Food52 Works / Food52 Genius Desserts

INTRODUCTION 

The Genius Recipes column on Food52 started in June 2011 as a weekly showcase of recipes from legendary cookbook authors and chefs that we claimed boldly! shamelessly! would change the way you cook. You d never truss another chicken, or simmer tomato sauce for hours, or feel intimidated by baking bread or making piecrust again. 
And we learned nothing from our hubris, because the recipes indeed took hold and found new life, virtually on their own. The conversations around them grew, with readers exchanging pointers in the comments sections and on social media. Tips for more genius recipes kept pouring in. In 2015, Genius Recipes became a cookbook, which then became a New York Times best seller. The world of Genius Recipes had become a force unto itself, one of the internet s most generous water coolers. I have been the lucky one who gets to keep showing up and filling the cooler. 

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This time around, I asked the Food52 community for their lifelong favorites and reached out to home bakers, food editors, test-kitchen directors, and pastry chefs I thought might have strong opinions on the matter. I ve thanked the ones whose recipe tips landed in the book on page 267, but many more generously shared their wisdom and time, enhancing the collection in ways big and small. I spent more than a year testing, retesting, and gathering feedback from opinionated tasters at Food52 HQ. (Want to know what their favorite was? It s almost too obvious; see page 41.) In the process, we whittled this book down to a complete set of iconic baking recipes that will reliably turn you into a local legend. I m proud to say that it s a caliber of recipes that none of us would have ever been able to find without the collective experience of crowdsourcing, hundreds of bakers strong. 

Here are the criteria I kept in mind and what you can expect to find in this book right before you find yourself surrounded by Almond Crackle Cookies and Greek Yogurt

KRISTEN MIGLORE is the creative director at Food52.com. She abandoned a career in economics in 2007 to pursue a master's degree in food studies from New York University and a culinary degree from the Institute of Culinary Education. Her writing has since been published in The Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and The Atlantic, and she was nominated for a James Beard Award for Food52 s Genius Recipes column in 2014. The column led to the Genius Recipes cookbook in 2015, which won an IACP award in 2016 and became a New York Times best seller. She lives in Brooklyn and usually has a pastry in her purse.

FOOD52 is a groundbreaking online kitchen and home destination. Founded by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs--two authors and opinionated home cooks who formerly worked for the New York Times--the company celebrates home cooks, giving them everything they need in one place. That includes smart and entertaining stories about cooking and home, over 70,000 recipes, a cooking hotline, a suite of cookbooks, a shop with everything from stunning tabletop goods to the trustiest pan, and a million-strong community of fellow talented and curious cooks.

"For the baker looking for a sure thing with every turn of the page ..."
 New York Times

"Food52 s creative director Miglore delivers a solid collection of proven, must-have recipes for an array of desserts. The recipes are sourced from such expert bakers as Rose Levy Beranbaum and Stella Parks, and such chefs as J. Kenji López-Alt and then tested in the Food52 kitchens. The result is a cookbook that will become a go-to for enthusiastic bakers."
Publishers Weekly

"It functions like a treasure hunt, with lovely things casually lurking within the pages smart, delicious, understated and, yes, genius."
Los Angeles Times

When I first got this book in the mail and opened it up, the gorgeousness of it... made me pin myself to the couch for a minute and just go page by page.
Evan Kleiman, Good Food

"True to the name, the latest sweets-focused book in Food52 s Genius Recipes series is a collection of gems."
Departures.com

"Consider this the indispensable baking guide, filled with all the clever hacks... you ve been searching for."
Jessica Yadegaran, Mercury News

Praise for Genius Recipes:
 
Genius Recipes is the hands-down winner of the dog-eared page contest because it instantly dismisses what might be the most important question asked by a cook confronting a new recipe. Namely, will this work? Of course it will.
Jenny Rosenstrach, New York Times
 
This is my new favorite cookbook.
Michael Ruhlman
 
I haven t been so delighted by a recipe in ages, or been so rewarded for trusting an author.
Tejal Rao, Bloomberg
 
In book version, Genius Recipes reads like an epic, culinary best of boxed set of recipes the kind you d actually make.
Jenni Avins, Quartz