Claire Saffitz - Dessert Person: Recipes and Guidance for Baking with Confidence

Acknowledgments

I could not have written this book without Harris, my love. Thank you for feeding me throughout the entire process, especially on the days when I was tired from recipe testing and cranky from only eating sugar. Thank you for tasting all my recipe tests, giving me honest feedback (even when I got mad at you for it), and cheering me on through the many meltdowns, high points, and deadlines. You kept me going, and I will always be grateful.

To my family: my mom, Sauci, my dad, Jeff, and my sisters, Emily and Jane. All of you have always treated my passion for cooking with seriousness and respect, even when I wasnt sure how to pursue it as a career. Your excitement and support around this book helped propel me to the finish. I am especially indebted to my mom, who washed countless dishes, shopped for ingredients so I could write, and assisted me tirelessly in the kitchen while I tested recipes.

My deepest gratitude goes to my friend Sue Li, who styled the recipes in this book beautifully while also working as my life coach and creative director (kidding! But not really). She is a force, and never wrong. The same to my friend and photographer, Alex Lau, for his incredible talent and charm. Im grateful to Astrid Chastka, who created the visual world in which Dessert Person exists and is herself a fount of inspiration.

This book would not have happened without David Black, my literary agent, who gave endlessly of his time and wisdom. My appreciation also goes to Matt Belford, Emma Peters, and Ayla Zuraw-Friedland at the David Black Agency, for their exceptional care and attention.

I had the great fortune to work with Raquel Pelzel at Clarkson Potter. Every first-time author needs an editor like her: kind, compassionate, and a total pro. Thanks also to Doris Cooper, for her valuable input, and Stephanie Huntwork and Mia Johnson at Clarkson Potter for their work to develop the design and visual identity of this book.

I am indebted to Annie Kramer for providing extraordinary support and organizational skills throughout the writing and production of Dessert Person. My sincere thanks to Laurie Ellen Pellicano, Emily Tylman, Susan Kim, Veronica Spera, and Catherine Yoo for their hard work and superb skills both as recipe testers and stylists behind the scenes. Thanks also to Nancy Jo Iacoi for lending her expertise and guidance in planning our many photo shoots, and to Rhoda Boone, Janice Gilman, Jessica Miller, and Allison Ochiltree at Cond Nast for helping us coordinate our studio space.

Special thanks to the following:

Julia Kramer, Emily Graff, David Tamarkin, and Kate Heddings, for their enthusiastic belief in this project. You are all my favorite dessert people.

Chris Morocco, Andy Baraghani, Gaby Melian, Brad Leone, Rick Martinez, Carla Music, Molly Baz, Amiel Stanek, Christina Chaey, Alex Beggs, Sohla El-Waylly, Sarah Jampel, and all my friends at Bon Apptit. Nobody I know loves food or cooking more.

Dan Siegel, Kevin Dynia, Tyr Nobles, Mike Guggino, and Jon Weigell from the Bon Apptit video team, for your kindness and understanding (especially when I was late and blamed it on the book).

Vincent Cross for his video and editing know-how, and for shining his light behind the scenes of the making of Dessert Person.

All of my friends and family who tested recipes. There are too many of you to name, but the generosity you showed with your time and energy helped me immensely.

Somsack Sikhounmuong and Lori Brown at Alex Mill, for inviting me to work with them to design a perfect apron, and for making me look good (and feel good) during my shoots.

Emily Eisen for lending inspiration and her stellar sense of taste.

Sophie Neuhaus, for her careful eye and tremendous editing skills, and the entire Neuhaus family for their warm support.

Rick Osofsky and John LeSauvage from Ronnybrook Dairy, for supplying superlative product, and Nick Contess and Lillian Berliner for their multiple forms of help.

My neighbors Ann Marie Janeway, Brant Janeway, and Nayla Della Penna, for magnanimously taking countless pastries off my hands.

And a final, very warm thanks to everyone who has watched Gourmet Makes and followed Bon Apptit in print and online. Your support also made this book possible.

Claire Saffitz is the host of Bon Apptit s Gourmet Makes and is a contributor to the magazine. She studied French cuisine and pastry in Paris after graduating from Harvard. Originally from St. Louis, Claire lives in New York City.

Loaf Cakes and Single-Layer Cakes

An unfussy, single-layer or loaf cake is my favorite category of dessert. The cakes in this chapter are like a drapey jumpsuitbreezy and elegant, bordering on effortless. These are the types of cakes you could whip up without advance planning if you wanted to, yet they also happen to be dinner partyworthy. Many of them incorporate fresh fruit, another reason why these are my preferred recipes to bake, eat, and serve. For beginning bakers who want to make something simple but impressiveand all the advanced bakers who want the samethese cakes are for you.

Mascarpone Cake with Red Wine Prunes ()

Spiced Honey and Rye Cake

Season: All | Active Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes, plus time to cool | Difficulty: 1 (Very Easy) | Dairy-Free

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, a holiday marked in part by the eating of apples dipped in honey to symbolize hope for a sweet year ahead. But I like to think of Rosh Hashanah as the time of year when Jews must endure honey cake, the always dry, universally terrible dessert traditionally consumed around the holiday. Taking inspiration from pain dpice, a French spice bread made with rye flour and honey, I attempted to crack the honey cake code. It required swapping out some honey for granulated sugar, decreasing the proportion of rye flour to all-purpose, and adding applesauce or pear sauce for tenderness, but now I can say that this is a honey cake Im proud to serve at Rosh Hashanah (or any time of year).

Makes 1 standard loaf

Special Equipment: 4 8-inch loaf pan, measured from the top

Neutral oil for the pan

1 cups all-purpose flour (6.1 oz / 173g)

cup rye flour (1.16 oz / 33g)

1 teaspoons baking powder (0.21 oz / 6g)

teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

teaspoon ground allspice

teaspoon ground nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)

teaspoon ground cloves

2 large eggs (3.5 oz / 100g), at room temperature

cup sugar (1.8 oz / 50g)

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

cup honey (6 oz / 170g), plus more for drizzling on top

cup neutral oil , such as vegetable or grapeseed (4 oz / 113g)

cup unsweetened applesauce or pear sauce (3.5 oz / 100g)

Preheat the oven and prepare the pan : Arrange an oven rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 350F. Coat the bottom and sides of the loaf pan with oil. Line the bottom and two longer sides with a piece of parchment paper, leaving an overhang of an inch or two on each side, and set the pan aside.

Mix the dry ingredients : In a large bowl, whisk the all-purpose flour, rye flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves to combine. Set aside.