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  3. Gail Simmons' Favorite Desserts

Gail Simmons' Favorite Desserts

By Food & Wine
Updated May 05, 2017
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Credit: © Con Poulos
These tasty recipes include honeyed fig crostatas and banana pudding with a vanilla wafer crumble.
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1 of 22

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Towering Coconut Layer Cake

Credit: PHOTO © JOHN KERNICK
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Because Tyler Florence wanted his Wayfare Tavern to feel like a century-old San Francisco institution, he researched menus dating all the way back to the Gold Rush. This cake couldn't be more traditional: four layers of rum-brushed yellow cake filled and frosted with a light and airy, coconut-scented meringue-buttercream.

  • More Coconut Desserts

1 of 22

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Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse

Credit: © Stephanie Foley
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Ad Hoc's chef de cuisine Dave Cruz created this rich chocolate mousse as a refined homage to the pudding he loved as a child. At the restaurant he serves it simply, but it's also wonderful garnished with giant curls of bittersweet chocolate made with a vegetable peeler.

  • More Chocolate Desserts

2 of 22

3 of 22

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Rich and Creamy Butterscotch Pudding

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One good store-bought caramel sauce is the Burnt Caramel Sauce from Recchiuti Confections.

  • More Amazing Puddings

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Frozen Maple-Mousse Pie with Candied Cranberries

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Kathleen Callahan of Seattle’s Emmer & Rye started her career studying marine biology, then segued into cooking fish in restaurants. Her latest move was to the pastry kitchen; she decided it would be much more pleasant to "smell like vanilla at the end of my shift." Today she makes delicious desserts like this frozen pie topped with slow-simmered cranberries.

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Lemon Ice Box Pie

Credit: © Taunton Press
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This silken frozen pie is adapted from Clancy’s, one of David Guas’s favorite New Orleans neighborhood restaurants.

  • More Fruit Desserts

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Fudgy Chocolate-Walnut Cookies

Credit: © Quentin Bacon
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New York pastry chef François Payard’s divinely gooey chocolate cookies are flourless.

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6 of 22

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Honeyed Fig Crostatas

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Pair with a subtly sweet sparkling wine.

  • More Fig Recipes

7 of 22

8 of 22

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Butterscotch Pots de Crème with Caramel Sauce

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"I have a lot of guys from Oaxaca in my kitchen, and they put salt on everything," says Travis Lett. "When I saw one of them add salt to this dessert, I thought, Hey, that’s a great idea."

  • More Beautiful Desserts

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9 of 22

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Chocolate–Peanut Butter Moon Pies

Credit: Photo © Con Poulos
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Moon pies are classic Southern cookies filled with marshmallow and coated with chocolate. Rebekah Turshen, the pastry chef at Nashville’s City House, models hers on the classic, but also on the excellently named Goo-Goo Clusters, a peanut candy invented in Nashville in 1912. She spreads crispy sugar cookies with chocolate and peanut butter, then sandwiches them around a marshmallow filling.

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9 of 22

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Mango-Basil Vacherin

Credit: © Kate Mathis
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Yigit Pura perfected this crisp-creamy French dessert while working at restaurant Daniel in New York City. His updated version combines little lime meringue kisses with basil ice cream and sweet mango sorbet.

  • More Mango Recipes

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Banana Pudding with Vanilla Wafer Crumble

Credit: © Taunton Press
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David Guas remembers this comforting dessert from the buffet spreads at family funerals.

  • Southern Comfort Food

11 of 22

12 of 22

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Almond, Elderflower and Lime Travel Cakes

Credit: © Kate Mathis
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Inspired by French travel cakes (small sweets meant for bringing to parties, picnics and other events), William Werner created these miniature desserts. He calls them "gussied-up pound cakes."

  • More Great Cakes

12 of 22

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Halvah-Sesame Sundae

Credit: © Marcus Nilsson/"The Perfect Finish"
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The sesame-flavored ice cream for this sundae is fun and unique, but store-bought vanilla ice cream is delicious, too.

  • Ice Cream Sundaes

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Chilled Grapefruit-Caramel Meringue Pie

Credit: © Tina Rupp
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Most pastry chefs love lemon and orange. Deborah Snyder of Manhattan's Lever House, however, champions the also-ran of the citrus world: grapefruit. In one cold, creamy dessert, she layers pink grapefruit curd in a crunchy graham-cracker crust with caramel sauce and a delicate topping of fluffy meringue.

