One thing that can go wrong with baked whole pumpkins is incinerating it into mush. Filled with cream and Gruyère cheese, you’ll know when the pumpkin is overcooked. It will likely collapse into a deflated mound of white and orange laced with strings of melted Gruyère. The semi-successful dish will still be delicious, as long as the cream spills into a baking dish instead of the oven floor.

That’s my long-winded way of saying that you can’t mess this non-recipe up.

The pumpkin top is sliced off to serve as its own lid and the structural integrity of the baked pumpkin depends on the carving method. Instead of cutting off the tops horizontally in one stroke, use a narrow pointed knife and slice around the stem at a 45 degree angle. Just don’t forget to watch those fingers.

View Whole Pumpkin Baked with Cream and Cheese Recipe recipe »

I’ve never made any form of whipped egg white dessert before but these Swiss meringue cookies surprisingly came out as good as I could hope for. The scent of raspberries permeated the cookie and the slivered almonds added a nice textural contrast to the crisp meringue. The low and slow baking temperature also concentrated the flavor of the embedded raspberries, resulting in a tangy red spot of syrupy jam.

There are three major categories in meringue development. Generally speaking with the point of view of a meringue neophyte, the main difference between the three methods lies in the amount of heat applied to the ingredients:

• French Meringue
  No heat applied to the ingredients.
• Swiss Meringue
  Gentle heat applied to the combined egg whites and sugar, usually over a bain-marie or double boiler.
• Italian Meringue
  Sugar and water are heated to the firm ball stage (246ºF/119ºC to 250ºF/121ºC), creating a hot syrup. The hot syrup is then slowly added to the egg whites right at the beginning of whipping.

In any case, a whole lot of intimacy with my Oxo whisk is required regardless of the method. I’ve never wanted a Kitchenaid more in my life.

View Swiss Meringue with Raspberries and Almonds recipe »