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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Politiki Touloumbes (Τουλούμπες Πολίτικες)

Chef Dimitra

Politiki Touloumbes (Τουλούμπες Πολίτικες)

Politiki touloumbes are ridged cooked-dough fingers fried slowly until amber, then dropped hot into cold lemon syrup so every groove drinks and the center stays tender.

Politiko Kataifi (Κανταΐφι Πολίτικο)

Chef Dimitra

Politiko Kataifi (Κανταΐφι Πολίτικο)

Politiko kataifi is shredded phyllo rolled snugly around walnuts and butter, baked until bronze, then soaked with lemon syrup so each strand stays crisp at the edges and tender within.

Politiko Saragli (Σαραγλί της Πόλης)

Chef Dimitra

Politiko Saragli (Σαραγλί της Πόλης)

Saragli tis Polis is the City's rolled baklava: walnut, cinnamon, clove, thin phyllo, and a tight dowel roll that keeps every syruped slice in its coil.

Polvorón de Sagú Yucateco

Chef Lupita

Polvorón de Sagú Yucateco

Yucatán's convent-inheritance polvorón, made with toasted sagú flour and good pork lard, until it dissolves on the tongue with the faintest perfume of lime and canela.

Polvorones Chiapanecos

Chef Lupita

Polvorones Chiapanecos

Highland Chiapas polvorones, crumbly wheat cookies worked with manteca de cerdo, sugar, and canela, sold in pink, yellow, and white rows in San Cristobal dulcerias.

Polvorones de Boda Conventuales Poblanos

Chef Lupita

Polvorones de Boda Conventuales Poblanos

Puebla's convent wedding cookies, built on toasted wheat flour, ground almond, anise, cinnamon, and manteca de cerdo, are the tender sugar-coated bites passed around after baptisms and bodas.

Polvorones de Cajeta Bajío

Chef Lupita

Polvorones de Cajeta Bajío

Guanajuato's Bajío bakery cookie, a pale shortbread triangle made with manteca vegetal and vanilla, sandwiched with Celaya goat-milk cajeta until the crumb drinks in the caramel.

Polvorones de Naranja Aguascalentenses

Chef Lupita

Polvorones de Naranja Aguascalentenses

Aguascalientes' panadería polvorones, crumbly orange-scented cookies made with manteca de cerdo, wheat flour, and fresh ralladura, the kind hidrocálido families keep ready for café during holidays.

Polvorones Jarochos de Xico

Chef Lupita

Polvorones Jarochos de Xico

Veracruz mountain shortbread from Xico, worked with manteca de cerdo until sandy, baked pale, then dusted with cinnamon sugar and wrapped in colored paper for the romeria.

Polvorones Ticuleños de Hanal Pixán

Chef Lupita

Polvorones Ticuleños de Hanal Pixán

Yucatán's lard-rich shortbread from Ticul, dusted with the bright sprinkles that mark Hanal Pixán. The cookies that sit on the altar in late October, waiting for the souls to come home.

Polvorones Tricolor

Chef Lupita

Polvorones Tricolor

Ciudad de Mexico's panaderia polvorones, crumbly rounds of manteca shortbread pressed in red, white, and green, the kind bought by the quarter kilo for merienda and Christmas tables.

Polvorones Yucatecos de Naranja

Chef Lupita

Polvorones Yucatecos de Naranja

Mérida's anise-and-orange shortbread, made with manteca de cerdo and a few drops of agua de azahar. They crumble the second you touch them, built for hacer chuc with a cup of hot chocolate.

Pourekia me Anari (Πουρέκκια με Αναρή) from Cyprus

Chef Dimitra

Pourekia me Anari (Πουρέκκια με Αναρή) from Cyprus

Cypriot pourekia me anari are thin fried turnovers for Tsiknopempti, filled with fresh cheese, cinnamon, sugar, and mint, then dusted white while warm.

Powidlstrudel (Plum Butter Strudel)

Chef Elsa

Powidlstrudel (Plum Butter Strudel)

Dark, sticky Bohemian plum butter spread thick across hand-stretched strudel dough, rolled, baked until the pastry shatters and the filling caramelizes at the edges. Proper Austrian Mehlspeisen with centuries behind it.

Praline Cream Cheese Danish

Chef Remy

Praline Cream Cheese Danish

Buttery, shatteringly flaky Danish pastry cradling a pillow of sweet cream cheese, crowned with a decadent pecan praline glaze that pools in every golden crevice, the kind of breakfast worth waking up early for.

Praline Cream Puffs

Chef Remy

Praline Cream Puffs

Golden choux pastry puffs, crisp and light as summer clouds, filled to bursting with silky pastry cream studded with candied Louisiana pecans, the kind of dessert that makes your dinner guests forget every course that came before.

Profiteroles with Kuromitsu and Kinako (プロフィットロール 黒蜜きなこ)

Chef Takumi

Profiteroles with Kuromitsu and Kinako (プロフィットロール 黒蜜きなこ)

These small choux puffs look more difficult than they are: dry the dough properly, let water vapor make the hollow, then finish with dark kuromitsu and nutty kinako.

Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream

Chef Ally

Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream

Crisp, airy choux puffs cradling cold vanilla ice cream, baptized in dark chocolate sauce that pools on the plate. This is the French bistro dessert that makes grown adults close their eyes with pleasure.

Pruimenvlaai (Limburg Plum Tart)

Chef Joost

Pruimenvlaai (Limburg Plum Tart)

One of Limburg's oldest vlaaien: dark plums baked into a thin yeast-dough shell until they turn glossy and deep, a tart for feast days, funerals, and family tables.

Puchas de Santa Rosa de Viterbo

Chef Lupita

Puchas de Santa Rosa de Viterbo

Queretaro's Santa Rosa de Viterbo puchas are firm, concha-shaped convent biscuits, built from wheat flour, egg yolks, cinnamon, sugar, and manteca, made to keep well and sell well.

Puddingvlaai

Chef Joost

Puddingvlaai

A Limburg birthday tart with a tender yeast crust, thick banketbakkersroom, pastry cream, and sandy butter crumbs: smooth, pale, and quietly proud beside the louder fruit vlaaien.

Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen

Chef Klaus

Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen

The Saxon Advent gingerbread that gets its character before the oven: honey dough rested for weeks, spiced dark, baked thin, then softened in a tin until it cuts clean and tastes deep.

Quarkbällchen

Chef Klaus

Quarkbällchen

The Karneval fried pastry that skips yeast but not care: quark keeps the crumb tender, baking powder lifts it, and steady fat cooks the centre before the crust gets too dark.

Queijadas de Évora

Chef Margarida

Queijadas de Évora

The cheese tarts of Évora, where fresh sheep's milk cheese meets sugar and cinnamon in a paper-thin shell. Alentejo's gift to anyone with a sweet tooth and respect for tradition.

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