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TRUFFLE BROWNIES AND LEMON GINGER BARS — Nick Malgieri
Brownies are not only easy to prepare, they're really practical for this last week of holiday madness.  Bake a batch today, wrap and freeze them, and thaw, cut and serve for Christmas.  Get ready:  everyone will ask for the recipe.
Millennium Torte from Baker’s Tour — Nick Malgieri
This cake was created by the pastry chef Josef Haslinger of Vienna’s fanciest fancy food store, Julius Meinl am Graben, in honor of the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is a rich chocolate nut cake with a chocolate glaze, decorated with gold leaf. This is my version of the cake, not the off
Barbecued Pork Buns — Nick Malgieri
Cha Shao Bao I’m always happy when these appear on a dim sum cart in a tea house, and I knew I wanted to create a recipe for them, though my skills in Chinese cooking are mostly limited to eating it! So I called on my longtime friend Norman Weinstein, a gifted teacher of Chinese cooking, and these
Rigo Jancsi — Nick Malgieri
I only know this originally Hungarian cake in its Viennese form. In Vienna, it is made from two thin layers of chocolate cake with a whipped chocolate cream filling and a shiny chocolate glaze—definitely a dessert for an important party. The good news is that it can be made entirely in advance. Do wait to cut it shortly before serving, however, or the cake layers will dry out.
Lattice-Topped Apple Tart — Nick Malgieri
This is so much more practical to prepare and serve than a standard apple pie baked in a sloping sided pie pan. It’s free-standing on a platter for serving and only needs to be cut into wedges, with none of the sometimes destructive digging underneath the bottom crust to extract wedges from the other type of pan. It’s also much more elegant looking than a plain apple pie.
Individual Coconut Cakes — Nick Malgieri
These snow-white little cakes are as delicious as any coconut candy I’ve ever tasted. It’s not necessary to clarify the butter for these. Unsweetened coconut is available both as long shreds (like the sweetened coconut you can buy in the supermarket) or more finely ground. The shreds retain more moisture than the ground coconut does. Either may be used in this recipe, but if you use the shredded variety, pulse it in the food processor half a dozen times, not to grind it to a powder, but to reduce the shreds in size to about 1/8 inch.
ITALIAN KALE PIE (TORTA DI CAVOLO NERO) — Nick Malgieri
In Italy, where they make savory pies from almost every vegetable imaginable, kale is a popular choice, especially in Tuscany where it’s known as cavolo nero or black cabbage. Teamed up with pancetta, onion, garlic, ricotta, eggs, and grated pecorino, its slightly bitter flavor is complemented rather than hidden. This is a great solo dish or delicious accompaniment to plain grilled meat or fish.
Tortas de Carnitas — Nick Malgieri
Possibly the most interesting sandwiches in the world, Mexican tortas combine boldly seasoned elements in a way that achieves both complexity and a certain delicacy. This recipe is from my very dear friend Roberto Santibañez, chef/owner of Fonda. Friendship aside, my critical side knows that he cooks the best Mexican food outside Mexico, bar none.
Sicilian Fig Bars — Nick Malgieri
Although fig bars are standard American fare, fig-filled cookies are also very traditional in Sicily, where they are called cucidati. I’ve decided to merge the two and make a fig bar that is shaped like the industrially-made one, but has some typical Sicilian seasonings in it for extra flavor.
Chocolate and Coffee Buche de Noel — Nick Malgieri
The traditional French Christmas log exists in many variations of flavor and presentation. I like this one because the chocolate cake and coffee buttercream are not an excessively sweet combination. Also, the marzipan decorations can be prepared well in advance.
TOTAL HEAVEN CHOCOLATE ALMOND CAKE — Nick Malgieri
Back when I was a partner in the Total Heaven Baking Company, a wholesale baking company founded by Bill Liederman and me, having a pastry chef was still a rare phenomenon, and so this chocolate almond cake was an immediate top seller to New York City restaurants. The original recipe had called for dry bread crumbs; I switched to fresh bread crumbs and got a much moister cake. Like a lot of rich chocolate cakes, this one falls a little in the center while cooking and we had to trim it before pouring on the glaze. After the initial batch, we saved the trimmings and used them in later cakes in place of the bread crumbs for an even more moist and dense result. Try it and see.
Butter Rosettes — Nick Malgieri
These are fragile and buttery and easy to pipe because the dough is rather firm. The dough is also fine for putting through a cookie press if you have one. These cookies don’t need to be finished off with anything before or after baking, but you can dust them lightly with cocoa powder, sprinkle them with sprinkles, or place a quarter of a candied cherry, an almond slice, or a chocolate chip (flat side up) in the center of each before baking.