It has buttery, smoky caramel, a dash of coffee grinds, and a generous helping of whisky for good measure. It's a bracing combination, but oh does it work. First you taste the coffee, roasted and rich, with the pleasant bitterness of an actual cup of joe. Then comes the caramel to sweeten things up just a tad, melting to sweet buttery goodness. Then the whisky: the more ice cream you eat, the more you taste it. More

The chocolate extract is totally optional, as is the salt garnish, but feel free to mix up the nuts and filling however you like (you'll just have to rename them)! If you do go with caramel, make sure you buy candies that you know are reasonably fresh; if they've been hanging out on the shelf for a while, there's a chance that the filling will end up grainy. More

This Apple Galette from Eric Ripert's Avec Eric is something like a deconstructed-then-reconstructed tarte tatin. The apples are soft and sweet but still tart, intensely flavored, and beautifully glazed thanks to the slow cooking with the caramel powder. More

Flavored with plenty of pure maple syrup and just a hint of sea salt, these sensational (and seasonal!) caramels are simple to prepare and totally addictive.... More

This recipe updates a church potluck favorite to salty sweet heights. Using autumn's apples, this dessert dip tastes better than the sum of its parts. (You can do without the caramel bits if you'd prefer your apple dip old school.)... More

tarting with a basic brownie recipe, I made these ones extreme by packing them chock-full of gooey caramel and dark chocolate, roasted peanuts, and salty pretzels. The sweet plays offense, pummeling your taste buds with a rich, chocolate-filled flavor, with salty bringing up the defense, with a crunch and savoriness from the peanuts and pretzels. Yes indeed, when sweet and salty team up, everyone wins. More

A more grown-up version of my childhood favorite made with pears, hazelnuts, and cinnamon sticks. [Photographs: Jenny McCoy] I recently decided to make caramel apples for the first time. Not the bright red, hard candy-shelled type, but the sticky, gooey... More

[Photographs: Tam Ngo] With autumn's surplus of pears, why not make a dessert tart to go with last week's savory pear quiche? This tart, also adapted from The American Boulangerie by Pascal Rigo, uses a creamy goat cheese such as... More

When I was 16 years old I had a giant crush on this guy who was a few years older than me and pretty much perfect in my young punk rock-obsessed mind. When Valentine's Day rolled around I decided that the best way for me to let him know how I felt was to make him a batch of chocolate truffles—I was confident that these truffles would turn out so delicious that he wouldn't be able to resist me. Despite my lack of candy making experience, the truffles turned out pretty well. I lovingly wrapped them and went to meet my crush. More

If there's one thing I like as much as taking apart ducks, it's making caramel. Burnt sugar and burnt butter are perhaps the most alluring scents in my kitchen, though the term "burnt" is used loosely here. More accurately, the... More