Recipe Archive

Pastries & Cookies

Pastries and cookies reward precision without losing warmth. Browse doughs, fillings, laminated layers, bars, pies, and small bakes made for sharing.

881 recipes

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Palanquetas de Cacahuate Jalisciense

Chef Lupita

Palanquetas de Cacahuate Jalisciense

Jalisco's market palanqueta is whole roasted cacahuate locked into dark piloncillo caramel, cut into sturdy bars made for holidays, bus rides, school lunches, and hungry workers.

Palitos de Coimbra

Chef Margarida

Palitos de Coimbra

The delicate cookie sticks of Coimbra, where students have been dunking them in coffee between lectures for generations. Simple dough, patient rolling, and the kind of crispness that shatters at first bite.

Pampukhy (пампухи, fried filled doughnuts)

Chef Lesia

Pampukhy (пампухи, fried filled doughnuts)

The Christmas table goes quiet for exactly one second when the first pampukh splits open, golden crust giving way to poppy seed or rose jam.

Panyanky (панянки, painted figure cookies)

Chef Lesia

Panyanky (панянки, painted figure cookies)

The red comes first: a bright Christmas coat over lean honey-spice dough, cut into little ladies, horses and birds, then painted with white dots like someone dressed the cookies for visiting.

Pão de Deus

Chef Margarida

Pão de Deus

Soft sweet rolls crowned with golden coconut and sugar, the kind of simple perfection that made Portuguese padarias famous. Called 'bread of God' because that's exactly what they taste like.

Pari-Pari Shū (パリパリシュー, Cookie Shu)

Chef Takumi

Pari-Pari Shū (パリパリシュー, Cookie Shu)

Sweet cookie dough bakes over choux into a crisp cap, then gives way to cool custard. The shell is not difficult, only particular about heat, drying, and patience.

Paris-Brest (パリブレスト)

Chef Takumi

Paris-Brest (パリブレスト)

A Paris-Brest looks grand because it is round, split, and generously piped. The work is simpler than the display case suggests: dry the dough, trust the steam, and let the praline speak.

Pariser Stangen

Chef Elsa

Pariser Stangen

Crisp, nutty meringue piped into elegant sticks and brushed with a sharp lemon glaze. The name says Paris, but the recipe belongs to Vienna's Christmas Bäckerei and nowhere else.

Paste di Mandorla Siciliane

Chef Graziella

Paste di Mandorla Siciliane

The ancient almond cookies of Sicily, where Arab and Italian traditions meet in a confection so pure that each ingredient must be perfect. There is nowhere for mediocrity to hide.

Paste di Meliga

Chef Graziella

Paste di Meliga

The humble cornmeal cookies of Piedmont's wine country, where farmers' wives turned polenta flour and butter into something that has outlasted fashions and earned a place beside the region's finest wines.

Pastéis de Feijão

Chef Margarida

Pastéis de Feijão

The secret sweet of Torres Vedras, where humble white beans transform into silky custard-like filling. One bite and you'll never guess the ingredient. That's the magic.

Pastéis de Santa Clara

Chef Margarida

Pastéis de Santa Clara

The half-moon pastries of Coimbra's cloistered nuns, crisp golden shells cradling a rich almond and egg yolk cream that speaks of centuries when convents fed both souls and sweet teeth.

Pastéis de Tentúgal

Chef Margarida

Pastéis de Tentúgal

Dough stretched thin as breath, wrapped around golden egg custard, dusted with sugar and cinnamon. The nuns of Tentúgal spent centuries perfecting what your hands will learn today.

Pastel de Chila

Chef Margarida

Pastel de Chila

Golden tarts born in convent kitchens, where nuns discovered that an unlikely vegetable could become the most elegant of sweets. The chila's threads shine like captured sunlight.

Pastelitos de Guayaba Yucatecos

Chef Lupita

Pastelitos de Guayaba Yucatecos

Yucatán's panadería pastry, a crumbly lard-and-butter shortbread sealed around a slab of ate de guayaba and buried under powdered sugar. Sold wrapped in waxed paper to anyone with twenty pesos and a sweet tooth.

Pastelitos de Queso de Bola

Chef Lupita

Pastelitos de Queso de Bola

Mérida's afternoon bakery pastry: a tender pasta quebrada shell hiding grated queso de bola from Holland, a whisper of sugar arguing with the sharp salt of the cheese. Sold by the piece, eaten with coffee.

Pastes Dulces de Hidalgo (Arroz con Leche y Pina)

Chef Lupita

Pastes Dulces de Hidalgo (Arroz con Leche y Pina)

Hidalgo's sweet side of Real del Monte pastes, hand pies with a firm lard crust, braided edge, and fillings of cinnamon rice pudding or thick pineapple.

Pastiera Napoletana

Chef Graziella

Pastiera Napoletana

The ancient Easter tart of Naples, where cooked wheat, ricotta, candied citrus, and orange blossom water unite inside buttery pasta frolla. Made days ahead because patience is not optional.

Thai Fried Dough Sticks (Patongo)

Chef Fai

Thai Fried Dough Sticks (Patongo)

Chinese dough, Thai table. Patongo is proof the system absorbs everything: pair it with sangkhaya sweetened with palm sugar, tear it into jok laced with fish sauce, and a Chinese import becomes Bangkok breakfast.

Pay de Guayaba con Queso de Bola

Chef Lupita

Pay de Guayaba con Queso de Bola

Mérida's beloved guava and Edam pie, a flaky butter crust over softened ate de guayaba layered with grated queso de bola, the salt cutting the sweetness exactly the way Yucatecan repostería demands.

Pay de Nuez de Castilla Poblano

Chef Lupita

Pay de Nuez de Castilla Poblano

Puebla's walnut pay, made with the same nuez de Castilla that gives chiles en nogada its soul, baked into a dense, dark filling inside a tender pastry shell.

Pay de Queso de Bola Yucateco

Chef Lupita

Pay de Queso de Bola Yucateco

Mérida's modern dessert icon, Tere Cazola's pay de queso de bola, where finely grated Edam disappears into a sweet custard set over a Maria cookie crust and topped with dark caramel. Salty, sweet, and unmistakably yucateco.

Peach Cornmeal Drop Scones

Chef Dean

Peach Cornmeal Drop Scones

Golden cornmeal scones loaded with juicy summer peaches, their craggy tops brushed with warm honey butter that pools into every crevice. This is porch-sitting food at its finest.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Chef Dean

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Tender peanut butter cookies rolled in sparkling sugar and crowned with chocolate kisses, pressed into their warm centers the moment they leave the oven. This is 1950s America on a cookie tray.

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