“In France, there’s almond flour in everything—except clafoutis,” Belinda Leong says about the rustic dessert of fruit baked in batter. Bucking tradition, she includes the flour in her clafoutis to add texture to the custardy interior. Slideshow: More French DessertsRecipe from Food & Wine America's Greatest New Cooks
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Brown butter, made by warming butter in a skillet until deeply golden, adds a wonderful nutty flavor to this chunky, streusel-like topping. Sprinkle it on vanilla ice cream with chocolate and caramel sauces for outrageously good sundaes. Recipe from Food & Wine America's Greatest New Cooks
Belinda Leong made many kinds of ganache (a rich, smooth chocolate-and-cream mixture) during her time at the venerable Pierre Hermé pâtisserie in Paris. Here, she slow-roasts white chocolate, which adds an enticing caramel flavor to the supercreamy ganache filling in her truffles. Slideshow: Chocolate Candies Recipe from Food & Wine America's Greatest New Cooks
Belinda Leong started to incorporate wild greens and herbs into her desserts in 2009 during a foraging-focused internship at the world-renowned Noma restaurant in Copenhagen. When sorrel’s in season, she uses the tart, lemony green to flavor her tangy sherbet, but mint, thyme and basil are also terrific. Slideshow: Cooking with Herbs
This luscious lemon cream, a staple in Belinda Leong's crème brûlée–style lemon tarts, has a bracing tartness. It's lovely as a topping for scones and biscuits at brunch or dolloped on fresh berries for dessert, as in the recipe here. Recipe from Food & Wine America's Greatest New Cooks
Dana Cowin, a cookie connoisseur, declares these double-chocolate ones the most delicious she’s ever had. They’re like crispy-chewy brownies in cookie form. Slideshow: Chocolate Cookie Recipes
When San Francisco’s revered Four Barrel coffeehouse asked Belinda Leong to make bran muffins for them, she added bran to her favorite carrot cake recipe. The result is an extraordinarily fluffy bran muffin that stays moist for days. Slideshow: Incredible Breakfast MuffinsRecipe from Food & Wine America's Greatest New Cooks
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Crémeux (French for “creamy”) is a dense, soft, classic pudding that’s the new darling of many American pastry chefs. Leong gives her super-chocolaty version a salty edge; it’s delightful with fruit, cookies and ice cream, or topped with a dab of whipped cream. Slideshow: Innovative Pudding Recipes
Instead of adding dried fruit to her crunchy granola, Belinda Leong creates chewy-sticky clusters of oats, nuts and poppy seeds. She serves the granola with her Greek yogurt panna cotta, but it's also fabulous with plain yogurt or as a snack by itself. Slideshow: Great Granola Recipes Recipe from Food & Wine America's Greatest New Cooks