Simple Cooking

Soaked in cherry eau-de-vie, these boozy bites are made for Black Forest Cake but taste equally great in a cocktail.

Our Granny Smith Apple Cider Vinaigrette is enlivened with fresh apple and a squeeze of lime juice.

This is the stew that made such an impression on the final episode of the first season of Top Chef Masters. Each of us had been asked to create a meal that would be an autobiography told through the dishes we would present to the judges. I immediately thought of baeckeoffe ("baker's oven"). The name refers back to the time when bakers used wood-fired ovens. After the bread was done, this dish would be baked long and slow in the falling temperatures of the cooling oven. Since everyone in town would see the baker every day for the family's daily loaf, each would often bring a casserole to be baked in the oven. It was traditional, particularly on Mondays, when the women went to the river to do their laundry. They would have marinated their meats and vegetables overnight, dropped their casseroles off in the morning on their way, and then picked them up—plus a loaf of bread—on their way home. Even though my father was not the bread baker and had a modern, gasfired oven, people still took their casseroles to him. They liked to drop in because he always had some joke or story to tell. Before the village baker also invested in a modern oven and was still using wood, when my father turned over a fresh loaf of bread to give it the traditional blessing, he would sometimes see pieces of charcoal embedded in the crust. That would send my dad wild, muttering that "he [the baker] did not thoroughly clean his oven!" I make this dish often, both at home and at the restaurant. But these days we tend to increase the vegetables and use less meat, and sometimes we use only vegetables and leave out the meat entirely. While there is never a mushroom in the classic recipe, you can add them or make a vegetarian version with mushrooms and a rich vegetable stock. I've also made this stew as the centerpiece for Christmas dinner, adding plenty of sliced black truffles. The classic dish uses a mix of meats including a pig's foot, which gives a rich, gelatinous texture to the stew. You may be able to special-order a pig's foot. Ask the butcher to slice it crosswise into three pieces. But even at the restaurant I sometimes have trouble ordering them, and your stew will still be delicious without one. You can also use just one or two kinds of meat instead of all three.

For my first two months in the army I was based outside Toul. In the town was a pâtisserie that made the best brioche with pastry cream. I would go to the shop whenever I could. The baker spread pastry cream over the dough, and then rolled it up like a biscuit rolé (jelly roll). My father made a brioche-and-pastrycream roll, too, but shaped it like a bretzel. Chantal still remembers them from the first time I brought her home to meet my parents—to do that you had to be serious. When I told my father I planned to put them in this book, he was so pleased.

We love the way Dijon mustard enhances the similarly assertive flavor of the kale, while mellow pine nuts and Parmesan cheese balance it out. You can make this salad a day ahead; the flavors develop and deepen with a little extra time in the fridge. It's also delicious served warm or at room temperature.

The ultimate comforting supper, bursting with flavorsome vegetables and a rich herby gravy. You can either use some of the pre-frozen chicken filling , in which case thaw it, then assemble the pie and eat straight away. Alternatively, you can make the filling, let cool, and assemble the pie, then freeze the whole thing uncooked ready to defrost and bake in the oven at a later date.

Here, tiny puffs of amaranth and crunchy, nutty toasted wheat berries are suspended in lightly sweetened, tangy whipped cream and yogurt, along with whatever fresh fruit you have on hand. Serve it as a special breakfast treat, or add a little more sugar and call it dessert.

This fairly straightforward and versatile dough can be made as drop cookies instead of icebox-style sliced logs: Chill the dough, then scoop it into rounded-tablespoon-size balls, roll in the salt-sugar mixture, arrange at least 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) apart on the baking sheet, and flatten slightly. In addition, you can substitute just about any kind of flour for the rye.

This broth, the backbone of many of our soup recipes and an ingredient in many others, was developed with brain health in mind. It includes onions, fennel, parsley, oregano, and rosemary, all of which contain antioxidants, as well as parsnips, which are a good source of folic acid. The recipe uses water as liquid, but you can start with chicken stock or fish stock to make an especially flavorful broth that would be great for sipping on its own.

