Holiday Desserts : The Secrets of a Self-Proclaimed Confectionist : Desserts: Scorched almonds? Slightly flawed cookie batter? No way! Cookbook author Maida Heatter accepts nothing less than perfect pastries.

Maida Heatter, author of six dessert books, including “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts” and “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Cookies,” attributes her prowess in baking to her zodiacal sign.

“I think Virgos make great bakers,” she says. “They’re sticklers for detail and precision, and that’s what it takes to be a good baker.”

She can say that again. Just watch her in the kitchen, painstakingly stirring batter and counting teaspoons of baking powder aloud. She insists a clean bowl be cleaned again just to be sure, and tosses out a cookie batter because it “isn’t ab-so-lutely correct.” She rejects an almond because it tastes burned and spends 20 minutes cutting out three parchment-paper circles. And she continually checks the oven temperature for accuracy. It’s enough to make a free-form Aquarian give up chocolate cake forever. Heatter would never last in a hotel pastry kitchen, where accuracy and speed are the name of the game, but my, what pastries she can produce.

Her newest book, “Maida Heatter’s Best Dessert Book Ever” (Random House, $24.95), is the work of a woman who bakes for no special reason at all at the drop of a hat, a woman who has spun an important career from a simple housewifery passion--baking.

Heatter turned from fashion jewelry making to baking the way a painter turns to writing or acting. “It’s all connected, you know,” she says. Since 1974 she has turned out a cookbook every three or so years, all on desserts.

“Maida wasn’t really confident enough then to sell a book with only an outline, so she presented a completed book of recipes,” explains her husband, Ralph Daniels, who accompanies her on book tours.

She attributes the start of her career, however, to former New York Times food editor, Craig Claiborne, who was covering the Republican convention in Miami at a time when her husband operated a coffee shop where Heatter was baking desserts.

“Craig came out there to cover the Republican elephant omelets we served for the publicity to get people to come to the restaurant, but what I really wanted was to nab him so he could taste my desserts. It was he who suggested putting the recipes in a book. Since then our lives have changed 180 degrees,” Heatter says, scraping batter off the board with a special French utensil she got New York’s Dean & DeLuca to stock.

These days, Heatter plays mother to world-famous chefs such as Wolfgang Puck and his wife, Barbara Lazaroff, who were served chocolate souffle for breakfast in bed, hobnobs with Claiborne’s circle of cooking cronies and was even asked to bake the desserts for a 1983 White House economic summit meeting.

She occasionally demonstrates her recipes on television talk shows, but Heatter confesses that she avoids cooking on most book promotion tours. “I usually prefer to do book signings or interviews,” she says.

On this current tour through Los Angeles, however, Heatter agrees to prepare two of her favorite recipes from her latest book in The Times Test Kitchen. Her apricot torte filled with enough rum-soaked cake cubes to make you croon “ho, ho ho and a bottle of rum,” is topped with a fluffy marshmallow frosting made with brown sugar and syrup. And her biscotti are flavored with ginger and, of all things, white pepper, as in pfeffernuss, for spiciness.

Also in the book are recipes for 14 fruit desserts (try the vanilla bourbon peaches); 16 chocolate cakes (try the rum chocolate truffle roll, if you have nothing but time); coffee cakes that make you dream of a coffeehouse in Vienna (try the sourdough chocolate cake); cookies that would make her friend, Wolfgang Puck, jealous (try the biscotti ); soft desserts, such as puddings, souffles and cheesecakes (try Wolfgang’s individual bittersweet chocolate souffles); and several refrigerator desserts (try the tiramisu or the chocolate terrine or . . . ).

Many of her recipes come to her in dreams. “I know I’m guided by something strange,” she says. She insists, for instance, that her decision to add exactly 1 1/4 teaspoons of white pepper to one dish, came “out of the blue” while she slept. “And by golly, I was right on,” she boasts. “A pinch more and the recipe would be ruined.”

