Recipes By Melissa Clark
1476 recipes found
Salt and Pepper Lassi with Mint
This savory lassi variation includes salt and mint leaves, which are traditional, and black pepper and lime zest, which are not. It’s the kind of thing to serve with juicy ripe melon and prosciutto for a light hot weather lunch, or to offer as a nonalcoholic alternative at a cocktail party. Sheeps’ milk yogurt lends a lovely earthiness to the mix but plain cows’ milk yogurt is a perfectly fine alternative. Feel free to adjust the salt and sugar levels to suit your taste. You want this on the savory side, but a little more sweetness works nicely with the pepper and mint.
Crispy Parmesan Eggs With Radicchio and Pea Salad
The true stars of this main course salad are the Parmesan fried eggs, which have lacy, golden edges that are almost fricolike in their crunch. As the runny yolks leak onto the radicchio and vegetables, they mix with the lemony dressing, making the whole salad creamy and rich. It’s best to shred the Parmesan yourself, using the largest holes on your grater; the preground stuff is usually too fine. Then be sure to use a nonstick skillet or well-seasoned cast-iron pan to fry the eggs; otherwise, they are liable to glue themselves onto a regular pan. And if you aren’t an anchovy fan but still want to add a saline bite, a tablespoon of drained capers also works well.
Chocolate Babka
Baking a chocolate babka is no casual undertaking. The Eastern European yeast-risen coffee cake has 14 steps and takes all day to make. But the results are worth every sugarcoated second – with a moist, deeply flavored brioche-like cake wrapped around a dark fudge filling, then topped with cocoa streusel crumbs. If you want to save yourself a little work and love Nutella, you can substitute 1 1/2 cup (420 grams) of it for the homemade fudge filling. Also note that you can make this over a few days instead of all at once. Babka freezes well for up to 3 months, so if you need only one loaf now, freeze the other for later.
Buttery Almond Cookies
Made with high-fat, cultured butter, these melt-in-your-mouth almond cookies are like the most tender shortbread you’ve ever eaten. A simple confectioners’ sugar icing and a sliced almond topping make them especially pretty, but you can skip the garnish for something sleeker and simpler. Or use them to make sandwich cookies, filling them with the likes of lemon curd, raspberry jam or melted chocolate.
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Here is a pie that might make Thanksgiving purists shake their heads. Chocolate and pecan? But bear with us. The bittersweet chocolate adds depth to what is traditionally an achingly sweet pie, and the bourbon gives it a grownup finish. For more delicious pie recipes, check out our collection of Thanksgiving pies.
Crunchy Coconut Twists
At first glance, these long, skinny cookies look a lot like savory cheese straws, the kind of thing you’d nibble with cocktails. But those golden shreds are coconut, not Cheddar, embedded in store-bought puff pastry and coated with sugar. They’re crunchy, caramelized, and look dramatic on a cookie plate. Try to seek out all-butter pastry for the richest flavor. And if you come across chocolate puff pastry, even better!
Italian Ricotta Cookies
Jessica Hulett’s tender, cakey ricotta cookies taste like the white part of the best black and white cookie you've ever had. The recipe comes from Ms. Hulett’s grandmother Dorie, who used to flavor the cookies with anise, if she used flavoring at all. Adding lemon zest gives the cookies a fragrant brightness. We approve.
Dark Chocolate Pudding
This rich, creamy confection crosses a classic, American, cornstarch-thickened chocolate pudding with a luxurious French egg-yolk-laden chocolate custard called pot de crème. It has a dense, satiny texture and a fudgelike flavor from the combination of bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder and brown sugar. Make sure to serve it with either whipped cream or crème fraîche for a cool contrast; crème fraîche has the advantage of also adding tang.
Chocolate Whiskey Cake
This recipe came to The Times from Marti Buckley Kilpatrick, who adapted it from Dol Miles, the pastry chef at Frank Stitt’s Bottega restaurant in Birmingham, Ala. Ms. Kilpatrick describes the cake as an ugly frog of a confection, but promises that anyone willing to bet a kiss on its excellence would be amply rewarded. The interplay of coffee, black pepper and cloves is subtle but powerful, and results in a deeply flavored, moist confection that comes together quickly. It’s just delicious.
Melomakarona (Greek Olive Oil-Honey Cookies)
These classic Greek holiday cookies are made from a combination of olive oil and semolina. This gives them a cakelike texture that’s crumbly yet still very moist, thanks to a soak in a fragrant, honey-sweetened syrup spiked with cinnamon and orange. Traditionally topped with chopped walnuts, you can use any nuts you like; pistachios are especially pretty with their pale green edges.
Classic Matzo Brei
In this matzo brei (rhymes with fry) recipe, the matzo sheets are browned in butter until crisp before being lightly scrambled with eggs. You make this either sweet or savory as you prefer. Add black pepper, plenty of salt and chives for a savory version, or Demerara sugar and maple syrup or honey if you would like something sweeter. It’s a fine breakfast or brunch any time of the year, and especially during Passover.
