Last week, we introduced a new project called The Barbara Kafka Dessert Anthology. In talking with Barbara, who’s one of our Cookthinktank authors, it came out that her years of teaching, writing and consulting had left her with a huge collection of dessert recipes which she’d never collected in a “proper” book on desserts.

In Cookthink.com, Barbara found a good home on the web for all these recipes. (And as Kafka devotees, we’re delighted to have them on the site.) Every Tuesday, Barbara will post here at the Cookthink blog and publish four new dessert recipes on Cookthink.com.

Last week, Barbara wrote an introduction to the anthology. We caught up with her later to talk some more about the role of dessert, the difference between cooking and baking, and a typical dessert at the Kafka house.

Cookthink: In your introduction to the dessert anthology, you wrote that you’ve never done a proper book on desserts. What do you mean by a “proper” book on desserts?

Kafka: I have tended to write big books. A proper book on desserts is in the same vein as a proper book on roasting or a proper book on soup. In addition to recipes, it should provide the essential information people need to do that sort of cooking.

In baking as in microwave cooking, it is hard to extrapolate from a single recipe. The variation of ingredients makes the rules less consistent from one recipe to the next. One needs to know an awful lot. There are people who are instinctively bakers and people who are instinctively cooks. I am instinctively a cook. I’m not even instinctively a dessert eater. People who are instinctively bakers like the precision of it. So a proper dessert book has to have precision.

Cookthink: In a way that’s different from another type of cookbook?

Kafka: Well, for baking, in the best of all worlds, one would weigh things. That’s what professional bakers do. Even that isn’t ruthlessly exact because flour, say, will absorb humidity. So on a humid day, flour will weigh more than it will on a less humid day. So I think the key is being as precise as possible without driving people crazy. You have to be realistic.

Cookthink: In Food for Friends, you wrote that though you weren’t much of a dessert eater, you still found yourself making a lot of desserts.

Kafka: When I tell someone I had people over for dinner, what I’m often asked is “What did you make for dessert?” The point of having people over for dinner is not to lecture people; it’s to give them pleasure. I make dessert because for many people it’s a deprivation not to have dessert. [background noise] I just got a chortle from my husband who is Viennese and very much a dessert eater. I used to say that the only way he could lose weight would be to start the meal with dessert. [background noise] He says he’d be delighted.

Cookthink: So what’s a typical Kafka dessert after a dinner party?

Kafka: Well, typically it’s not a cake. Cake tends to be something that’s almost a meal on its own. I like to do a lot of sorbets and fruit desserts. I like the freshness after a robust meal.

Cookthink: As you work on this anthology each week, you’re planning to take a mostly seasonal approach. How important is seasonality with desserts?

Kafka: There used to be the line that only grand dukes and madmen eat strawberries in December. You can get everything year-round now, but why do it? With a little more thought and a little more searching, you can have something sensational that’s in season. I wouldn’t want to give a recipe this time of year for a strawberry tart. The California growers may hate me but that’s too bad.

At the same time, we talk all the time about “local,” and that’s very good to a certain moment. But does that mean I’m not going to have chocolate? No. And I can’t give up citrus, because I just love it. I live in the northeastern United States. Well, papayas don’t tend to flourish in Vermont. But I love them, too.

Cookthink: You know, on Cookthink, we do the whole “goes with…” thing for each recipe. How consciously do you think about pairing desserts with the meals that have preceded them?

Kafka: I tend to think of dessert as a counterpoint to the meal. I play with different textures, colors and flavors. With desserts, it’s time to change the pace. It’s time to give a new set of flavors an opportunity. You’ve had the pleasure of the dinner, and now you want another, different pleasure. A good dessert is one that gives you a last addition of pleasure.

Of course, you are fuller after the meal, so you want something to perk you up. I like things like Bavarian cream. I make a very good lemon Bavarian cream, which is rich—god knows—but it also has a tang, a lightness. I like full flavors in most everything, including dessert. Things you can remember the taste of. Things you won’t forget. They can be ethereal. Think of the very best meringue you’ve ever had. You’re going to remember that. Or at least I will.

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