You can’t go wrong following Heatter’s recipes, no matter how unwieldy they seem. Some cooks may be turned off by the ad nauseam detail in her recipes (most of her recipes are several pages long). But those who persevere will be rewarded with excellent results. Heatter will guide you every step of the way.

“Giving details is very helpful in baking,” she says. “I leave nothing to chance.” The recipes themselves contain caveats in case you miss the introductory discussions about beating egg whites, using nuts, blanching almonds, using equipment (especially oven thermometers), double boilers, the benefits of the cake-decorating turntable and the virtues of the narrow metal spatula.

In the recipes, the reader is told to whip cream ahead of time, beat egg whites until they hold their shape, fold a batter in a bowl larger than normally used to allow for maximum aeration, scrape the sides of the bowl while beating.

Perhaps most important, Heatter puts the reader at ease by confessing her own fallibility, one cook to another. “I once put a cake in the oven and then realized that I had forgotten to use the baking powder the recipe called for,” she writes. Her asides are especially comforting for those who fear baking: “Due to a change of plans, I was obliged to serve these (apple tartlets) in the evening instead of at noon, as I had planned. I was not optimistic about them, since they had waited so long after they were baked . . . .”

In fact, the book is so friendly that a free-form Aquarian might actually be tempted to try a recipe. On the other hand . . .

Here are two recipes from “Maida Heatter’s Best Dessert Book Ever” converted to The Times style in the interest of space.

MAIDA’S APRICOT-RUM CAKE

12 large eggs, separated

Granulated or superfine sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

3/4 cup sifted unbleached flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Homemade Apricot Preserves

3/4 cup dark rum

Creole Icing

Beat egg yolks to mix well in small bowl. Gradually beat in 1/2 cup sugar. Beat at high speed 5 minutes until pale, thick and increased in volume. Beat in lemon juice. On lowest speed gradually add flour, scraping sides with rubber spatula as necessary and beating only until incorporated.

Transfer yolk mixture to large (8-quart) mixing bowl and set aside.

Beat egg whites with salt in large mixer bowl until foamy. While beating, add cream of tartar through fine strainer. Beat on high speed until whites hold soft shape. Reduce to medium speed and gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, 1 or 2 teaspoons at time. Increase speed to high and beat until whites hold firm shape when beaters are raised (do not over-beat).

Using large rubber spatula, gradually, in about 3 additions, fold whites into yolk mixture. (Do not beat thoroughly until end. Do not fold even once more than necessary.)

Divide batter into 3 (9-inch) pans with bottoms lined, greased and floured. Smooth tops with underside of large spoon. Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes or until tops spring back when gently pressed with fingertip and are browned.

Turn each pan upside down on cooling rack. (If cakes are allowed to cool right side up, tops will sink in middle). During cooling, lift each pan briefly several times to be sure that cake is not sticking to rack.

Carefully cut around each cake with small sharp knife, always pressing blade against pan and cutting with up-and-down motion.

Invert pans onto rack to release cakes. Leave paper linings atop cakes. Cover each cake with another rack and turn upside down, letting cakes stand right side up now. Wrap each layer in plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature (or freeze for longer storage).

When ready to fill, peel paper linings off bottoms of cakes. Place 1 layer cake upside down on large, flat cake plate. Divide Homemade Apricot Preserves into 3 equal amounts. Spread 1 part Homemade Apricot Preserves on top (which was bottom) of cake. Place another layer cake upside down on work table and spread with another part preserves.

Cut remaining cake layer into 1-inch cubes and place in wide bowl. Toss in rum. (Cubes should stay whole. Do not allow to break up. Cubes should absorb all rum.)

Place rum-soaked cake cubes on top of cake on plate, 1 at time, starting around outer edge, pushing cubes between other cubes until all cubes are used.

Lift second cake layer with hands and, by lining up farther edges of both layers, place it, apricot-side-down over rum-soaked pieces. Place weight flat on top of cake.

