Granulated sugar

Four overripe bananas and brown butter. The loaf that actually improves every day for three days. Tested 14 times to get the crumb right.

The extra step of browning the butter adds a toasty, nutty depth that elevates these from good to obsession-worthy.

18-hour pork bone broth. Creamy, rich, cloudy white. This is a weekend project, not a weeknight dinner. Worth every hour.

Charred marinated chicken in a silky, spiced tomato cream sauce. The tikka and the masala are two separate operations — don't skip the char.

Swap chicken for homemade paneer. Better charring on the tikka, richer sauce that absorbs into the cheese.

2-hour version using chicken backs instead of pork trotters. Still rich, still real. For when you can't do the full 18-hour odyssey.

The French countryside batter pudding. Somewhere between a crepe and a flan. No pitting the cherries — the pits keep them from going mushy and add a subtle almond flavor.

Replace 30g butter with tahini. Swirl more tahini and honey on top before baking. Sesame and banana is an underrated combination.

Cubed lamb shoulder marinated and grilled. The same masala sauce but richer. Better the next day.

Coconut oil toasted until fragrant substitutes for brown butter almost perfectly. Flax eggs do the work. Tested 4 times.

1:1 gluten-free flour swap plus a splash of almond flour for texture. Undetectable. My celiac husband ate seven of these.

Summer blueberries instead of cherries. No pit concerns. Add a little lemon zest to the batter.