Recipes By Yossy Arefi
145 recipes found
Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
This cozy spice cake is a one-bowl wonder. Made with oil, the cake stays moist for days and has a soft and fluffy texture. It is generously spiced with the usual warm-spice suspects: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, plus a little bit of peppery allspice. If you stock cardamom in your pantry, it wouldn’t be out of place either. The cake is delicious on its own, with just a dusting of powdered sugar on top, but cream cheese frosting is a classic topper that offsets the spiced cake wonderfully and looks great too.
Herby Cottage Cheese Dip
Cottage cheese provides a rich and creamy base for this herb-packed dip that makes a perfect appetizer, snack or light lunch along with crudités and bread or crackers. A handful of browned onions give the dip a depth of flavor more impressive than the work it took to achieve it. Salt levels vary quite a bit from brand to brand of cottage cheese, so make sure to taste as you go and adjust the salt and pepper to your liking.
Pumpkin Biscuits With Honey Butter
These moist, buttery, pumpkin-y biscuits are the perfect use for that last bit of pumpkin purée in the can. They boast crunchy tops, soft centers and a flavor that lands somewhere between sweet and savory. They come together in no time at all, with just a bowl and a spoon, and their cheery orange hue makes them a perfect addition to any holiday table. The biscuits are best warm from the oven but can be reheated in a low oven or toaster oven just before serving. Don’t forget the sweet and salty honey butter on the side, which makes these biscuits extra special.
Easy Roasted Carrots and Crispy Kale
Tender and sweet caramelized carrots and crisp-edged roasted kale make a delicious pair in this simple side. The two are roasted on every cook's favorite baking pan, a large rimmed baking sheet, also known as a half-sheet pan. The carrots get a little head start to make sure they are caramelized and sweet, and the kale is sliced thinly and massaged with oil and salt before cooking, ensuring that it roasts quickly and procures some prized crispy edges that contrast nicely with the tender carrots. A squeeze of lemon at the end brightens the whole dish.
Simple Cranberry-Pear Crisp
Juicy, sweet pears and tart cranberries are a perfect fall pairing in this easy dessert. Dark brown sugar adds a rich caramel note, and a handful of dried cranberries gives this crisp a pleasantly chewy texture. The buttery topping is gently spiced with cinnamon, but feel free to add any warm baking spices you prefer. If you’re the planning type, you can make the crisp topping up to 2 weeks in advance, storing it in an airtight container in the freezer. Break up any large clumps, then use as directed in the recipe, adding just a few minutes of bake time.
Cranberry Orange Muffins
Tangy cranberries and zesty orange are a classic pairing, and they both shine in these perfectly domed muffins. Soft and fluffy, the muffins are dotted with a generous amount of bright red cranberries, and topped with an optional glaze packed full of even more orange flavor. You can opt for fresh or frozen cranberries, simply increasing the bake time by a few minutes if using frozen berries. This recipe makes a tidy dozen, and they keep well on the counter for a few days, or can be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for up to one month.
Easy Dinner Rolls
Making homemade dinner rolls sounds a lot more intimidating than it actually is, and with this straightforward back-pocket recipe you may find yourself baking them often.
Salted Cashew Brittle
Candy making can be intimidating, but this sweet and salty brittle is actually easy to make, no candy thermometer required. With a few basic ingredients and about 20 minutes, you’ll have a perfect, giftable treat. Sugar is cooked with butter and lots of salt until fragrant and the color turns a deep amber. Then, a little bit of baking soda is stirred in to create air in the candy, making it easier to bite through, while the addition of plenty of vanilla maximizes flavor. Buttery cashews make delicious brittle, as they are soft and yielding in contrast to the deep crunchy caramel. Use roasted and salted nuts for the best taste. This brittle recipe is quite salty as written, so scale back to 1 teaspoon of salt or use unsalted, roasted nuts for a less salty version. To avoid getting splashed by hot sugar, use oven mitts and a long-handled utensil to stir.
Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies
Pumpkin purée and pumpkin spice make these chewy, cake-like cookies the ultimate cozy fall treat. The cookies are great on their own, but a cap of pumpkin spice frosting makes them even better. In keeping with the autumnal theme, the frosting includes a little bit of pumpkin purée, which imparts a creamy orange hue and well balanced flavor. If you don’t keep a pumpkin spice blend on hand, cinnamon is a great substitute.
Apple Bread
This towering loaf is packed with applesauce and chopped apples, plus lots of cinnamon and nutmeg. Enjoy a slice with a cup of tea in the afternoon or turn it into dessert with a scoop of ice cream or whipped cream. Use tart, firm baking apples (such as Mutsu, Cortland, Braeburn, Northern Spy and Stayman Winesap) in this cake for best results. The bread is best enjoyed the day it is baked, but will stay soft and delicious for a few days when stored in an airtight container or bag at room temperature.
Apple Cake
This cake is a bit of a choose your own adventure. Make it as is, without any topping at all, for a simple apple-packed treat, or pump up the flavor with a coating of cinnamon sugar (or pumpkin spice) that bakes up into a crunchy crust in some spots and gooey glaze in others. If you really want to take it to another level, add a drizzle of cream cheese icing that takes this cake into cinnamon roll territory. Use tart, firm baking apples: Mutsu, Cortland, Braeburn, Northern Spy and Stayman Winesap are all great options. We’ll leave it to you whether to peel or not to peel.
