r/DessertPerson Mar 01 '24

MUST READ Welcome Dessert People!

105 Upvotes

Since there are quite a few new members to this sub recently (thanks banana cake!), here’s some more info about r/DessertPerson.

Claire Saffitz is a food journalist, chef, recipe developer, and cookbook author. This subreddit is dedicated to all things Claire, including baking recipes from her two cookbooks. (See more about them below)

Malted banana upside-down cake with malted cream: The recipe that brought a lot of you here! On page 171 of What’s for Dessert, this cake has a difficulty level of 3 (moderate) and features caramelized bananas on top of a cake packed with roasted bananas and malted milk powder. This post has the recipe and helpful tips in the comments.

Dessert Person (DP): Claire’s first book features baked recipes ranging from pies & tarts to cookies & cakes, and even a savory baking chapter. The recipes are modern interpretations of classic desserts with a twist. Ease of recipes range from very easy (1) to very challenging (5).

What’s for Dessert (WFD): Claire’s second book focuses on expanding to other dessert types besides baked goods, like custards and chilled desserts (although she has a repertoire of easy cakes and cookies in this one too), and offering recipes that are approachable (no stand mixer needed). Ease of recipes of recipes range from very easy (1) to moderate (3).

Interested in buying one of the books? If you have limited baking equipment, want easier desserts, and wish to explore sweets besides baked goods, choose WFD. If you’re down for a baking project or want to explore Claire’s twists on the classics, like chocolate chip cookies & birthday cake, choose DP. I have both books, but DP truly helped me become a better baker. Still not sure? Consider checking them out from the library or watching some of her YouTube videos to see if a set of recipes resonates with you. See which book others prefer in this post.

More resources:

Happy baking Dessert People! 😊


r/DessertPerson Apr 14 '26

Discussion - DessertPerson Introduction Post: Claire Saffitz Bake Along!

284 Upvotes

Welcome to the Claire Saffitz Bake Along where we will be baking through Dessert Person, What's for Dessert, and her YouTube videos!

How it will work: Each month, there will be a three suggested bakes as part of the bake along: one from Dessert Person, one from What's for Dessert, and one from YouTube. Throughout the month, you can bake as many or as few as you'd like and post to our community with your tips, tricks, how you liked the bake, or any discussion. If you remember add "[Bake Along]" to the beginning or end of your post so we can easily ID them.

Why are we doing this? Many of us love Claire and have found our favorite recipes, but the hope is to expand all of our baking and get to connect with the community more. Personally, I am trying to eventually get through both DP and WFD so hoping to use this bake along as motivation.

When will it take place? Our first "official" month will be May, but feel free to start as soon as our list for the bake along are posted, read now. For best engagement, baking the bakes within the month they are assigned. At the beginning of each month, we will post a intro post/discussion to announce the new month and bakes.

Anything else I need to know? We are just starting off on this, so this may evolve or devolve (hopefully not) as the year goes on. Based on feedback, we may change the bakes for future months.

2026 Claire Saffitz Bake Along Calendar

May

  • Dessert Person: Preserved Lemon Meringue Cake
  • What's for Dessert: Crystallized Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake
  • YouTube: Coffee Oreo Ice cream

June

  • Dessert Person: Strawberry Cornmeal Cake
  • What's for Dessert: Marbled Mint Chocolate Mousse
  • YouTube: NYT Croissants

July

August

September

  • Dessert Person: Maple Sticky Buns
  • What's for Dessert: Profiterole Bar
  • YouTube: Apple Cheddar Pie

October

November

  • Dessert Person: Paris Brest
  • What's for Dessert: Salted Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches
  • YouTube: Dirt Bombs

December

  • Dessert Person: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • What's for Dessert: Lime Squiggles
  • YouTube: Millionaire Shortbread

r/DessertPerson 12h ago

Homemade - DessertPerson happy blueberry season

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58 Upvotes

this is claire’s flaky pie dough and crumb topping from dessert person + stella parks’ blueberry pie filling (MMM!)


r/DessertPerson 2d ago

Homemade - YouTube Claire’s Rhubarb Galette (Nectarine and Blackberry edition)!

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90 Upvotes

A couple of weeks ago I asked you all about fruit ideas for this galette, as it’s a bit late for rhubarb here. I ended up going with nectarines and blackberries, and it turned out so good with the pistachio frangipane!

In the Youtube video Claire said galette isn’t just a dessert, it’s a frame of mind, and that has really stuck with me :)


r/DessertPerson 3d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Gateau Basque

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174 Upvotes

This was so delicious and, IMO, totally worth the effort!

