Sweet Baking Trends To Try

What's old is new in baking as pastry chefs and bakers continue to revolutionize the familiar in new and delicious ways. Dorie Greenspan, award-winning cookbook author, including her newest, Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from my Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere (October 2014), explains it best: "baking is the sister art to architecture. When you have these batters and doughs that are basic, they become the building blocks and bakers get to play with them."

Today bakers are playing with everything from éclairs to cookies, but don't expect the obvious. Mindy Segal, pastry chef owner of Chicago's Hot Chocolate restaurant and author of Cookie Love (April 2015) notes that, "Things aren't as straightforward as they used to be," adding that bakers are "using more freshly milled flour, natural sugars and interesting smoked things."

Here's our lineup of what's new and where to find it.

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