Despite some tall tales, Hostess Twinkies do not last forever. The box of Twinkies that my friends gave me as a gag gift were, in fact, hard as a rock in less than a year. These cream-filled chiffon cake snacks, made with real, unprocessed dairy and eggs and whole-grain flours, won't last nearly as long as preservative-laden Twinkies, but you will almost certainly gobble them up in no time at all.

Editor's note: Use this recipe to make Lara Ferroni's Vanilla Snack cakes . Like most commercial snack cake crème, this recipe contains no cream. Unlike a surprising amount of commercial snack cakes, however, this recipe does not contain beef suet. Health food? No. But a whole lot less gross than what you might find in many store-bought brands.

The key to this recipe is using a ripe, in-season peach. Here in Arizona, we get amazing peaches from the farms in the city of Queen Creek, as well as from Utah. It's always good to get to know the produce guys at your local grocery store because they will tell you when peaches are in their prime. Peaches contain numerous nutrients that are good for your body, including niacin, thiamin, potassium, and calcium. They are also high in beta-carotene, which promotes healthy hearts and eyes. The darker the peach's color, the more vitamin A it has in its pulp. Peaches may also help in maintaining healthy urinary and digestive functions. There's some evidence that flaxseed oil, which is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, may help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and even diabetes.

This dish draws on both Mediterranean and Asian influences and uses the very different flavors of sage, miso, and nori in complementary ways. It's a brain-healthy recipe: legumes such as lentils are a key component of the Mediterranean diet, both kale and onions are good sources of polyphenol antioxidants, and sweet potato supplies a dose of beta-carotene.

Donettes are tiny little rounds of deliciousness that really don't bear that much resemblance to bakery doughnuts but are somehow still satisfying. You can make your own in a flash with the aid of a mini doughnut pan. While it may seem strange, the addition of rye and barley flours into the batter makes for an exceptionally flavorful treat. To make Chocolate Mini Cake Doughnuts, simply add two tablespoons of cocoa powder to the flour mixture.

There is not much to say about this salad—it is as charmingly simple and straightforward as it appears. You could likely just copy it without a recipe. The point I do want to stress, however, is the necessity of making your own salad dressings. There is all sorts of junk in store-bought dressings and they don't taste nearly as fresh—not to mention that it's ridiculously easy to whisk a few things together or put them in a mini blender. This particular dressing hovers around the vinaigrette family, with just enough crème fraîche to coat the leaves with the thinnest amount of creaminess. Be sure your leaves are cleaned and fully dry so the dressing can cling on. The recipe yields enough for the given salads, but I typically double it so I have extra on hand.

Celery root and potatoes are a mash made in heaven. Transfer cubed potatoes and celery root to a bowl of water as soon as you cut them to keep them from turning brown.

Adding cream of tartar to the caramel prevents the sugar from crystallizing. Drizzle the sauce over the cake; save the rest for passing alongside.

The contrasts in both temperature and texture—from the crunchy crust, to the cold ice cream, to the warm apples—put this ice cream pie in a class all its own. And, believe it or not, all the components can be made in advance, so all you have to do is simply warm up the apples when you're ready to serve. If you or someone you're serving has a nut allergy, 1/2 cup more oats can be substituted for the pecans in the crust. Note that if you put all the warm apples on top of the ice cream pie, you will end up with a big mess. I suggest cutting the pie into pieces and serving each with an individual scoop of warm apples. Alternatively, you can serve the sautéed apples at room temperature, which will keep the ice cream from melting so quickly.

Be sure to use Deglet Noor or another firm date variety; Medjool dates are too soft and sticky for this recipe.

Forget the rule about cooking vegetables just until they're crisp-tender. The oven-roasting method used here results in lusciously soft beans with intensified flavor. Be sure to use fresh beans; older ones can be dry and tough.