Coffee

This cool Italian dessert is the perfect conclusion to a pasta dinner.

Here's a great drink that is guaranteed to take the chill off a winter day. It's also quite nice with an added splash of brandy or Kahlúa.

These individual soft-centered cakes are baked and served in ovenproof mugs. (As an alternative, eight-ounce ramekins or soufflé dishes can be used.)

The coffee foam attains its consistency with the help of a charged siphon. If you don't own one, don't worry—the coffee mixture can also be served, chilled but unfoamed, as a sauce. Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 1 3/4 hr

For this recipe, the darker and richer the coffee, the better. We made cone-filtered coffee, but it's equally delicious with perked or plunged coffee. If you only have an electric drip coffeemaker, don't use it for this recipe — too much yield is lost to evaporation. Curry powder may seem like a strange addition to the whipped cream topping, but it's absolutely delicious. You won't perceive any curry flavor per se — when combined with the brown sugar it simply lends fullness and depth.

At the Markham in New York, this cake is served with toasted almond ice cream.

Because they contain so little flour, these cookies have a chewy, brownie-like texture.

In 1897, the Sears catalog offered its customers a treat called brownies. No one seems to remember whether they were bar cookies or a chocolate confection named after a popular cartoon character. No matter; by the 1900s the brownie as we now know it had arrived. The recipe for these dense, moist brownies is from Heather Ho, pastry chef at Boulevard in San Francisco.

Amyrose Gill of Berkeley, California, writes: "My husband and I learned about La Note when we first moved to Berkeley to attend graduate school. Everyone raved about their Sunday brunch, and for weeks we tried to go, but there was always a line out the door. We finally braved the long wait, and it was well worth it. Gingerbread pancakes —redolent with spice, beautifully textured, and absolutely delicious —were the reward. We'd love to get the recipe and serve them at our own Sunday brunches. " In addition to their spiced flavor, these pancakes have a distinctive cakelike texture.

A simplified version of the classic Italian dessert, this looks lovely served in parfait glasses for a change. The recipe features pound cake and cream cheese instead of the traditional (but harder-to-find) ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.

"My cousin and I had a delicious chocolate cake at Watershed, a restaurant in nearby Decatur," writes Joyce Jue of Atlanta, Georgia. "I'd appreciate your getting the recipe so I can learn to make it."

Purchased coffee ice cream is topped with a cinnamon-scented chocolate sauce that can be made three days ahead.