Weekend Project Recipes

Maque-Style Mexican Bisquetes

Maque is a bakery/café with multiple locations in Mexico City. During a visit to the Condesa shop, we became particularly enamored of their bisquets. Mexican bisquets are common, but Maque’s stand out as unique. The deeply golden oversized buns featur

By Christopher Kimball & Rose HattabaughApril 28, 2025

Broken Phyllo Cake with Orange and Bay

The soaking syrup we use in this pudding-like citrus cake is infused with warm spices for added dimensions of flavor and fragrance.

By Rose HattabaughJanuary 5, 2022

Tomato-Olive Focaccia

The world’s best focaccia comes from Bari, Italy, where oozing buckets of dough bake up into an impossibly airy, tender crumb. OR A recreation of a light, open-crumbed focaccia from Bari, Italy, with tomatoes and olives melded in the crust.

By Diane UngerJanuary 21, 2024

Portuguese Sponge Cake (Pão de Ló)

Portugal's famously airy, eggy cake with a gooey layer underneath a thin withered crust.

By Rose HattabaughFebruary 5, 2021

Georgian Cheese Bread (Khachapuri)

We adore Georgia's staple snack—a bread boat made of a plush, yeasted dough that’s easy to tear and dip into an abundant filling of creamy cheese.

By Erika BruceFebruary 1, 2024

No-Fry Neapolitan Eggplant Parmesan (Parmigiana di Melanzane)

Skip the breading for a lighter, silkier eggplant Parmesan. OR Naples's hands-off eggplant Parm is lighter, silkier, and golden-browned. OR In Naples, we learned a hands-off, no-fry eggplant Parm that's lighter and silkier—opposite of the familiar gut

By Rose HattabaughFebruary 1, 2023

French Onion Soup

Is there such a thing as “light” French onion soup? The answer is an herbaceous, brothy bowl served to Chris Kimball at Bichettes in Paris. OR In Paris, we learned to make a light, bright French onion soup—the opposite of beef stock, soggy bread, and

By Courtney HillMarch 7, 2024

Skillet Spanakopita

We love spanakopita—Greek spinach and feta pastry pockets—so much that we turned it into a skillet-sized brunch dish. OR We took spanakopita—the popular Greek spinach-and-feta-stuffed triangle—and expanded it into an abundant, skillet-filling course.

By Courtney HillApril 20, 2022

Yogurt and Olive Oil Flatbreads

Incredibly delicious and soft, these flatbreads from chef Marianna Leivaditaki make smart use of a short ingredients list.

By Rose HattabaughAugust 9, 2021

Turkish-Style Flaky Flatbreads

Lavishly flaky and buttery, these skillet flatbreads, katmer, come together with just four ingredients. OR This buttery, flaky flatbread was inspired by katmer—just flour, water, and salt, transformed into a tender, rich skillet bread.

By Diane UngerFebruary 1, 2023

Piadina

This quick, supple flatbread from northern Italy gets its bubbly and charred from a screaming-hot cast iron skillet. OR The quick, supple flatbread gets its flavor and supple texture from a combination of yogurt and lard.

1-2-3-4 Yogurt Cake

In France, gâteau au yaourt is a cake that uses an entire container of yogurt then cleverly employs the empty container as the measuring cup for the flour, sugar and oil. It’s easy to throw together and a perfect recipe to make with children. If you’v

By Milk StreetOctober 5, 2023

Potato Gnocchi

It helps to have a kitchen scale to weigh out the 1¼ pounds of cooked potatoes needed to make the gnochhi dough. To process the cooked potatoes, a ricer or food mill works best for obtaining the smooth texture needed for light, fine gnocchi. A potato

Gnocchi in an Instant

Potato flakes make for the most pillowy gnocchi- in just 30 minutes!

Marika Contaldo Seguso’s Basil Tagliatelle with Butter, Sage and Parmesan

Marika Contaldo’s luscious, homemade tagliatelle, flecked with basil and coated with a luscious buttery sauce.

By Rose HattabaughNovember 1, 2022

Fresh Egg Pasta

To make these luxurious, golden-hued noodles, we use a fairly large number of egg yolks plus a whole egg, along with all-purpose flour and just a small amount of water. Determining the right amount of eggs is a balancing act—too many and the dough bec

By Courtney HillApril 25, 2023

Sicilian Semolina and Sesame Bread

Our version of pane siciliano, or Sicilian sesame bread, has a soft, fine quality and a rustic, satisfying chew.

By Milk StreetDecember 11, 2023

Brazilian-Style Chocolate-Glazed Carrot Cake

In bolo de cenoura, the blender pulls out an amazing, orangey sweetness from carrots—totally unlike any American carrot cake.

By Rose HattabaughDecember 22, 2023

Amalfi-Style Lemon Cake

"I married her just for the lemon cake," a sixth-generation Amalfi lemon farmer told us.

By Rose HattabaughOctober 22, 2021

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze

No mixer? No problem! This rich and chocolate-y cake from Cheryl Day is a one-bowl wonder.

By Wes MartinFebruary 9, 2023

Kolaches

“The best Danish in the world is a kolache,” writes Milk Street’s Shaula Clark—after whipping up several batches of these pillowy, savory or sweet treats, we are inclined to agree.

