Rose Levy Beranbaum

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s base recipe allows you to mix and match pantry ingredients to create the cookie of your dreams.

This recipe adds a little cornstarch for a more delicate cookie that is also easier to pipe or push through a cookie press.

At first glance, this cake seems to contain no butter or oil. But on closer analysis, I discovered that the butterfat contained in the cream was more than equal to the usual amount of butter added.

This fragrant olive oil cake stays moist and flavorful for over a week, so feel free to make it a few days before serving. The caramel glaze is an optional, but highly recommended.

Satiny and pleasingly sticky, caramel is one of the most delicious additions to cakes and pastries. The longer the caramel cooks, the darker and less sweet it becomes. You can judge the color by eye or with an accurate instant-read thermometer. Cream of tartar and corn syrup both help prevent crystallization in the finished caramel sauce.

Baking a batch of these classic Austrian sandwich cookies is a project—but totally worth it.

Editor's note: This recipe appears as part of our editors' Christmas Cookie Swap, 10 beloved holiday recipes from the editors of Epicurious and Gourmet Live. I first encountered this old-time recipe fifteen years ago, when I worked in the test kitchen of Ladies' Home Journal. I was a bit of a food snob back then and questioned how anything with marshmallows and cornflakes, not to mention green food coloring and cinnamon red-hots, could be considered edible. To my surprise, the crunchy, wheaty, sticky sweetness of these wreaths was quite pleasing when freshly made, and the air-dried wreaths were shiny, adorable, and perfect for adorning the mantlepiece as well as hanging from window frames and on the Christmas tree.

This is my best white bread for sandwiches, dinner rolls, cinnamon swirl or herb swirl breads, and toast. I developed it to match my childhood memory of my favorite bread, Silvercup, a soft, light, and airy bread like today's Wonder Bread, which made the best toast. This homemade version has the same texture but has a more yeasty and fuller flavor. In fact, this bread is like a brioche, with less butter and no egg. It has an even yet open crumb but is softer and lighter in texture. Part of the secret of its light texture is that, like brioche, it is made from an exceptionally moist dough. Lightly toasted and topped with soft scrambled eggs, it is nothing short of ambrosial. Michael Batterberry, publisher of Food Arts magazine, tasted this bread and said, "Mmmm. . . . This is what Wonder Bread, in its soul, really always wanted to be!" TIME SCHEDULE
Dough Starter (Sponge): minimum 1 hour, maximum 24 hours
Minimum Rising Time: about 4 hours
Oven Temperature: 350°F
Baking Time: 50 minutes