SERVES 10 TO 12

Shred the carrots on the large holes of a box grater or in a food processor fitted with the shredding disk. Do not substitute liquid buttermilk for the buttermilk powder. To ensure the proper spreading consistency for the frosting, use cold cream cheese. If your baked cake is of an uneven thickness, adjust the orientation of the layers as they are stacked to produce a level cake. Assembling this cake on a cardboard cake round trimmed to a 6 by 8-inch rectangle makes it easy to press the pecans onto the sides of the frosted cake.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Preparing this cake in a half sheet pan means that it bakes and cools in far less time than a conventional layer cake, and—cut into quarters—it produces four thin, level layers that do not require splitting or trimming before frosting. Adding extra baking soda raises the pH of the batter, ensuring that the coarsely shredded carrots will soften during the shortened baking time. Buttermilk powder in the frosting reinforces the tangy flavor of the cream cheese without making the frosting too soft.

SERVES 4 AS A MAIN DISH OR 6 AS AN APPETIZER

To make an entrée, serve this dish with steamed white rice.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
This dish, popularized by chain restaurants like P.F. Chang’s and the Cheesecake Factory, is based on a Cantonese dish called sung choy bao. Most recipes for this dish suffer from a similar fate—stringy, tasteless meat drowned in a bland sauce. To remedy this, we started with flavorful chicken thighs and marinated them in soy sauce and rice wine. To keep the meat from drying out when stir-fried, we coated it in a velvetizing cornstarch slurry, which helped it retain moisture as it cooked.

Makes two 9-inch round loaves

If you don’t have a baking stone, bake the bread on an overturned, preheated rimmed baking sheet set on the upper-middle oven rack. The bread can be kept for up to 2 days well wrapped at room temperature or frozen for 2 months wrapped in foil and placed in a zipper-lock bag.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Most of the focaccia we see in the States is heavy, thick, and strewn with pizza-like toppings. We wanted a lighter loaf, crisp-crusted and airy on the inside and topped with just a smattering of herbs.

To start, we focused on flavor. To get the benefits of a long fermentation with minimal effort, many bakers use a “preferment” (also known as a “sponge,” “starter,” or biga in Italian): a mixture of flour, water, and a small amount of yeast that rests (often overnight) before being incorporated into the dough. We followed suit, but the interiors of the loaves weren’t as tender and airy as we wanted. We wondered if our standing mixer was developing too much gluten (the strong, elastic network of cross-linked proteins that give bread its crumb structure). Instead we turned to a more gentle approach, one we learned while developing our Almost No-Knead Bread. In this method, a high hydration level (the weight of the water in relation to the weight of the flour) and a long autolysis (the dough resting process) take advantage of the enzymes naturally present in the wheat to produce the same effect as kneading.

This method worked to a point—our loaves were light and airy, but squat. To improve the structure, we turned the dough (folding in the edges of the dough toward the middle) at regular intervals while it proofed. But to cut back on the long proofing time (three hours) and hasten gluten development, we followed the advice of research, which suggested holding back the salt when mixing our dough, adding it in later. (Salt inhibits flour from absorbing water and slows down the activity of the enzymes responsible for developing gluten.) The results were dramatic—we were able to shave an hour off our proofing time.

To give our loaves a flavorful, crisp crust, we oiled the baking pans and added coarse salt for flavor and an extra crunchy texture. This focaccia was a revelation: crackly crisp on the bottom, deeply browned on top, with an interior that was open and airy.

MAKES APPROXIMATELY 14 3-INCH PANCAKES

Matzo meal is a traditional binder, though we found that the pancake’s texture does not suffer without it. Applesauce and sour cream are classic accompaniments for potato latkes.