By Rose HattabaughOctober 3, 2023

Basque-Style Cheesecake

This world-famous Basque-style cheesecake, with its burnt, caramelized top, comes straight from the source.

By Rose HattabaughOctober 3, 2023

Ricotta-Semolina Cheesecake

This is Chris Kimball’s recreation of a light, creamy cheesecake with a “grownup flavor” that eluded him for 20 years.

Chèvre Cheesecake with Black Pepper–Graham Crust

Angie Mar's reinvented cheesecake is a lighter, tangier harmony of flavors.

By Rose HattabaughJune 8, 2020

Chris Kimball’s Fresh Peach and Raspberry Crostata

We look forward to summer peaches all year just for the crostata: the minimalist, free-form tart with a shatteringly crispy crust.

By Christopher Kimball & Rose HattabaughJune 7, 2022

German Apple Cake (Apfelkuchen)

“This is one of those slam dunks that worked, and I loved it right away."

Chocolate Cake with Vietnamese Coffee Sauce

This ultramoist cake gets richness from pairing warm, subtly sweet Chinese five-spice with cocoa powder. For an accompaniment, we took inspiration from Vietnamese coffee and created a rich, sticky sauce with sweetened condensed milk and instant espres

French Apple Cake

This simple French cake is more apples than cake, held together with a light crumb and thin golden crust.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

This old-fashioned recipe is everything you wish angel food cake would be—light, but tender and flavorful, rather than vanishing and cotton-candy sweet.

By Milk StreetOctober 28, 2022

Upside-Down Cardamom-Spiced Plum Cake

Peak-season plums mean plum cake—and we can do no better than this enchanting recipe, inspired by Claire Ptak’s upside-down fig cake.

By Rose HattabaughAugust 9, 2023

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

This decadent chocolate cake gets its tender, luscious crumb from the unexpected addition of fruity, peppery olive oil.

By Rose HattabaughApril 4, 2022

Clementine Blender Cake

We blitz whole, unpeeled clementines in a blender and use them to flavor the batter and finishing syrup in this fragrant, bright orange cake.

By Hisham Ali HassanFebruary 9, 2024

Invisible Apple Cake (Gâteau Invisible)

“Cake” is somewhat of a misnomer for this elegant dessert. Instead of open, airy and crumby, the texture is rich and dense, with slices of sweet-tart apples set in an egg-rich batter. During its long bake in the oven, the fruit slices and custard-like

By Hisham Ali HassanAugust 16, 2024

Austrian Plum Cake (Zwetschgenkuchen)

A light cake which serves as a simple base for a topping of juicy roasted plums: summertime baking, perfected.

Indonesian-Style Corn Cakes or Fritters

In Indonesia, we learned to make light, airy corn fritters from plump kernels of fresh corn, shallots and chilies, all held together with only eggs and flour. A food processor makes quick work of prepping the batter. As for cooking, you have a couple

By Courtney HillJuly 30, 2024

Popovers

These “perfectly popped popovers” (Chris Kimball’s term) are light and airy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and rich with eggy flavor.

By Milk StreetJune 29, 2023

Butter Rolls

Terry Tanaka asked us to recreate these soft, lightly sweetened Hawaiian butter rolls for her husband, Royce, whose grandfather used to serve at his bakery in Oahu.

By Milk StreetOctober 28, 2022

Swedish Cardamom Buns (Kardemummabullar)

Swedish cardamom buns, wafting of holiday aroma, are a reason to look forward to winter. OR There’s a reason we devote some time to these: the reward of soft, yeasted buns, rich with buttery sugary cardamom aroma, is well worth it.

Neapolitan Salami-Provolone Buns

These breakfast buns, panini napoletani, are “so intensely craveable,” J.M. Hirsch writes, that they trigger “a whole-bag-of-potato-chips moment.”

By Diane UngerOctober 3, 2023

Hot Cross Buns

Made with orange zest, bourbon (for plumping the currants and in a finishing glaze) and buttermilk instead of regular milk, our hot cross buns are deliciously light and tender, with just the right buttery sweetness. Lyle’s Golden Syrup is an amber-hue

By Diane Unger & Elizabeth MindreauMarch 21, 2024

Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pão de Queijo)

Tasty Brazilian cheese puffs, pão de queijo, are an easy, chewy, puffy snack for all occasions.

By Julie RackowOctober 16, 2017

Turkish Pide Breads

“It’s as if a Pullman loaf married a piadina. Marvelous.”

By Diane UngerFebruary 12, 2024

Chocolate and Tahini Babka

Jewish-style babkas originated as a way to utilize leftover challah dough. To keep the pastry kosher, no dairy was allowed, so both the dough and filling typically were oil-based. These days, bakeries across the globe have reinvented the classic, craf

By Rose HattabaughAugust 30, 2024

Dutch Oven Beef Birria Tacos

Slow-cooked, succulent meaty stew in a thick, chili-rich sauce.

By Diane UngerAugust 9, 2021

Puerto Rican Slow-Roasted Pork (Pérnil al Horno)

How to get tender, slow-roasted pork that's juicy on the inside, with shatteringly crisp skin? We found a two-step method.

By Diane UngerApril 24, 2024