Baker Without Borders

With bursts of chocolate throughout the dough, this challah tastes a lot like a chocolate babka, only sweeter and more moist, thanks to mashed, extra-ripe bananas. Like many traditional challah loaves, this one is topped with seeds. I chose a combination of poppy and black sesame seeds, but feel free to use whatever you have…

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I first tried seeded banana bread at a popular brunch spot, and sought to replicate it at home using my favorite banana bread recipe, from Food.com, as a starting point. I replaced butter with olive oil and threw in some mini dark chocolate chips. Just before baking, I sprinkled the batter with a medley of…

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Semolina and finely ground pistachios add a nice crunch to these buttery shortbread cookies, which are a variation on an almond cookie recipe I developed last year. I was inspired to add semolina, a course flour made from durum wheat, after preparing nankhatai, a cookie popular in India and Pakistan. The recipe I used called…

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This moist, rich breakfast cake is similar to carrot cake or banana bread, but with a tangy kick from sour cream and pureed Turkish apricots. My original intention was to coat the cake with cream cheese frosting. Then, I remebered I had a mixture of sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom leftover from baking my new…

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This pizza has the elements of one of my favorite pasta dishes: butternut squash ravioli with sage leaves and freshly grated Parmesan. The idea emerged from a conversation with a friend, who suggested I bake a seasonal pizza pie with sage, brown butter, and winter squash. I incorporated sage, the leaves of an evergreen shrub…

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These fragrant, fluffy donuts were a hit at a Hanukkah baking class I taught for preschoolers and kindergartners. Traditionally, sufganiyot are filled with jelly or custard. Like other Hanukkah staples, including latkes, they are fried in oil to symbolize the ancient legend that a small amount of oil, meant to last only one night, kept…

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Frangipane, a cream made from almonds, eggs, and butter, is one of my favorite tart fillings. I’ve experimented with a walnut variation in a concord grape pie, and a pecan one in a summery strawberry galette. Here, I replaced almonds with hazelnuts in my take on a classic French winter tart. To complement the hazelnuts,…

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Perfect for breakfast or a snack, this cake is a healthier version of an apple butter bread recipe I created last autumn. Whole wheat flour complements the pecans, amplifying their nutty flavor and subtle crunch, and olive oil replaces butter. I was worried the cake would turn out dense because of the whole wheat flour,…

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These whole wheat scones, adapted from a maple cream scone recipe on the excellent baking blog Tutti Dolci, combine two classic autumn flavors: maple and apple cider. I replaced some of the heavy cream in the original recipe with milk and cider, and swapped all-purpose flour for whole wheat. I also skipped the maple extract,…

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Layered with a creamy maple syrup custard and crunchy oat, apple, pecan, and cinnamon granola, this parfait is a nice alternative to classic autumn pies, cakes, and other baked goods. It’s served cold (perfect for those occasional autumn heatwaves) and the oven is only involved to bake the granola. I borrowed elements from two different…

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