Pumpkin Bread With Chocolate Chip Streusel
This pumpkin quick bread is everything you love about the traditional version, but with a ribbon of spiced-chocolate-nut streusel running through the center and topped with more of the same. We like ours served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Crunchy Noodle Kugel à la Great-Aunt Martha
The genius of this sweet noodle kugel — the rich, custardy casserole that is a staple of Jewish cooking — is that its top is designed to offer maximum crunch while its interior remains creamy and luscious. The secret: use a jellyroll pan, which means that there is a greater amount of kugel surface area to brown in the oven, and bake it at a slightly higher temperature. Soaking the raisins in sherry or orange juice adds flavor, and also keeps them from burning in the extra-hot oven.
Chocolate Babka Rugelach
These festive, fudgy confections are a mash-up of two traditional Jewish favorites: rugelach and chocolate babka. They have a tender, flaky pastry wrapped around a bittersweet truffle-like filling that’s sprinkled with chopped nuts or cocoa nibs for a contrasting crunch. A topping of Demerara sugar adds texture, and a little flaky sea salt cuts the sweetness perfectly. These are best served within five days of baking (store them in an airtight container at room temperature). They also freeze well for up to one month, with parchment or waxed paper between layers.
Bittersweet Chocolate Soufflé
Dark and intense in flavor, yet with a light and custardy texture, a chocolate soufflé is an eternal showstopper of a dessert. To get that intense chocolate flavor, this version uses a base of melted butter and chocolate without any starch. Be sure to use excellent bittersweet chocolate, but if you prefer a slightly sweeter soufflé, feel free to substitute milk chocolate for all or part of the bittersweet. Or to move the soufflé in the other direction, substitute a chocolate with a higher cocoa solids ratio, 70 to 75 percent, which will decrease the overall sugar. For maximum "wow" factor, always serve a soufflé straight from the oven. Crème anglaise or chocolate sauce would be fine accompaniments, as would scoops of your favorite ice cream. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Potato Chip-Chocolate Chip Cookies
A mix of salty potato chips and chocolate chips gives these shortbread cookies a playful, sweet and savory appeal. Adapted from Shauna Sever’s cookbook, “Midwest Made,” these cookies taste best one day after baking, when the flavors have had a chance to meld. They will last for 3 to 4 days stored airtight at room temperature. Bring them to your next bake sale and watch them sell out in a flash. If you don’t have European-style cultured butter on hand, regular unsalted butter will also work.
Easy Matzo
At its most traditional, matzo is made from just flour and water. But adding a little salt for flavor and olive oil for richness yields an airy, tender matzo that’s easy to make. This version also includes a small amount of whole-wheat flour for earthiness, but you can use all white flour if you prefer. Matzos will keep for at least a week stored airtight at room temperature. (Note that these matzos are not kosher for Passover.)
Extra-Bittersweet Chocolate Pots de Crème
This is restaurant-grade pudding you can make at home. It's dense yet buoyant with a profound chocolate flavor thanks to the use of bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate. A healthy dose of salt balances it all out.
Fudgy Bourbon Balls
This twist on a classic rum ball recipe substitutes chocolate cookies for the usual vanilla wafers, and features bourbon rather than rum. The flavors will mellow and integrate after sitting for a few days, so the cookies will be all the better if you can plan ahead and let them ripen for three or four days. They’ll keep for up to two weeks stored at room temperature.
Chocolate Streusel Poundcake
In this stunning dessert, a moist and soft chocolate poundcake is topped on two sides — bottom and top — with crunchy, slightly salty streusel flecked with chocolate chips. The combination of cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate gives this cake a particularly rich flavor. You can make it up to 3 days ahead. Store it at room temperature, well wrapped in foil. Then serve it topped with ice cream or whipped cream and fresh berries, or toasted and buttered, or plain as it is. It also freezes well for up to 3 months. More romantic recipes, from dinner for two to chocolate for all, can be found here.
Violet Bakery Rye Brownies
You wouldn’t necessarily think adding rye flour to brownies would be a good idea, but it’s fabulous. The flour lends a deep earthiness that works wonderfully with the bittersweet depth of the chocolate. A sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top makes it taste even more chocolaty. These brownies are extremely moist, so don’t overbake them; they should still be a bit wobbly in the center when you pull them from the oven. They’ll solidify as they cool.
Coconut-Pineapple Skewers With Marshmallows
Grilling does great things to chunks of fresh, sweet pineapple, condensing and caramelizing their fruity, sugary juices. In this fun, kid-approved dessert, the pineapple is given a double dose of coconut — a slick of coconut oil before grilling and a shower of shredded coconut afterward. Then, the hot, singed pineapple is laid on a bed of mini marshmallows, which get a little gooey from coming in contact with the heat. Eat this in bowls as is, or add some chopped pecans and coconut ice cream or sorbet for contrasting textures and temperatures.
Yogurt Cake
This Turkish yogurt cake, adapted from the cookbook “Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean,” is similar to a lemon-scented cheesecake, but it’s lighter and has a fresher, tangier flavor. It’s good both warm and cold, either on its own or topped with berries that have been macerated in a pinch or two of sugar. Make sure to use whole milk Greek yogurt or another thick, strained variety here, or the texture won’t be as creamy.
Nutella Panna Cotta
Set with gelatin instead of egg yolks, panna cottas are lighter - and easier to prepare - than most puddings. This one owes its richness of flavor to a healthy dose of Nutella and bittersweet chocolate.