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I’m so thrilled to bake from Chef Dominique Ansel’s new book Everyone Can Bake. His first book, The Secret Recipes, was more advance and I made a few of his bakery signatures like the Cronut, Frozen S’more and Cookie Shot, all fun projects but more technically involved. In his latest book, Chef Dominique offers up his takes on classic bakes like pound cake, banana bread, brownies and more. What I love most about the book is the way it’s structured. There are base, filling and topping recipes, but within each of those recipes, he offers easy tweaks for variation. For the banana bread, there are options for strawberry, zucchini and pumpkin. However, I decided to top mine with streusel crumble. There is a chart that shows you how to combine different recipes into showstopper desserts. This mixing and matching of components is really how I like to think and develop recipes.

I was grocery shopping and the most vibrant rhubarb caught my eye. The stalks were SO uniformly red and beautiful. I often get inspired at the store or market, with no advance plan but seasonal ingredients are my favorite impulse buy. I decided to use the rhubarb as a topping for this panna cotta tart that I tweaked slightly here. The rhubarb was roasted with sugar, lemon and vanilla bean before arranging them in a herringbone pattern on top of the tart. They become nice and tender but still have some bite. Enjoy!

For Easter brunch at home with my family, our menu is mostly savory with scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage and a giant, cheesy Dutch baby for sharing. To finish, I like having something bright and refreshing, which brings me to this lemon tart. I always have a variety of C&H® Sugars in my pantry to play with and I use two for this showstopping dessert.

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These peanut butter thumbprint cookies are a classic. I first made them while recipe-testing the Baked Occasions Cookbook and authors Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito kindly allowed me to share the recipe with you. It’s one of my favorites from the book.

I’ve compiled a list of my favorite pantry staple recipes, from friends, chefs and websites I frequently visit. I’ve made these dishes over and over and they turn out great every time. I hope these inspire you to get in the kitchen, my happy place. Take care.