I served Dorie Greenspan’s decadent make-ahead chocolate-Amaretti torte for a couple of dinner parties after I had interviewed her about Sweet Times, her first baking cookbook. That was in the early ’90s when that Fifteen-Minute Magic was her go-to recipe.

Since them Dorie’s written ten cookbooks and won six James Beard and IACP awards, including Cookbook of the Year twice (for Desserts by Pierre Herme and for Around My French Table). She also wrote the book Baking with Julia.

When I spoke to Dorie recently about her newest book, I tried to get her to commit to one favorite from the almost 200 simple sweets in Baking Chez Moi: Recipes From My Paris Home To Your Home Anywhere. Interesting how times and tastes change, as the recipe Dorie goes to most often from this tome isn’t chocolate at all, but a simple fruit dessert.  She most often serves Laurent’s Slow-Roasted Spiced Pineapple, a recipe she cajoled out of a hairdresser in Paris.

I caught up with Dorie earlier this month before she began her book tour to get her responses to our queries.

– bonnie

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Which specific food product, ingredient or gadget would you never give up?  As I baker, it’s impossible to name just one ingredient, since a baker’s never-give-up ingredient comes in a foursome: butter, along with flour, sugar and eggs. If I have them, there are endless possibilities ahead; if I don’t, it’s doom-and-gloom and a trip to the market. Of course, once the ingredients are out and ready, I need my KitchenAid stand mixer. While everything in a baker’s repertory can be made by hand – and was for centuries – I really wouldn’t want to go back to pure elbow grease. Nor would I want to bake without OXO silicone spatulas for getting every last bit of batter from the bowl, and parchment paper and my beautiful, pure-white French-style nylon rolling pin by Matfer, both of which make rolling out any dough a cinch.

What do you like to serve when you entertain?  When I’ve got friends around the table, I go for easy and fun, for foods that I can prep ahead or, better yet, make ahead. I love gougères, French cheese puffs, and I always serve them with wine or champagne before dinner. They can be made ahead, frozen and baked at the last minute (recipe in Around My French Table). I like to serve picnic-style – to have lots of dishes on the table, so that guests can have choices and so that everyone’s plate is colorful. And then I go a little nuts for dessert! I might serve pots de crème – I love the Tea and Honey Pots de Crème in Baking Chez Moi – with Vanilla-Bean Sablés (think shortbread cookies; also from Baking Chez Moi). Then, just when you think it’s over, I’ll bring out plates of small cookies, like the Canistrelli, and candies, like the Chunky Chocolate Fruit and Nut Bars and Desert Roses (all from Baking Chez Moi), and pour a dessert wine or some Port. Serving after-dessert desserts is an invitation to linger at the table and to keep the conversation going.

If you got to choose what you ate… describe your “last meal? It’s fun to think about the food for a ‘last meal’, not so much fun to think about it being the last … and so I won’t. Here’s what I’d like for what I’m calling a Celebration Meal: Champagne, lots of it, and caviar and oysters, lots of them too. A lobster cooked in seawater – I’d eat it with a nutcracker, picks and my fingers, of course. A platter of perfectly ripe French cheese. And for dessert, chocolate pudding, World Peace Cookies®, ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, mint chip and coffee, please) and a classic fruit tart with a sweet crust, pastry cream and strawberries. It’s a bunch of dessert, I know, but hey … it’s a celebration.

What food is your secret guilty pleasure? I can’t resist ice cream and I’m a sucker for dark chocolate M&Ms.

What is your go-to, neighborhood restaurant, and why? River Tavern in Chester, CT is my neighborhood fave. It’s where I meet friends for lunch and where my husband and I often have dinner. I love their commitment to local farmers and producers, their creativity, their wine list – such good choices – and the fact that you can have a full dinner (finished off with their terrific warm date pudding) or something light from their bar menu. It’s a always a pleasure to eat there.

What is one food product most people don’t know about, but should…?  I’d say preserved or Moroccan lemons. They’re salt-cured lemons that you buy jarred in brine and every time I serve them – which is often – people want to know what the flavor is. You’re meant to use just the rind, but I chop the whole lemon and blend it into tuna salad, beet salad, tomato salsas that I serve over fish, braised chicken and all kinds of tagines.

Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it. I started a serious fire in my parents’ kitchen the first time I tried to cook. The fries I was making weren’t salvageable and neither were the kitchen cabinets.

Who was your most influential mentor? I’ve been so fortunate to work with so many people who have taught me so much, but I’d say that Julia Child and Pierre Hermé, the Paris pastry chef, had the greatest influence on my life and my work.