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1 cup raisins

For the Topping:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 tablespoons sugar

Place the water in a small bowl, add ½ teaspoon sugar, and then the yeast. Set aside until bubbly, about 3 minutes. (If the yeast does not fizz and bubble, either it has gone bad or the water is not the right temperature—pour it all out and start over.)

Meanwhile, warm the milk over low heat in a small saucepan just until it’s between 110°F and 115°F.

Pour the milk into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl; stir in the yeast mixture until dissolved. Then stir in the 12 tablespoons melted and cooled butter, the egg yolk, the salt, and the remaining ¼ cup sugar.

If you’re working with a stand mixer: Add about 2 cups flour to the milk mixture, attach the dough hook, and begin mixing the dough at first at low speed, then at medium speed. Continue adding the remaining flour in ½-cup increments. The resulting dough will be wet and sticky, a cross between a batter and a dough. Once all the flour has been added, continue beating for 2 minutes. Remove the hook, scrape down the bowl, cover it, and set aside in a warm, dry place until it has doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

If you’re working by hand: Stir about 2 cups flour into the milk mixture with a wooden spoon, then continue stirring in the remaining flour in ¼-cup increments. The dough will be quite sticky, difficult to stir, but keep working in the flour. Once all the flour has been added, continue stirring until it has all been absorbed in the sticky, batterlike dough. Cover the bowl and set aside in a warm, dry place until it has doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Once the dough has doubled in bulk, stir it down with a wooden spoon, then stir in the raisins. Pour the dough into the prepared pan; set aside for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 13 × 9-inch baking pan.

Brush the top of the cake with the 2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter, then sprinkle the sugar over the top.

Bake until lightly browned, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

To cool: Set the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before serving.

To store: Once cooled to room temperature, cover and keep at room temperature for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Variations: Stir 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, or ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg into the batter with the egg yolk.

Soak the raisins in 2 tablespoons brandy or Cognac for 20 minutes before adding them to the cake.

Stir 1 cup chopped walnut pieces or pecan pieces into the dough with the raisins.

Stir in ¼ teaspoon almond extract with the egg yolk; substitute slivered almonds for the raisins.

Cookies

WE’VE SEEN COOKIES BLITZ THROUGH PEOPLE’S WILL POWER, NUTRITIONAL convictions, and diets. Perhaps it’s the perfect ratio of crunch to sweet, outside to inside. And something elemental, too. It’s dessert stripped to the bones. Far enough stripped that it’s good any time of day. A piece of cake in the middle of the afternoon? Too decadent, best saved for vacation or a breakup. But a cookie? Who can ever resist?

All that for what was probably a culinary throwaway. As the story goes, cookies sprang from cakes: Dutch bakers would throw a dollop of batter into the oven to test its heat. Kookje became “cookie.”

A quaint story, if unprovable. So what is true? There’s very little fancy footwork involved when you’re making cookies. More homespun and fairly easy, they’re make-ahead treats. They may often be sidekicks to ice cream, gelato, pudding, red wine, or coffee; but they quietly steal the spotlight every time.

Their popularity is also a modern pleasure, something that took off with standardized ovens. Add a little dough and you’ve got instant satisfaction. No wonder no one can turn them down.

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Classic Cookies

These are the cookies we return to again and again, just right for every occasion. Almost every one