Cookbooks

There’s nothing to fear from these stealthy sharks, whose paper fins peek out from waves of blue buttercream. Alongside is a cupcake made to resemble a sandy dune, with graham-cracker crumbs and a paper parasol.

Cheery marzipan ladybugs nestled in a piped buttercream lawn make adorable cupcakes. Once you get the hang of piping the frosting into blades of grass, the work moves very quickly; meanwhile, you can enlist children to help form the bugs.

Perfect for a swanky First Night celebration, these stylish treats can be held in one hand while you sip Champagne with the other.

You can make praline from any variety of toasted nuts (preferably blanched or skinless). The Butterscotch Praline Cream Pie features this variation, crushed and folded into the whipped cream and sprinkled over the top.

You can adjust the amount of sugar in this recipe to suit your preference; for unsweetened whipped cream, simply omit the sugar.

This recipe yields an extraordinarily lofty topping. You may halve the recipe for a meringue with less volume. Either way, be sure to spread meringue until it completely covers the filling to prevent shrinking or “weeping.”

The texture of puff pastry comes from the way its essential ingredients—flour, butter, water, and salt—are combined. You begin by making two separate components. The first, the dough package, or détrempe in French, is mostly flour with just a bit of butter worked in (a combination of all-purpose and cake flour results in just enough protein to support the dough as it puffs). The second, the butter package, or bourrage (“filling”), is mostly butter, with a little flour worked in. The two packages are combined by repeatedly rolling and folding the dough, creating a total of 1,458 distinct layers. In the heat of the oven, the steam that is produced by the butter in the dough creates pockets of air and expands the many layers. Tarts made with a puff pastry base are among the simplest to assemble. The following recipe makes enough pastry for four large tarts (freeze unused pastry up to 3 months).

Chocolate wafers (or nearly any wafer cookie) make a delicious crumb crust, especially for cream pies.

Pastry cream is the classic filling for French fruit tarts; it can also be folded into other fillings, such as whipped cream or the rich ricotta custard in the Neapolitan Easter Pie on page 253. Like many other custards, it is thickened with eggs and cornstarch; the mixture must be brought to a full boil to activate the starch and set properly. We use a whole vanilla bean, but you can substitute vanilla extract in its place.

Pâte sucrée, or “sweet pastry,” is a sturdy dough, thanks to its proportion of sugar and the addition of egg yolks. It’s a good choice for tarts, which are most often unmolded before serving. It is also more tender than pâte brisée, breaking cleanly under a fork instead of shattering into flakes.

Use this technique to make other candied citrus slices, such as lime, orange, or kumquat.