Dessert Person

Watch Claire Saffitz make soft & crispy focaccia, a recipe from her cookbook, Dessert Person. Not only is the recipe forgiving, making it a great introduction to breadmaking for novice bakers, it's incredibly versatile and serves as the perfect accompaniment to any meal (hello, soup weather!). You might be surprised to see just how easy it is to make a tall, fluffy, light focaccia.

Watch as Claire Saffitz makes foolproof tarte tatin and rough puff pastry, two recipes from her cookbook, Dessert Person. For a recipe that is often touted as "simple," tarte Tatin is remarkably easy to screw up. Claire has made tarts where the apples overcaramelized and stuck to the skillet, stayed blond and released tons of moisture, or shrunk dramatically. Differences in the freshness of apples was always the problem. In this video Claire will show you a method to help coax out some moisture to help correct those problems and leave you with a delicious tarte tatin that is every bit as good as the traditional version. Claire believes this recipe with buttery pastry, caramel, and apples can not be beat in a dessert.

In this episode, Claire Saffitz makes the best oatmeal cookies. This is the Oat & Pecan Brittle Cookies recipe from Dessert Person. This chewy, butterscotchy oat cookie might not be the kind you can casually whip up on a whim. But, if you go through the steps to make it, like making the pecan brittle, grinding the oats, and browning the butter, you will be rewarded with hands-down the most delicious oat cookie you've ever tried. Somewhere between a lacy cookie and a chewy one, it's giant, buttery, and sweet-salty. Make them along with Claire and remember to keep some of the dough frozen so you're never more than 20 minutes away from a perfect warm cookie.

Claire Saffitz makes carrot and pecan cake from her cookbook, Dessert Person. Claire’s interpretation of a classic carrot cake makes a celebration out of any occasion. This version has lots of well toasted pecans and a brown butter cream cheese frosting that is not to be missed under any circumstances. Watch Claire as she demonstrates how to achieve even, light layers and then assemble them into a cake that’s equal parts, impressive, satisfying, and delicious. Remember, as Julia Child said: “A party without cake is just a meeting!”

In this episode of Dessert Person, Claire Saffitz makes her easiest cake recipe. If there is one recipe nearest and dearest to Claire's heart, it's this one for simple Poppy Seed Almond Cake. It's been a Saffitz family favorite for decades, and still the easiest and most perfect cake Claire knows how to make. It's proof of the truism that simple is often the best, but try it and see for yourself. It's too good not to become a favorite in your family.

Most cakes are delicious when eaten with a cup of coffee, but what’s even more delicious? A cake that tastes of coffee itself! This coffee coffee cake has a light, silky crumb and a brown sugary flavor that’s perfectly offset by the bitter notes of brewed and instant coffee, which find their way into all three components — the batter, ribbon, and crumb topping. Watch Claire as she makes this new-classic cake from Dessert Person.