Snack

So much of recipe development is taking an ingredient and manipulating its texture without diluting the flavor. This is a good example. I have always liked the texture of puffed-rice cakes but not the flavor, which seems bland to me. So I’ve developed a cracker that highlights the nutty flavor of rice.

Meringues are a staple in the pastry kitchen because they can carry so many different flavors. Here, cocoa powder and cacao nibs are combined to create tremendous chocolate flavor.

Try making this sweet, delicate cookie with any nut. It’s a terrific garnish for ice creams or chocolate desserts.

I love the flavor of graham crackers, but I have always thought the crackers are too thick. So I grind them, rebind them, and make them thin and very crisp.

One of the most important things I learned from Thomas Haas when I worked with him at Daniel was the significance of texture in desserts. I also learned this recipe from him. This tuile is super-crispy. The sesame seeds toast as the tuile bakes, which brings out their nuttiness, and the sugar caramelizes, bringing in a slightly bitter edge.

This is the most visual of all my tuiles, shimmering and translucent. The sugars lend texture as well as carry the delicate flavor of the flax seeds.

This crisp, sweet almond cookie looks beautiful and has tremendous flavor and a perfect layering texture. What’s great about the batter is that you can freeze it or keep it in the refrigerator and just pull it out when you’re ready to bake.

The high fat content in this dough makes for very rich cookies. It’s great when you want to add crunch to a creamy dessert like panna cotta. Or you might break the cookies into pieces and make a parfait with fruit and whipped cream. I make these as round cookies, too, brushed with an egg wash and sprinkled with sugar and coarse salt before baking. Follow the method below, using a round cutter; don’t weight round cookies with a Silpat.

Graham cracker crusts are never crispy enough for me, and I’m not a fan of soggy crusts. I developed this crunchy cookie to serve as a bed for my Key Lime Parfait (page 26). It will garnish any ice cream, and it could be the start of a terrific s’more. Because it’s not overly sweet, you could also serve it with cheese.

This cookie, called sablé Breton, is a classic French recipe from Brittany. I’ve learned many versions, and this is my favorite. I love the sandy texture, something between a crisp cookie and a sponge. The dough is also a great foil for different spices and salts.

I love this cookie for its buttery, fragile tenderness, but I also like to make crumbs from it because they’re such a great texture in a layered dessert (like the Rose Oeufs à la Neige on page 134). The cookies are best served the day they’re baked. I’ve written the recipe so you freeze half the dough and have it waiting for another day.

The shortbread in this dessert provides the texture as well as the base for the tender apricots and delicate almond cream.

Biscotti means “twice baked,” a cooking method that results in the firm, crunchy cookies that have recently become wildly popular here in America. These cookies were eaten by sailors back in Columbus’s day because they last for a long time without going bad. They’re great for dunking in coffee or tea, which is how my mom, nonna, and I would eat them when I was growing up. The citrus zests provide an extra little zing, and really evoke the tastes of Italy. If you want, you could use just orange or lemon; it doesn’t have to be both.

Pine nuts and fennel seed aren’t necessarily ingredients you expect to find in cookies—really, they sound much more like they’re going into a pesto—but they’re the secret flavors in this buttery, flaky shortbread dough that will melt in your mouth. Ground fennel seed isn’t as easy to find as the whole seeds, so buy them whole and grind them at home in a mortar and pestle or coffee/spice grinder. I like to make this dough ahead of time and freeze it, then bake it off as needed.

Arancini di Riso means “little orange rice balls”—orange, because the risotto was traditionally made with saffron (the version called Risotto Milanese), which gives the rice an orange tint. This recipe is one of the many brilliant ways that Italians have for using up leftovers.

Better than French fries—and a great snack or appetizer. You can use other dipping sauces, but the simplicity of a good marinara is hard to beat here.

This is a new way to serve the classic combination of prosciutto with melon, one of Italians’ famously favorite ways to start a meal. You could pierce the prosciutto purses with toothpicks to make them easier to eat. And to make the preparation easier, be sure to place the block of Parmesan in the freezer for a few minutes, so that when you shave it, it won’t crumble.

This is a great way to use up leftover roasted red peppers. When I and my two brothers and sister were kids, my parents often served it as an afternoon snack to ward off our hunger before dinner was ready.

I use only a few store-bought products. But this one, when wrapped in prosciutto or rolled in cheese, makes for a great-tasting and super-easy antipasto. And when you are making a large meal from scratch, a few shortcuts are always welcome. Your guests will thank you when the entrée is on time because you didn’t have a meltdown trying to bake your own bread.

Mom used to make me this sandwich for lunch, and all the kids at school wanted to trade with me. It was my absolute favorite lunch. Nutella is a chocolate-hazelnut spread that’s wildly popular in Italy and is just starting to catch on here in the U.S. Give it a try and see why.