Cookbooks

It’s as nice a Mother’s Day present as a bouquet of fresh flowers, but even sweeter: Delicate poached apple slices, rolled up to resemble blooms, make a pretty arrangement atop a bed of buttermilk cream in a flaky puff-pastry shell. You can bake the pastry and poach the apple slices a day ahead; refrigerate apples submerged in the poaching liquid. Because the filling needs half an hour to set, spread it on the cooled baked pastry and shape the roses (page 342) while you wait.

A refreshing chocolate-and-mint cocktail was the inspiration for grasshopper pie, a favorite of Southern hostesses in the 1950s and ’60s. It’s just as appealing today, and its green palette makes it a fun and festive choice for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration. To make the pie, a crème de menthe concoction is whipped into a cloud of nearly weightless filling and chilled in a chocolate wafer shell. Each slice is topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. This recipe has been updated from the original one, with fresh mint in the filling and shredded sweetened coconut in the crust.

Petite chocolate tarts pair the sophistication of truffles with the playfulness of brightly colored Valentine candies—in this case, piped meringue hearts. Each tart is sized for two valentines to share; you can also make one large tart in a ten-and-a-half-inch heart-shaped pan (as pictured on page 242). The baking time will remain the same.

A thin double-crust slab, baked in a rimmed sheet pan, is perfect for pie lovers who prefer a high crust-to-filling ratio. The pâte brisée crust is peppered with polka-dot cutouts made with a round pastry tip; you can try this technique on a double-crust pie in any shape, size, or flavor. For easy unmolding, line the baking sheet with parchment paper with a one-inch overhang on long sides before baking the pie.

A winning combination of tart and sweet, this county-fair favorite is marked by a tightly woven lattice crust. Sour cherries enjoy a short season—typically a few weeks in late June and early July—so snap them up when you see them, and freeze any extras: Line a baking sheet with parchment and freeze pitted cherries in a single layer. Transfer frozen cherries to a resealable bag; they should keep in the freezer up to one year.

For this woven pie-dough pattern, the spacing of the strips is varied to create a seemingly complex geometric design that is actually no more difficult than a basic lattice. Rum-poached pineapple pieces peek out from beneath the open-weave crust.

This dessert is a specialty of Pennsylvania Dutch country. Chock-full of dark and golden raisins, and flavored with cinnamon, the pie has become a Martha Stewart Living reader favorite since the recipe was first published in the magazine.

In this pumpkin pie with Italian flavors, loosely arranged scraps of pasta frolla are draped over the filling to evoke a lattice design without any weaving. Pine nuts, clustered in groups of three, punctuate the grid.

The layered finish that tops this apple pie is created by shingling the leaves. Pastry cutouts in any shape can be arranged in this manner; here, a flurry of leaves accentuates the pie’s autumnal nature.

Rather than weaving strips of dough under and over one another, the latticelike design for this pie is formed by cutting squares from a round of rolled-out pâte brisée. The cutouts are arranged around the edge of the pie plate, in overlapping fashion, for a striking frame.

These fanciful tartlets are easy to construct with make-ahead components. The fresh figs can be roasted and then chilled, with the flavorful cooking syrup, for up to a week. The cream filling can be made a day ahead and refrigerated; the fluted pastry shells also can be baked the day before and held overnight at room temperature.

Handy no-fork treats win raves from kids for their lip-smacking taste; busy parents and other home cooks appreciate how easy they are to bake by the dozen. Once the dough is cut into rounds and pressed into mini-muffin cups, it is filled with a toss-together berry filling that becomes wonderfully jamlike during baking. Top each with a tiny dollop of whipped cream.

Let your imagination be your guide when forming these little tarts; giving each one a singular look enhances its appeal and creates an enticing display, but you can always replicate favorite patterns. Use aspic cutters (available at baking supply stores) or small cookie cutters to make designs, or cut strips of dough to form mini lattice tops. You may also want to vary the flavor—and color—of jam in the fillings.

As delicious—and easy to make—as drop cookies, coconut macaroons make airy shells when pressed and baked in tartlet molds. They will keep for days, and are very versatile. These are filled with vanilla whipped cream and candied ginger, but fresh fruit, citrus curd, and chocolate ganache are other nice options.

Ethereal, light-as-air sweets start with thin tuile cookies that are draped over inverted small brioche molds while still warm. Once cooled, each ruffled cup is filled with velvety curd and topped with a playful baked-meringue peaked cap. You will need a nonstick baking mat for the cups.

Apricot halves are poached with lemon peel, cracked cardamom pods, sliced fresh ginger, and vanilla-bean seeds to make a luscious filling for little crosshatched hand pies. Plums or peaches can be used in place of apricots; you may need to cut out larger pastry rounds depending on the size of the fruit. Be sure to keep the fruit submerged in poaching liquid or it will turn brown. This recipe is a specialty of Joey Gallagher, whose daughter, photographer Dana Gallagher, is a frequent contributor to Martha Stewart Living.

An all-time favorite fruit pie—strawberry-rhubarb—is utterly charming in miniature. These pielets would be welcome at a family reunion, graduation party, or other summer occasion. Baking the lattice-topped pies in mini muffin tins makes large batches easy to manage. If you’d like to serve the pielets à la mode, use a melon baller to form tiny scoops of ice cream.

Chocolate and caramel are enhanced with port wine, Spanish Marcona almonds, and fleur de sel, a delicate sea salt, for ultra-rich miniature tarts that are wonderfully unctuous, like fine truffles. The large yield of this recipe makes it perfect for parties; just don’t expect to have any left over. These tartlets have a tendency to disappear rather quickly.

Thanks to its length and the abundance of glistening fruit, this tart makes a striking finale. The tender cornmeal crust is more crumbly than other types, so do not overmix the dough, and be sure to chill well before rolling. It is also a forgiving dough—you can pinch together any holes or tears when fitting it into the tin.

Chocolate marries well with many different types of fruit, but pears and chocolate make an extra-special pair. Here, a ring of sliced fruit sits atop a deep, dark chocolate filling, which puffs up as it bakes. Arrange the slices so the curved edges all face the same way, with the narrow ends pointing toward the tart’s center.