Gourmet

The secret to a perfect brûlée crust is using both the turbinado sugar and a blowtorch.

It's unusual to butter and flour the pan when making a chiffon cake, but we liked the delicate crust that resulted. Because we did it this way, the cake must be cooled, inverted, on a rack, not on a bottle (the usual procedure for chiffons), or it will fall right out of the pan! Don't be tempted to substitute lemon juice for orange juice in the recipe, as the cake will not be as tender.

Many find that just one of these biscuits isn't enough. Fortunately, this quick recipe can easily be doubled.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

These biscotti can be baked in different size pans — even free form on a baking sheet — depending on what shape you’d like them to be. We used an 11- by 4-inch pan for a square shape. A 9- by 5- by 3-inch pan yields a long, narrow rectangle. The cooking time will not be affected by the pan you use.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. The importance of vine-ripened tomatoes goes without saying, but don't compromise with the bread, feta, or olive oil, either. This delicious sandwich deserves the best.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. The secret to this take on salad lyonnaise is very fresh eggs. If the slab bacon you're using is particularly lean, add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the skillet when cooking.

In this recipe we call for creamed honey, another name for the crystallized, or non-liquid, form of this sweetener.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

The key to this recipe is cooking the bell peppers until they’re meltingly tender, at least 15 minutes.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

"There are three recipes I like for strawberry jam," says Caroline Bates. "My mother’s long-cooked one may be too much trouble for some people; the sun-cooked version is impractical for city dwellers ('First, find a sunny rooftop....'). But this soft strawberry jam (also my mother’s) is simpler and good, too." Its flavor depends on the berries' being fully sweet, completely ripe yet firm, and with not a trace of white near the stem. Such berries have less pectin than underripe ones, so the jam will be loose. Just spoon it out of a jar and dribble it on biscuits.