Baking

This recipe was created to accompany Mocha Mousse with Kumquat Cranberry Sauce and Phyllo Crisps .

White chocolate custard tops espresso custard in this luxurious make-ahead dessert. It's pretty garnished with fresh strawberries and coffee beans.

"My parents and I recently celebrated my mom's birthday at a local restaurant called The Farmhouse," writes Karen Eschenbach of Emmaus, Pennsylvania. "We ended a wonderful meal with an even better dessert—chocolate-peanut butter 'beggars' purses.'" Each elegant phyllo "purse" contains a flourless brownie topped with peanut butter and chocolate ganache.

A small slice of this delightfully dense chocolate cake goes a long way.

This recipe makes more meringue than you'll need for 8 servings. You can pipe the extra into sticks and bake them to eat as a snack. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

My mom (the "Jill" of this recipe) used to make lots of finger foods when I was younger. These were always a big hit. Easy to make, easy to love, these snacks are equally at home at a fancy dinner party as they are during the Super Bowl. You can experiment with this recipe to alter the taste: Use vegetable or flavored cream cheese, or any other kind of easily spreadable cheese (I like that Alouette herb cheese a lot).

For the fudgiest brownies, be sure not to overbake these, from Steffi Berne's Cookie Jar Cookbook.

This elegant dessert was inspired by Vienna's Spanische Windtorte, a giant meringue shell filled with cream and berries. The sauce is a colorful and delicious accompaniment; if there is some left over, use it on pancakes, waffles or ice cream.

This dessert tastes indulgent, but it's made with nonfat cottage cheese, nonfat cream cheese and evaporated skim milk.

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 3 hr.

This moist bread is best fresh from the oven, but it can also be made ahead and reheated.

The Shakers, who once had a number of active communities in New England, were known for their creative use of fresh herbs in cooking and baking. This savory yeast bread is a typical example. It is delicious freshly baked or toasted the following day.

Diane Ives of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, writes: "As an epidemiologist who works with older people, I make diet and exercise an important part of my life. I try to eat as healthfully as I can during the workweek, and I stay away from processed foods — I'd rather have something simple and fresh anyway. But on the weekends, when my husband and I entertain, I love to splurge and make desserts. Since they are the first thing people remember about a great dinner, they are definitely worth the effort. The dried-fruit strudel here is a family recipe I learned from my grandfather, but I've simplified it so it can be made quickly with purchased pie crust."

It's important to note that the pumpernickel used in this tart should be very dense. Although we prefer the light-brown Danish pumpernickel, the dark German-style variety works just as well. For the filling we've suggested lumpfish caviar, which is readily available in the States; in Sweden, the fish roe called lojrom would probably be used. It comes from bleak, an ocean fish from the Baltic Sea.