enhance the flavor, and baked the batter in a round pan rather than a…

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Made from partially whole wheat challah dough, these light, fluffy rolls contain hidden swirls of pureed olives (I used Kalamata, a Greek variety) and a sprinkle of freshly grated Parmesan, which becomes slightly crisp in the oven. The rolls are delicious served with slices of Gouda or cheddar, or a little goat cheese or feta.…

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My twin toddlers refer to these sweet yet surprisingly wholesome muffins as “cupcakes.” Made with whole wheat flour and olive oil, filled with toasted pecans, packed with moisture from ripe bananas and maple syrup, and jazzed up with maple glaze, these easy, one-bowl muffin/cupcakes are equal parts breakfast and dessert. I served them at my…

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I adapted these delicious bar cookies from a recipe by Tutti Dolci, filling two layers of buttery shortbread with homemade kiwi jam and drizzling a ginger glaze on top. Using Lady Lee’s super simple, 3-ingredient recipe, I transformed a bag of overripe kiwis into a thick, sweet, and tangy jam. The crust and crumble topping,…

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