Serves 6

If chorizo is unavailable, you can substitute andouille, kielbasa, or hot Italian sausage. We found the burritos were easiest to eat when sliced in half. That said, they could also make a convenient meal on-the-go if left whole and wrapped tightly in foil. Whole, lowfat, or skim milk can be substituted for the half-and-half.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Loaded with eggs, meat, vegetables, and cheese, a hearty breakfast burrito recipe seems like the perfect way to start the day on the right foot. But with all those components, burritos can be time consuming to prepare. To simplify this breakfast burritos recipe, we cooked all the components in the same pan, using a nonstick skillet large enough to accommodate all the ingredients. We cooked the sausage and vegetables together and removed them from the skillet before cooking the eggs. Careful not to overstir the eggs, we used a heatproof rubber spatula to push, lift, and folded the eggs back and forth across the skillet. The best flavor for our breakfast burritos recipes was obtained from Mexican chorizo, a spicy, garlicky fresh sausage. To prevent the tortillas from ripping when we rolled the burritos, we “steamed” them in the microwave first.

MAKES ONE 9-INCH PIE

Use sweet, crisp apples, such as Golden Delicious, Jonagold, Fuji, or Braeburn. The two fillings can be made ahead, cooled, and stored separately in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For an apple-cranberry pie recipe with a crisp crust and balanced flavors, we precooked the cranberries so they wouldn’t shed a lot of liquid during baking. Then we arranged the cooked cranberries and apples in two distinct layers, allowing the flavor of each to come through clearly in our apple-cranberry pie recipe.

Serves 10

We suggest French’s French Fried Onions and Swanson Certified Organic Free Range Chicken Broth for this recipe. Fresh green beans are essential—frozen beans will turn to mush in the slow cooker.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For our Slow-Cooker Green Bean Casserole recipe, we tested frozen beans, fresh raw beans, and blanched fresh beans, and were happy to learn that fresh beans held up well in the slow cooker. We didn’t even bother with the canned stuff. Sautéing the mushrooms before adding them to the slow cooker prevented them from turning slimy. It also gave us the idea to build the whole sauce in the skillet to reduce it and concentrate its flavor. Ground-up fried onions bound our sauce and also added more onion flavor than merely sprinkling them on top.

Serves 8 to 10

If your steamer basket has short legs (under 1 3/4 inches), the potatoes will sit in water as they cook and get wet. To prevent this, use balls of aluminum foil as steamer basket stilts. A stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment yields the smoothest potatoes, but a hand mixer may be used as well.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
High-starch russet potatoes made for superior Whipped Potatoes compared with Yukon Gold or red potatoes because their high starch content causes the cells to separate and puff when cooked. Boiling the potatoes added extra water, resulting in a flatter finished dish. We found that the best technique was to rinse excess starch from the raw potatoes, steam them, and finish the steamed potatoes on the stovetop. This process made them fluffier and better able to absorb butter and milk.

Serves 6 to 8

If you prefer to use kosher salt, you will need 1½ cups of Morton or 2½ cups of Diamond Crystal.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Some Syracuse Salt Potatoes recipes call for three cups of salt, but we found that to be excessive. We reduced the salt content dramatically to create a potato recipe with a well-seasoned (not too salty) crust and ultra-creamy interior. Both kosher and non-iodized salt worked equally well. And small white or red potatoes, left whole and unpeeled, worked best in our Syracuse Salt Potatoes—if cut or peeled, the potatoes absorb too much salt. Adding chives and black pepper brought this dish to a new level.

Makes two 12-inch pizzas

We like to use a baking stone (also called a pizza stone), which heats evenly and helps crisp crusts, but if you don’t have one, bake the pizzas on an inverted, preheated rimmed baking sheet.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
With its wafer-thin crust; thick, sweet tomato sauce; gooey Provel cheese; and signature square slices, St. Louis-style Pizza is unmistakable. Adding cornstarch to the dough absorbed moisture and allowed the crust to crisp in a conventional oven. Because cornstarch has no gluten, it also helped to keep the crust tender.

We doctored a simple pizza sauce by adding sugar, tomato sauce, dried oregano, and fresh basil. The fresh herb wasn’t typical, but it gave the St. Louis-Style Pizza a flavorful lift. Smoky, melty Provel cheese was difficult to find outside the St. Louis area. We crafted a respectable substitute with American cheese, Monterey Jack, and liquid smoke.