Recipes By the New York Times
134 recipes found
Easy Baked French Toast
Perfect for an impromptu breakfast or brunch, this baked French toast requires barely any prep and delivers results that are so rich and custardy that the dish veers into bread pudding territory. Though many baked French toast recipes require stale bread — or bread that has been soaked or toasted — this one requires no extended soaking and involves a relatively short bake time. It can easily accommodate whatever type of bread you have: Rustic bread will retain more texture, but standard fluffy sandwich bread works as well, with even less resistance. This recipe allows you to customize its sweetness levels as desired, with cinnamon sugar and maple syrup passed tableside to ensure it tastes just right to you and any guests.
Ma’amoul
Ma’amoul are popular Middle Eastern shortbread cookies flavored with mahlab — a powdered spice made of cherry pits — and orange blossom water. They’re usually stuffed with crushed pistachios, crushed walnuts or date paste and stamped with geometric designs. They are often presented as gifts during high holidays, and are best enjoyed with tea or Turkish coffee. This version, which came to The Times by way of Dalia Mortada in a Sunday Review piece she wrote about Syrian food, is adapted from Rana Jebran, a founder of HoneyDoe, a Syrian catering company in Chicago.
Harra Bi Isbaou
This hearty Middle Eastern stew of lentils and pasta-like dumplings (a small Italian pasta is most commonly used today) is flavored with a tangy-savory mix of tamarind and lemon juice combined with sautéed garlic and cilantro. It is then topped with crispy onions and bread. It can be served at any temperature, but it’s important that the dish be served with all of its garnishes. “They say it’s called harra bi isbaou (which means 'burned finger' in Arabic) because the peasants who invented it couldn’t wait for it to cool down to eat it, so they burned their fingers,” said Umm Ali, a home cook from the Aleppo suburbs who fled to Beirut with her family in 2013. This version of the dish is an adaptation of her recipe which came to The Times by way of Dalia Mortada in a Sunday Review piece she wrote about the role of food in Syria's culture.
Beer-Brined Roast Chicken
This recipe, from the chef Adrienne Cheatham of Red Rooster Harlem in New York, pairs a whole roast chicken, brined overnight in lager, with roasted potatoes, brussels sprouts, pearl onions and sage. The resulting bird is crisp-skinned, with juicy, flavorful meat.
Tunnel-of-Fudge Cake
The original tunnel-of-fudge cake won second place in the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest for the late Ella Rita Helfrich of Houston. That version used a fudge icing mix to create a gooey chocolate center. But Pillsbury discontinued the icing mix, and the resulting clamor of home bakers led Pillsbury to release a recipe for making tunnel-of-fudge cake from scratch. In 2004, The Times presented an adaptation of that recipe with the help of Shirley Corriher, a biochemist and the author of "Cookwise" and "Bakewise," books about how scientific principles can be applied to cooking and baking.
Pimento Cheese
A decidedly Southern spread with Northern roots, pimento cheese is a simple mix of Cheddar, red bell pepper and mayonnaise that can be found at work sites and garden parties across the 16 states below the Mason-Dixon line. This recipe came to The Times from the Charleston, S.C.-bred cookbook authors Matt Lee and Ted Lee. Serve with crackers, or for a Masters pimento cheese sandwich, spread it between two pieces of soft white bread.
Pound Cake
This vanilla pound cake from the poet Tracy K. Smith has a fine textured crumb and a very buttery flavor. The heavy cream makes it a bit lighter than the usual pound cake. If you use a tube pan, the crackling top stays crisp (turning it over to cool softens the crunch) and the cake is a bit easier to remove from the pan. Or, you can bake it in two loaf pans (in which case, start checking for doneness after 45 minutes). The magic thing about this cake is that it gets better by the day — ever so slightly sweeter and more settled into its flavors. It keeps well at room temperature for a few days.
Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce
This is perhaps the most famous recipe created by Marcella Hazan, the cookbook author who changed how Americans cook Italian food. It also may be her easiest. Use your favorite canned tomatoes for this and don’t be scared off by the butter. It gives the sauce an unparalleled velvety richness.
Cardamom-Walnut Crescents
Peanut Butter Blossoms
For as long as anyone can remember, wedding receptions in Pittsburgh have featured cookie tables, laden with dozens of homemade old-fashioned offerings like lady locks, pizzelles and buckeyes. For weeks ahead, sometimes months, mothers and aunts and grandmas and in-laws hunker down in the kitchen baking and freezing. These peanut butter and chocolate cookies were part of the spread at Laura Gerrero and Luke Wiehagen's wedding in 2009. Though peanut blossoms were popularized by Freda Smith in a 1957 Pillsbury Bake-Off competition, this version of the now-classic cookie came from the bride's family.
Poppy Seed Cake
Though the ingredient list of this cake is simple and pantry-driven, its prodigal use of poppy seeds makes it shine. Brought to The Times by Joan Nathan in 2009, this archival recipe from the Strawbery Banke museum would have been a more time-consuming endeavor when poppy seeds were harvested by hand, before they were widely available at American supermarkets. Ms. Nathan’s easy recipe calls for store-bought poppy seeds, rehydrated and plumped in hot milk, and whips egg whites with an electric mixer until fluffy to ensure airy results. Less labor-intensive than its original self, it’s just as delicious today – and, like the best family recipes, it’s timeless.
