On this week's dessert-themed show, we chat with Nadiya Hussain about her quest for the perfect brownie, a hack for bread pudding and how she almost faked her death to avoid going on “The Great British Bake Off.” Plus, chef Ana Sortun brings us the story of Turkey’s greatest baklava bakery, Adam Gopnik analyzes amusing dessert names, and we learn to make Plum Cake with Spiced Almond Crumble. (Originally aired July 30, 2021.)

This episode is brought to you by MasterClass.

Questions in this episode:

"No matter what I do, my pie crust always seems to shrink when I pre-bake it. I use pie weights. I chill the dough. I freeze the dough. I overhang the dough. I’ve used ceramic pie plates, glass pie plates and metal pie plates. I start out with a beautifully shaped dough with fluted edges and then it goes into the oven and becomes a shrunken mishap. Help!"

"My grandmother is from Salamanca, Spain. In her recipes for Spanish cookies, she uses lard. I’ve seen recipes that melt the lard before applying it and others that use it in the solid-state. Can you give me some insight on the difference?"

"What is the best way to store baked goods so they don’t get soggy?"

"I'm a decent baker–mostly sweets, but I do reasonably well with pizza dough, focaccia, and challah. But every single time I make no-knead bread, it comes out horribly. What am I doing wrong that I'm always failing to make the "easiest" bread?"