  • Beautiful Desserts

14 of 22

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Chocolate-Peanut-Butter-Banana Upside-Down Cake

Credit: © Burcu Avsar
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Grace Parisi uses one of the world's great flavor combinations for her unusual marble cake topped with bananas, which caramelize on the bottom of the pan (ideally a glass one).

  • Recipes from Grace Parisi

15 of 22

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Butterscotch-Glazed Coffee Shortbread Bars

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Flo Braker flavors her ethereally light shortbread with finely ground espresso beans. The best part is the golden, gooey butterscotch glaze, which becomes deliciously fudgy as the bars sit in the cookie jar.

  • More Cookie Recipes

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Linzer Cookies with Spiced Jam

Credit: PHOTO © JOHN KERNICK
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Kevin Sbraga credits his father, Harvey Beachem, with creating these linzer torte-inspired cookies at Harvey's Bakery in Willingboro, New Jersey. He takes his father's recipe one step further, adding anise and coriander to the raspberry jam that he spreads between the hazelnut cookies (which are spiced with cinnamon and cloves).

  • Holiday Cookie Recipes

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Revelatory Caramel Cake

Credit: © Angie Mosier
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This amazing cake comes from chef Ann Cashion of Washington, DC, restaurant Johnny's Half Shell.

  • More Great Layer Cakes

18 of 22

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Coconut Arborio Rice Pudding

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Arborio rice is great for Stephanie Prida's pudding, because the plump grains stay perfectly firm and chewy.

  • More Easy Desserts

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Orange-Cardamom Date Bars with a Nutty Crust

Credit: © Frances Janisch
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The crunchy, almondy topping for these clever bars is loaded with vitamin E. The filling is chewy like caramel and is full of vitamin C from the orange.

  • More Amazing Desserts Bars

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Caramel Cream Pie with Crispy Rice Topping

Credit: © Frances Janisch
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Humble ingredients like puffed rice cereal (transformed into a brilliant topping) and graham crackers (crushed with hazelnuts to yield a tender crust) are the core of this surprisingly luxe dessert.

  • Pies and Tart Recipes

21 of 22

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Minny's Chocolate Pie

Credit: © Con Poulos
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The Help’s ending hinges on a secret involving Minny’s famous chocolate pie. Newspaper columnist Lee Ann Flemming, one of the best bakers in Greenwood, made 53 chocolate pies during filming, including 12 vegan and gluten-free versions she prepared in just one day for actress Bryce Dallas Howard. Her fudgy version here is neither vegan nor gluten-free: It’s as classic as it gets. You can make your own crust, but Flemming uses packaged.

  • More Chocolate Desserts

22 of 22

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Everything in This Slideshow

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1 of 22 Towering Coconut Layer Cake
2 of 22 Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse
3 of 22 Rich and Creamy Butterscotch Pudding
4 of 22 Frozen Maple-Mousse Pie with Candied Cranberries
5 of 22 Lemon Ice Box Pie
6 of 22 Fudgy Chocolate-Walnut Cookies
7 of 22 Honeyed Fig Crostatas
8 of 22 Butterscotch Pots de Crème with Caramel Sauce
9 of 22 Chocolate–Peanut Butter Moon Pies
10 of 22 Mango-Basil Vacherin
11 of 22 Banana Pudding with Vanilla Wafer Crumble
12 of 22 Almond, Elderflower and Lime Travel Cakes
13 of 22 Halvah-Sesame Sundae
14 of 22 Chilled Grapefruit-Caramel Meringue Pie
15 of 22 Chocolate-Peanut-Butter-Banana Upside-Down Cake
16 of 22 Butterscotch-Glazed Coffee Shortbread Bars
17 of 22 Linzer Cookies with Spiced Jam
18 of 22 Revelatory Caramel Cake
19 of 22 Coconut Arborio Rice Pudding
20 of 22 Orange-Cardamom Date Bars with a Nutty Crust
21 of 22 Caramel Cream Pie with Crispy Rice Topping
22 of 22 Minny's Chocolate Pie

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Gail Simmons' Favorite Desserts
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