A buckle was one of my signature cakes when I worked as pastry chef for the Gjelina Group. Every bite is tangy, tart, and deliciously rich. I love this cake with mixed berries, but using one single variety can also be nice. If you’re serving it after dinner, add some fresh berries and a little whipped cream on the side.
I am 10,000 percent convinced that this recipe will the breakout star of this book. In India I had tender coconut ice cream from Naturals, a famous Indian ice cream franchise, and I will never be the same. It had chunks of soft tender coconut in it that gave it a rich texture. The tender coconut filling requires a bit of work since it's made with fresh young coconuts, but it's necessary to get that fresh tender coconut flavor! You can usually find young coconuts at the grocery store in the fresh produce section. This recipe ended up being my husband Rhut's favorite, and I've made it no less than fifteen times in the last few months!
I decorated the pie with colored shredded coconut to mimic the sunset over the salt flats and mountains at Kalo Dungar, in Kutch Gujarat. I highly recommend using Thai Kitchen's full-fat coconut milk in a carton instead of canned coconut milk, as it has a fresher taste and does not contain any thickeners or preservatives.
We’ve put this recipe here because, unlike the pot pies in the first chapter, this is a traditional pot pie with a bottom crust and a top crust, making it a double-crusted pie. This pot pie uses the carcass of the holiday bird to make a rich turkey stock. Making stock is a very flexible process, so use common sense rather than precise measurements. Of course it’s fine to use store-bought turkey stock, but homemade is so much better and takes less than 10 minutes of active time. It’s well worth the small effort, since the turkey is abundance itself and shouldn’t be wasted.
ACTIVE TIME: 1 HOUR — BAKE TIME: 35 MINUTES — TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR 35 MINUTES — MAKES ONE 10-INCH PIE
Here’s another one of my favorite riffable emergency desserts. I often throw it together if I’m entertaining unexpectedly because it’s super easy (if I have pie dough in the freezer) and really pretty. You know the drill by now: use any nut you like and your favorite jam. Some combinations I’m awfully fond of are apricot jam and pistachios (pictured), raspberry jam and peanuts, or blackberry or cherry and hazelnuts. Be sure to bake your tart on a rack set in the lower third position of the oven. This helps the bottom of the tart get nice and golden at the same rate as the top. Baking to a deep golden brown also ensures the leftovers are sturdy and portable.
Whenever I make this cheesecake for a party, my winning dessert from The Great American Baking Show finale, it’s always the first thing to disappear. The buttery, brown sugary pecan crust is reminiscent of pecan candy, an ode to Louisiana, while the dreamily creamy, slightly tangy filling is a lemony-rich homage to New York’s signature dessert, the cheesecake. Sometimes, just to show off, I add even more layers of texture and tartness by topping it with freshly whipped cream and berries, see cheesecake photo on page 176, or drizzling warm, creamy caramel directly over the cheesecake to contrast the chilled interior.
The cheesecake gets its sublime texture because it’s baked in a water bath—kind of like a mini Jacuzzi. The water bath ensures the cheesecake is baked gently, while providing a steamy environment that makes for an extra creamy cheesecake. Plus, the water bath encourages the cheesecake’s top to remain perfectly flat, a geometric feat in a world of cracked top cheesecakes.
Makes 1 (9-inch) pie; serves 6 to 8
Makes one 9-inch (23 cm) tart or shallow pie
It was the Blackberry Pie recipe from What a Cook Ought to Know about Corn Starch (1909) that inspired mine. I love the bare-bones filling instructions: “Wash blackberries, drain and fill plate quite full. Sprinkle well with sugar. Sift over all, one generous tablespoon . . . [cornstarch].” Done and done. I added lime juice and zest (for a little zing), a bit of butter atop my filling (for richness), and arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch (for a less cloudy filling), and tucked it all into a tender and flaky cream cheese crust.
As I said in the introduction [of Desserts LaBelle], “Sweet Talk from Patti,” sweet potato pie is in my blood. Any and every sweet potato pie I make is compared to the OG: Chubby’s version, which was also the inspiration behind my dear friend Norma’s recipe. (It’s in my first cookbook, LaBelle Cuisine. If you don’t have the book, last time I checked the recipe was also online.) Why I can’t leave a good thing alone, I don’t know. This is my current rendition, which starts with Chubby’s pie and throws in some new tricks, too. If you have been boiling sweet potatoes for your pie, try the microwave method here. It is a lot quicker.