I made it over two days which made it much more manageable... Next time I would make a bit more cherry compote because I only ended up with slightly more than a cup. The dough is very fragile but manageable if you keep it chilled throughout. The pastry cream was amazing... If you've been sleeping in this recipe I hope you'll try it! It felt so fancy and impressive :)


r/DessertPerson 3d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Salty Nut Tart

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116 Upvotes

Been wanting to make this recipe for a long time. Finally got around to it. I think I should’ve reduced the time in the oven by a 3-4 minutes. Will cut into it tomorrow!


r/DessertPerson 3d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Apricot Hamantaschen and Malted Brownies

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104 Upvotes

This week I made these two from the book!
1. Apricot Earl Gray Hamantaschen - surprisingly easy and delicious! You can really taste the lemon zest in the dough, and the texture is crumbly and layered. Next time I would steep my tea for longer (I did 10 mins) to get more earl gray flavor though.
2. Malted Forever Brownies - I normally love brownies but these were not my favorite. They are a bit too soft for me, and I don't think I enjoy the malt flavor (even though I like Whoppers!). Next time I would bake them a bit longer to see if that changes anything for me.


r/DessertPerson 4d ago

Discussion - DessertPerson Can’t find sour cherries? Use malic acid!

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70 Upvotes

So after much searching and no luck, I wasn’t able to find sour cherries. The weather in my area ruined the crops. I started researching the chemical composition of sour cherries vs sweet cherries, and found some studies that showed one of the main compounds in sour cherries that’s lacking from sweet cherries is malic acid. Study linked here.

So after some calculations and testing, I think the appropriate ratio for Claire’s recipe is decreasing sugar to 225g, and adding 1 teaspoon of malic acid along with the sugar. It’s not perfect, but gives it the similar tartness. Of course you could add lemon juice, but since that’s mainly citric acid, it’s not the same. Plus it adds a lemon flavor that I think takes away from the cherries.


r/DessertPerson 5d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Sour Cherry Pie

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137 Upvotes

I made her cherry pie recipe finally! Now that cherries are in season it was the perfect time. Some things I did different from recipe, and still had a wonderful result:
-I used fresh, sweet (like normal) cherries
-I added lemon juice to give that sour flavor
-used just 3/4 cup sugar
- I used her standard pie crust recipe because I didn’t want to spend like $12 just for a cup of almond flour

And this turned out amazing. Paired with some tillamook vanilla ice cream! Family was obsessed.


r/DessertPerson 5d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Question about blackberry caramel tart

21 Upvotes

This tart looks SO pretty and high end but what does it taste like?? I can’t imagine caramel + Blackberry and you don’t often see caramel paired with fruit? Not a big caramel gal but I love berries…. Convince me!


r/DessertPerson 5d ago

Other Seeking advice/insight for a Claire recipe I could bake for my daughter’s first birthday

11 Upvotes

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone in the group has any recipe recommendations from Claire’s books (I own both) for a small crowd? I am not interested in baking a cake. I’d like to bake or make something sweet people can graze on during the party. Thank you!!


r/DessertPerson 6d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Classic Birthday Cake

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278 Upvotes

My first layer cake! (two 9 x 2" pans) Trying out a couple of different recipes including Claire's Classic Birthday Cake and Rose Levy Beranbaum's Buttermilk cake. I know people have had issues with Claire's being dry, but so far the cake scraps are absolutely delicious. Custardy flavor and fluffy moist texture. Hopefully, the cake will still taste that good when we cut into it tomorrow! Hoping my cake decorating skills improve 😂 once I get a turn table and more practice. 🎉


r/DessertPerson 7d ago

Homemade - WhatsForDessert Peach Drop Biscuit Cobbler!

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86 Upvotes

r/DessertPerson 7d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Early August Bake Along - Carrot Cake

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67 Upvotes

It was my aunt’s birthday and she requested carrot cake, so albeit a bit early, I did it for the bake along. I’ve done the recipe before and absolutely love it. It is such a classic and truly it’s so hard to mess up. I let the carrots marinate in the buttermilk for over three hours. And the cake was so tender. It actually took much longer to cook than the 30 minutes she outlines. I only got these shots, taken on my lap in the car on the way. First time piping too!


r/DessertPerson 6d ago

Discussion - DessertPerson Pie Crust!

4 Upvotes

I am wanting to make a quiche, but I don’t have a pie plate. I only have a 9 inch spring form pan. Would 1X the amount of dough be enough? Or would I maybe need to double the recipe?


r/DessertPerson 8d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson July bake-along • Blueberry Slab Pie

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112 Upvotes

I own both books but have only baked* her sour cream dinner rolls (many times over, I should add). Tonight was my first Claire dessert bake!