Butternut Squash Pie
This is a pie of exceptional delicacy. Unlike traditional pumpkin pie, no vegetal tones or stodgy finish mar the radiance of this pie, which stops just short of a custard and glows with the burnish of spice. The candied squash and ginger relish adds freshness and bite to an otherwise rich and creamy pie.
Pumpkin Drop Cookies
These tender, spiced pumpkin cookies with browned butter icing were adapted from Pat Young, the winner of the best pumpkin recipe at the 83rd Pumpkin Show in Circleville, Ohio, in 1989. They're almost cakelike in texture, and we think they taste best with a tall glass of milk.
Hot Onion Rings
What’s better than a big platter of blazing-hot onion rings? We can't think of a thing. For best results, use sweet onions like Vidalia or Walla Walla in this recipe. The sweetness of the onions pairs well with the spice of the cayenne.
Craig Claiborne's Hush Puppies
Hush puppies are found on menus throughout the South and in many homes as well, an ace accompaniment to most of the region's meals. They are fritters, essentially: sweet cornmeal dough that is fried until golden brown. The recipe here comes from Craig Claiborne, the longtime food editor at The New York Times who was from Mississippi.
Caramelized Banana Pudding
This crowd-pleasing Southern dessert created by layering vanilla pudding, vanilla wafers and bananas is adapted from Millie Peartree, the owner of Millie Peartree Fish Fry & Soul Food restaurant in the Bronx. Her version takes it over the top by caramelizing the bananas with a little melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla before layering. This extra step adds complex flavor to the unapologetically sweet dessert. Serve piles of it in bowls with extra wafers crumbled over the top, a sprinkle of cinnamon and unsweetened whipped cream, if desired.
Chicken Breasts With Fennel and Lemon
Lemon is chicken’s best friend — stuffed whole inside a roasting bird with a sprig of rosemary; wrapped in foil, baked soft and puréed for a sauce, à la Jean-Georges Vongerichten; or tossed with fennel and egg yolk for a rich, tangy sauce as in this recipe from the food writer Marlena Spieler. It is a simple, rich and wonderfully elegant way to prepare the humble chicken breast. First, lightly brown the chicken and remove it from the pan. Add the fennel, wine, lemon zest, broth and a pinch of cinnamon (trust us) to the pan and bring it all to a boil, reducing until it thickens. Return the chicken to the pan and let it simmer while you beat a couple of egg yolks and some lemon juice together. Incorporate a bit of the pan sauce into the egg yolk mixture, then add it all to the pan. Cook a bit more until the sauce is creamy and your mouth waters with anticipation.
Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies
Much like its author, this recipe is a no-fuss classic. It calls for just 1/4 cup of flour, which yields an incredibly rich and gooey brownie, and it's super easy to make. So easy, in fact, that baking a batch of these might just become part of your weekend routine. (Watch the video of Vaughn Vreeland making Katharine Hepburn’s brownies here.)
Saltine Cracker Brickle
In December 2009, The New York Times asked readers to send photos and recipes of their favorite holiday cookies. About 100 people answered the call, and this one, from Kelly Mahoney in Boulder, Colo., was one of the 35 recipes chosen for online publication. It's got just five ingredients — saltines, sugar, butter, vanilla and chocolate chips — and it comes together in about 20 minutes, so you can satisfy those salty-sweet cravings in a snap. It also works with salted matzo.
Shortbread Jammers
With a shortbread base, these pretty cookies are akin to a linzer but a whole lot easier to make-- people will think you've gone through a lot more fuss than you actually have. Use a thick, quality jam or preserve but not jelly, which is too runny. Rice flour in the dough helps keep the cookie very tender, but it's fine to use all-purpose flour in its place.
Classic Tuna Salad Sandwich
Here is Craig Claiborne’s version of the classic lunchbox staple. Celery, red onion and red bell pepper add crunch; capers and lemon juice lend a little tang.
Seeded Pecan Granola
Maple-glazed pecans, coconut oil and a hint of spice bring big flavor to this crunchy, cluster-packed granola, adapted from the restaurant Jon & Vinny's in Los Angeles. If you don't have flaky sea salt, kosher salt is fine; just use slightly less (about 3/4 teaspoon, give or take).
Roasted Mango or Banana Lassi
Like other South Floridians, the chef Niven Patel of Ghee Indian Kitchen in Miami has access to fresh, locally grown, exceptionally flavorful varieties of bananas and mangoes he can ripen to perfection. Elsewhere in the country, that’s not the case: In fact, Mr. Patel said, most Indian restaurants use a canned ripe Indian mango purée to remedy that problem. But by roasting the mangoes or bananas first with sugar and warm spices, you can get good flavor from fruit of any quality or ripeness. Mr. Patel makes his own yogurt, which gives this lassi a complex tartness that balances the sweet spiced fruit, but a very good-quality regular plain yogurt (as in not strained or Greek) is a fine stand-in. The mango yields a slightly thicker lassi than the banana; if you'd like, add a little extra milk to thin it out, tasting as you go to make sure you don't dilute the flavor.
Cold Brew Coffee
Cold-brewed coffee is actually dirt simple to make at home using a Mason jar and a sieve. You just add water to coffee, stir, cover it and leave it out on the counter overnight. A quick two-step filtering the next day (strain the grounds through a sieve, and use a coffee filter to pick up silt), a dilution of the brew one-to-one with water, and you’re done. Except for the time it sits on the kitchen counter, the whole process takes about five minutes. If you really like cold brew coffee, you can buy one of the best cold brew coffee makers recommended by Wirecutter.