Yesterday's bread…today

Cookbook author and pastry chef David Lebovitz's favorite bread recipes

Adapted from Around My French Table by Dorie GreenspanDorie doesn’t specify any type of apple but instead advises that you should use a mix of them. I don’t know what kind mine were since Romain brought them to me. The rum is really a great flavor in this cake, but if you’re avoiding alcohol, you could double or triple the vanilla to compensate. I also like this recipe because you can make it with ingredients easily on hand. Being American, I was tempted to add a dusting of ground cinnamon to the apples, but then it wouldn’t be authentically French. Hence I often decide to add a dollop of crème fraîche alongside, but it's wonderful just as it is.The original recipe uses a springform pan but if you don't have one, you can use an 8-inch (20cm) cake pan, buttering it well and lining the bottom with a circle of parchment paper before adding the batter. I've also make it in a 9-inch (23cm) cake pan and it works well, although it won't be a high.

This molasses cake uses fresh ginger for an extra kick of flavor and truly is the ultimate fall dessert. Serve simply with a dusting of powdered sugar.

These madeleines are perfect little treats - not too sweet with a lovely, cakey, buttery texture.

Food blogger and cookbook author David Lebovitz is an American renter in Paris who inherited a narrow kitchen with a motley assortment of appliances stuffed under the slanted roof of his 650-square-foot top-floor apartment near the Bastille. “In America, if you don’t like your kitchen, you bulldoze it,” he says in his kitchen on a recent afternoon. “But renters don’t really spend a lot of money to do that in France.

Chef, author and food personality David Lebovitz chats to us about his career, latest book and his ideal menu for an impromptu meal.

Cookbook author and pastry chef David Lebovitz's favorite tart recipes

What's happening this summer in Paris...

A tangy, lemony winter dessert…for any time of the year

I fried my panisses in olive oil, as is traditional, in my cast iron skillet and it's a little hard to tell you exactly how much to use but you want enough so that the panisses won't stick. This makes about 36 panisses. A commenter a while back noted they grilled them, which is likely possible. We can't grill in Paris as it's not authorized (I think it's because they are worried about fires), but if you want to give it a go, you can likely brush them with olive oil and cook them that way. If you do, let us know how they come out in the comments.

Summer is Officially Here in Paris

Cookbook author and pastry chef David Lebovitz's favorite cake recipes

Acclaimed food blogger and author David Lebovitz serves up French cuisine, one recipe and one story at a time.

About Me I began working in restaurants at the age of sixteen, washing dishes in a steakhouse at our local strip mall, then somehow, ending up at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, working with Alice Waters and co-owner, Executive Pastry Chef Lindsey Shere, who I consider my pastry mentor. I spent thirteen years in the kitchens at Chez Panisse before leaving in 1999. During my

Winter arrives in Paris

A traditional bistrot in the Marais

Be sure to use almond paste, not marzipan, which has more sugar and is generally used for decorating. It's not the same thing. (According to Nigella Lawson, however, almond paste is called 'marzipan' in the UK.)Brioche, challah, or a close-textured white bread, like pain de mie, all work well. It's best if it's slightly stale as it'll absorb more of the flavorful syrup. And speaking of syrup, be sure to saturate the bread as you want to syrup to go all the way through the slices, not just moisten the top. If you don't drink alcohol, you can flavor the syrup with almond or vanilla flavoring (one that doesn't have alcohol) or ust with orange flower water, adding to taste. Make it a bit stronger than you think since you want it to be present in the finished pastry. Lastly, in the "Do as I say, not as I do" category, sharp-eyed readers will notice I used a silicone baking mat in the pics. Like most of us these days, my head is in the clouds and I prefer to bake Bostock on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, although you can also bake them directly on a baking sheet if you wish. Silicon tends to "humify" things and while Bostock isn't naturally crispy (they fall between there, and in the "moist" category) the bottoms tend to brown a little when not baked on silicone.

Adapted from La Buvette: Recipes and Wine Notes from Paris by Camille Fourmont and Kate Leahy If you've not made a terrine before, this one is extremely easy, and delicious. Don't let my wordiness put you off; I'm trying to be descriptive and give tips on the steps, but basically, you're mixing chopped meat with seasonings, then adding dried fruit and nuts, packing everything into a pan, and baking it. And that's it. I hand-chopped the meat into pieces that were about 1/2-inch (1.5cm), which was a tad time-consuming but you can ask your butcher to grind the meat coarsely for you. If you don't have a butcher, I've made it with regular ground pork but I recommend coarsely hand-chopping the fatback and livers, as the larger pieces of meat give the terrine an irregular look and are nice to have individual bites of. (Note: When I made it with regular ground pork, not coarsely ground, it threw off quite a bit of liquid during cooking. If that happens to you, just drain that off from the baking pan after it's baked and cooled a bit.) Although you could ask the butcher to coarsely grind that too if you want to make it easier. Food processors don't do a great job of grinding meat like this, so I don't recommend using one. To make the meat easier to hand-chop, if going that route, cut the meat into relatively small pieces or strips and freeze them until firm, about 30 minutes. Working in batches, remove a few pieces of meat from the freezer, keeping the rest cold, and hand-chopping it with a chef's knife. I wasn't quite sure of what fatback was, in French. But found out its lard. Pork belly is similar and can be used, which is called poîtrine fraîche in French and either should work. Don't use smoked meat, though, as the taste is too strong for this terrine. Baking Time: The original recipe is baked in a glass or clay terrine mold or loaf pan, which are much narrower than the bowl I used. The instructions in the book said to bake the foil-covered terrine for 35 minutes in step 3, then remove the foil and bake for another 35 minutes, which was accurate for a loaf pan. But my terrine baked in the 7-cup bowl (1.75l), which is much wider than a loaf pan, took longer. So I added a cooking temperature for how to tell when it's done if using an instant-read thermometer. To mix things up a bit, you could give it a go with dried figs or pitted prunes in place of the apricots, and replace the cognac with armagnac, Calvados, or another brandy. Note: A few commenters noted that their terrine came out rather crumbly and not spreadable while others had their turn out fine. I didn't have that issue, whether I used preground pork or hand-cut pork, and posted a video of making it here.

A chat with the owner of a French cider bar in Paris

Our summer in Burgundy, Brittany, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Languedoc

I fried my panisses in olive oil, as is traditional, in my cast iron skillet and it's a little hard to tell you exactly how much to use but you want enough so that the panisses won't stick. This makes about 36 panisses. A commenter a while back noted they grilled them, which is likely possible. We can't grill in Paris as it's not authorized (I think it's because they are worried about fires), but if you want to give it a go, you can likely brush them with olive oil and cook them that way. If you do, let us know how they come out in the comments.

I’m leading off with the photo above because I went to Arsicault. When I visit San Francisco, it has become a running theme in my comments as folks kept imploring me to go there: “You need to go to Arsicault.” Since we don’t get croissants in Paris...just kidding!—I don’t feel compelled to get French pastries in the States. I’ve visited many other