Place cake on cake-decorating turntable. Spread remaining preserves around sides of cake, especially to fill in any hollows. Spread thin layer Creole Icing around sides to cover completely. Add more icing on sides, forming smooth layer, about 1/2-inch thick.

Next, pile icing on top of cake. Spread smooth. Pipe remaining icing around sides of cake, or form swirls and peaks with bottom of spoon. Let cake stand at room temperature before serving. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Homemade Apricot Preserves

1 cup loosely packed dried apricots

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup apricot preserves

Place apricots in water in small heavy saucepan and cover. Bring to boil over moderate heat. Stir occasionally and cook, covered, until apricots are tender. Uncover and cook few minutes until only 1 to 2 tablespoons water remain. Add preserves and stir to mix.

Transfer to bowl of food processor fitted with metal chopping blade and process until smooth, or work mixture through food mill. Makes 1 cup.

Creole Icing

4 large egg whites

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place whites and salt in small bowl of electric mixer and let stand. In 6-cup saucepan, place brown sugar, cream of tartar and water. Stir over moderate heat until sugar is dissolved. Raise heat to high and when mixture comes to boil, cover pan 1/2 minute (steam will dissolve any sugar granules clinging to sides of pan).

Uncover pan. Insert sugar thermometer and let mixture cook over high heat until thermometer registers 234 degrees (thread stage). When thermometer reaches 230 degrees, transfer whites to large bowl of mixer and continue to beat. When whites are stiff and thermometer registers 234 degrees, slowly pour syrup in thin stream into whites, holding saucepan 6 to 8 inches above bowl of whites.

Add vanilla and continue to beat 5 to 10 minutes at high speed, scraping bowl frequently, until mixture is thick enough to be spread on cake and will hold straight peak when beaters are raised.

HONEY BISCOTTI

1 1/4 cups whole unblanched almonds with skins

3 large eggs

1/2 cup mild and light honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract or 1/4 teaspoon bitter almond extract

3 cups plus 1 tablespoon sifted unbleached flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoons white pepper, ground fine

1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Place almonds on wide, shallow baking pan and toast at 375 degrees 13 minutes, stirring once. Cool.

Adjust 2 racks to divide oven into thirds and reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.

Line 2 (15 1/2 x 12-inch) baking sheets with baking pan liner paper or foil, shiny side up.

In small bowl beat eggs with honey and vanilla and almond extracts to mix well.

Into large bowl of electric mixer sift together flour, baking powder, salt, pepper, ginger and sugar.

Add egg mixture all at once to dry ingredients and beat at low speed, scraping bowl as necessary with rubber spatula until mixture holds together. Slowly beat in nuts. (Mixture will be thick and rubbery.)

Turn dough out onto floured surface. Lightly sift flour over top of dough. Cut dough in halves. With wide dough scraper or spatula, turn one piece dough few times to lightly flour all sides and form elongated oval about 10 inches long. Place lined baking sheet next to oval of dough.

With both hands pick up dough and place diagonally on baking sheet. Reshape with fingers if necessary. Place remaining half dough on second baking sheet. Brush excess flour off dough with pastry brush.

Bake at 300 degrees 50 minutes, reversing sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking to ensure even browning. Remove sheets from oven.

Reduce temperature to 275 degrees. Peel paper away from back, or with large spatula, or using flat-sided baking sheet as spatula, release baked strips and transfer to large cutting board.

Cut strips into narrow (1/2-inch wide), diagonal finger-shapes with serrated bread knife. Place strips on baking sheet flat side down and bake 35 to 45 minutes longer, turning after 20 minutes baking. Avoid over-baking. Cool and store in airtight container. Makes 30 biscotti.

You can’t go wrong following Heatter’s recipes, no matter how unwieldy they seem. Some cooks may be turned off by the detail in her recipes (most of her recipes are several pages long). But those who persevere will be rewarded with excellent results.