Jessica Berndt, Recipe Tester

A list of all the recipes Jessica Berndt has tested.

A panettone studded with dried fruit on a silver platter with a couple of wedges cut from it.

Panettone

Panettone, which makes its traditional Italian Christmas appearance, is gussied up here with any dried fruit you fancy. An ever so slight twist on a classic.

Several of Dorie Greenspan's rugelach tumbling our of a jar

Dorie Greenspan’s Rugelach

These butter and cream cheese pastries are filled with cinnamon-sugared nuts, a slick of jam, currants, and a handful of chopped chocolate.

A metal skillet filled with easy skillet lasagna and garnished with basil leaves.

Easy Skillet Lasagna

Those days when meal planning goes south and weeknight weariness looms, simple salvation can be found in this easy skillet lasagna made with store-bought ravioli.

A slice of chocolate cream pie with Oreo crust and chocolate curls on a white plate with a fork resting beside it.

Chocolate Cream Pie with Oreo Crust

First you make an Oreo cookie crust. Then you smother it with a bittersweet and semisweet chocolate custard. The final flourish is whipped cream infused with vanilla. Sigh.

Almond roca in a green bowl, broken layers of chocolate, caramel, and sliced almonds, on striped fabric

Almond Roca

Studded with almonds and coated in silky chocolate, this roca—essentially toffee—is utterly impossible to resist. Give it as a holiday gift.

A pile of crescent-shaped cookies on a platter with greenery and Christmas ornaments on the side.

Viennese Crescent Cookies

A holiday cookie if we ever saw one! So buttery, so nutty, so delicate, so mind-bendingly charming, these traditional Viennese cookies rival the city’s fancier pastries as our fave.

A white plate with a slice of blueberry-lemon layer cake

Blueberry Lemon Layer Cake

Pretty much guaranteed to be one of those desserts that makes people do face-plants onto their dessert plates. A David Leite original recipe.

A sliced kugelhopf in a round metal platter

Kugelhopf

Part bread, part cake, kugelhopf is made like brioche except it’s studded with raisins, brushed with butter, and dusted with sugar.

A cast-iron skillet filled with asparagus frittata on a wooden table with a fork on the side.

Asparagus Frittata

When spring is in the air, or if you just wish it was, this beguiling asparagus frittata will make your heart go pitter-patter.

A glazed lemon pull-apart coffee cake on a wooden board with a spoon and jar of glaze beside it.

Lemon Pull-Apart Coffee Cake

“Absolutely the best thing I’ve put in my mouth in a long time!” That’s what we’re hearing about this buttery, citrusy, playfully easy-to-eat coffee cake. We’re not arguing with that sentiment.

Three bowls of minestrone soup with a small bowl of pesto on the side.

Old-Fashioned Minestrone Soup

An updated Italian classic made with all the usual suspects along with an unexpected drizzle of pesto that turns a frugal veggie-bin catch-all into something truly astounding.

A person removing a slice of fresh tomato tart with a lifter and a bowl of pesto and black pepper on the side.

Fresh Tomato Tart

A perfectly flaky crust. A simple goat cheese filling. Some fresh pesto. And those spectacular heirloom tomatoes sitting on your counter. Surprisingly simple. Impressively spectacular.

A purple plum torte with dripping juice on a baking pan, all on a cooling wrap.

Plum Torte

One taste and you’ll understand why this is the most popular recipe from The New York Times. A new American classic.

A few tahini chocolate chip cookies on a torn piece of parchment paper.

Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

As easy as the classic Toll House recipe but a lot more memorable, these beauties boast ample chocolate chunks, a subtle nuttiness from the tahini, crackly edges, and oh so soft centers.

A rhubarb brown sugar pie cut into 7 wedges with one slice missing.

Rhubarb Brown Sugar Pie

Dare we say this is better than your mom’s rhubarb pie? We dare. This lovely rendition flaunts a lovely custard filling with sweet-tart rhubarb atop an impossibly buttery and flaky crust.

A stack of several oatmeal raisin cookies on a wire paddle.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Crisp at the edges, chewy in the center, and (sorta) wholesome through and through, these are a revelatory riff on the classic.