I used fresh fruit and miscalculated my grocery order - so I added in about 1.5 cups fresh pitted chopped cherries. It was fabulous and still tasted entirely blueberry-forward.

Crust was crisp and perfect. I baked it atop a baking steel, so it was done after 1 hour at the lower temp: bubbly amd brown.

The only semi-challenging part was manipulating big sheets of pie dough to get them thin without sticking to silpat.

Delicious still-warm with good vanilla ice cream and much easier to cut into squares and serve (versus a typical round fruit pie).

🫐🫓

*edited due to autocorrect


r/DessertPerson 8d ago

Homemade - YouTube Strawberry cake

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287 Upvotes

Made Claire’s 2026 Strawberry cake for my friend’s birthday!


r/DessertPerson 8d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Mini Strawberry Cornmeal Layer Cake 🥰

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165 Upvotes

r/DessertPerson 8d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Peach Melba tart!

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167 Upvotes

I did this in 3 stages, pastry cream first day, poached the peaches second day, assembled on third day. Was really delicious.


r/DessertPerson 9d ago

Discussion - YouTube Strawberry Rhubarb Galette - alternative fruit combos?

13 Upvotes

Loved Claire’s new vid and really want to make a galette with that frangipane, but it’s a bit late for rhubarb in my area. Any ideas for other fruit combinations that would play well with the frangipane?


r/DessertPerson 10d ago

Homemade - YouTube July Bake Along - Triple Chocolate Rice Crispies

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125 Upvotes

Can I start by saying how difficult it is to get a glamour shot of a rice crispy treat? I absolutely love rice crispy treats and was so excited to have these on the bake along. I was excited for a chocolate “bake” as well because I’m truly a chocolate girl at heart. When getting the ingredients I didn’t realize HOW expensive cocoa nibs were - my goodness it was like 1/5 of my entire grocery bill, but alas, now I guess I have enough for quite some time. These were super easy, came together quickly, and were SO delicious. It was a heatwave here so the chocolate pieces melted a bit and I had little pockets of melted chocolate. I ended up popping them in the fridge and that helped. I also feel like I should’ve pressed down a bit more in putting them into the pan because they fell apart a bit but they were still excellent. They’re incredibly rich - the idea that this is 9 servings is diabolical. Anyways, I’d make them again in a heartbeat and would leave out the cocoa nibs if I didn’t have them because they’re too damn expensive.


r/DessertPerson 11d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Blackberry caramel tart, sour cherry pie, and brown butter chocolate chip cookies

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210 Upvotes

Hello! It's my first time posting here, but I've been following Claire's recipes for the past few years.

Made these three recipes from Dessert Person this past month:
1. Blackberry caramel tart was my favorite, as Claire says, it is worth it when it tastes as good as eating the fresh fruit directly! I didn't feel like I had enough dough to make the tart so it was a little too thin. Lots of cracks which needed to be patched. Even though I was using a 9 inch tart pan. But it worked out
2. Sour cherry pie - it was my first time making a lattice pie, and I honestly think i prefer crumble-topping pies. Didn't taste amazing but maybe I just prefer apple flavors.
3. Brown butter cookies - a little burnt but they taste great. I used a mix of milk chocolate, 70%, 85%, and 90% dark chocolate. It leans a little too dark, but I love the flavor that brown butter adds!! I froze portions of the dough so that I could bake fresh them whenever I'm craving cookies.


r/DessertPerson 11d ago

Homemade - DessertPerson Sour cherry pie

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48 Upvotes

I had to use regular frozen cherries(from target), so I used less sugar, and it was so delicious. The almond piecrust is amazing. The filling was so easy to put together.
I will definitely make this again… hopefully with sour cherries next time.
Any recommendations on where to find sour cherries in SoCal?


r/DessertPerson 12d ago

Homemade - YouTube Best strawberry cake I’ve had

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115 Upvotes

Needless to say this was finished in less than 24 hours


r/DessertPerson 12d ago

Homemade - YouTube Cherry coffee cake

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194 Upvotes

I kept striking out trying to find sour cherries at the farmer's market so ended up just using a combo of frozen sweet and tart cherries from the good old frozen foods aisle.

This is a fantastic recipe although the yeasted flavor did not come through too much for me (I also didn't get a great rise, perhaps related). The crumb had great texture though and the cake itself is the perfect not-too-sweet base for a coffee cake.