Tired of tomato tarts with soggy crusts and long preparation time, we developed a tomato tart recipe that would have a solid bottom crust and great vine-ripened flavor. Our secrets for a great tomato tart recipe? We used a two-step baking method for a flaky yet rigid crust, then "waterproofed" it with egg wash and layers of two kinds of cheese. We salted sliced tomatoes for 30 minutes to remove excess juice, then gently pressed them with paper towels. Baking the tart at 425 degrees quickly melted the cheese and preserved the tomatoes' meaty texture.

Any good gathering requires at least a few fun snacks. And whether it’s a cocktail party or a sit-down dinner, you can’t go wrong with an elegant, thoughtfully prepared cheese platter. With these six tips from the test kitchen—covering everything from the best cheese serving temperature to cracking the cracker code—plus a list of all our favorite cheeses below, your board will be sure to impress.

by Andrew Janjigian

It made sense that I was asked to develop a gluten-free pizza crust. Baking bread has been my passion for nearly 30 years. But I’ve always embraced gluten as the magic ingredient in bread. It’s the source of its structure and, as a result, much of its texture. So this was the bread baker’s ultimate challenge: Develop a gluten-free pizza crust that everyone would want to eat, whether they were avoiding gluten or not.