Strawberry Cheesecake
This stunning summer dessert is more relaxed than it looks. The cheesecake is baked without a messy water bath and can be made days in advance. To avoid cracks on the surface, make sure to turn off the oven when the cheesecake is just set around the edges and quite wiggly at the center. If your cheesecake does happen to crack while cooling, the blanket of jammy berries will cover up any imperfections. Use the juiciest, most vibrant berries you can find, as they are the true stars of the show. Substitute an equal amount of blackberries, raspberries or blueberries for the strawberries, if you like, and adjust the sugar to taste.
Classic White Cake
For this delicate, fluffy cake, snow white layers are made by ditching egg yolks and going straight for egg whites. To avoid overmixing, the batter calls for the reverse creaming method, made popular by the cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum, in which the dry ingredients are mixed with a solid fat (butter in this case) before the liquid ingredients, including oil, are added. A mix of butter and oil helps create the soft, tender crumb. Ice the cake with whatever frosting you prefer, though vanilla is classic. Use clear vanilla extract for the brightest layers and buttercream.
Vanilla Bundt Cake
This classic Bundt cake is sturdy enough to hold the shape of your finest decorative pan and has a fine, buttery, tender crumb packed with lots of vanilla flavor. The thin, crackly glaze adds texture and intensifies the vanilla factor, but the cake is just as tasty with a dusting of powdered sugar instead. Either way, you’ll find yourself slicing off a tiny bit of cake every time you walk by the plate. Serve slices with a dollop of cream and some macerated berries for a dessert that is as delicious as it is simple.
Pearl Couscous Salad With Shrimp and Feta
Bright lemon, mint and cilantro offset creamy feta and sweet corn in this crisp and crunchy salad. Pearl couscous, also known as Israeli couscous, is made of small pearls of chewy pasta that are a great base for so many flavors. Make sure to thoroughly drain the couscous after cooking to avoid a soggy salad. Sautéed shrimp make this into a meal, but feel free to add chopped chicken or your protein of choice.
Tomato and Farro Salad With Arugula
This fresh, summery salad comes together quickly and holds well, making it perfect for a picnic at the beach or a backyard barbecue. Sun-dried tomatoes add a punch of concentrated, tangy tomato flavor alongside bright and sweet cherry tomatoes. Peppery arugula serves as the base here, but you could certainly substitute any other soft green or lettuce. The grain is just as adaptable: Try quinoa, pearled barley or smoky freekeh if farro isn’t available.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
Malls have been declining in number since their peak in the 1980s, but, before losing their cultural significance, they helped make the cookie cake the frosted icon it is today. Created by Michael Coles and Arthur Karp in 1977 (not by Mrs. Fields, which was founded the same year), the cookie cake was first sold in Atlanta malls by their company, Great American Cookies. In this cookie cake, browned butter gives the cookie extra toasty, nutty flavor, and the extra egg yolk makes it chewy and tender. Don’t skimp on the chocolate chips; you can use semisweet or bittersweet morsels or a combination of both. This recipe calls for a cookie cake pan, which is a round pan that is about 1/2-inch deep. You can also bake this in a 10-inch round cake pan lined with parchment paper, increasing the baking time to 25 minutes or so. Malls might be closing left and right, but this food court-style giant chocolate chip cookie cake will never go out of style.
Creamy Coconut-Lemon Pie
This creamy, dreamy lemon pie is packed with lots of bright zesty lemon flavor and coconut four ways. The classic graham cracker crust is enhanced with a handful of toasted coconut, the filling is rich with coconut milk and the whipped coconut cream topping is garnished with more crunchy, toasted coconut. This pie is a dinner party dream: You can make it up to two days in advance and it just gets better sitting in the fridge. Make sure to take the time to thoroughly chill the coconut cream for the whipped topping: Put the can in the fridge the night before, and hold off on spreading it on until you are ready to serve. If the cream is not cold enough, it won’t hold its shape when whipped. Save any liquid from the coconut cream for a smoothie.
Grilled Chicken Salad
Next time you fire up the grill, throw on a few extra chicken breasts to use in this make-ahead salad, which is perfect for lunches all week. The yogurt dressing is light and tangy, spiced with turmeric, coriander and everything bagel seasoning, and packed with lots of crunchy celery and fresh cilantro. (If your everything bagel seasoning includes salt, add less salt to begin with and season to taste.) Top a pile of greens with a scoop of the grilled chicken salad, serve it in lettuce cups or on top of crackers.
Berries and Cream Sheet Cake
Summer is time for simple desserts that can adapt to what is fresh and in season, and this one fits the bill. This moist sour cream cake is deeply flavored with vanilla and a bit of almond extract, and baked to the perfect texture that can stand up to a generous topping of berries and cream. The whipped cream topping is accentuated with a bit of cream cheese, which adds tang and also body, keeping the cream nice and billowy even if it sits for a little while. Top the cake with whatever berries look best at the market and get creative with the design. You can arrange the fruit in concentric circles, waves or totally randomly, and the results will be stunning.
Strawberry Lemonade Cake
Topped with fluffy pink buttercream and a generous cap of strawberries, this perfectly pink cake is a stunning centerpiece for any gathering. Strawberries are used here in two ways: Freeze- dried berries in the buttercream provide concentrated berry flavor, and fresh berries are used to fill and top the cake. This recipe uses the reverse creaming method made popular by author Rose Levy Beranbaum: The dry ingredients are mixed with a solid fat (butter, in this case) before the liquid ingredients (including oil) are mixed in, helping ensure that you don’t overmix your batter. The combination of butter and oil in this mixing method creates the soft, tender crumb of the zesty lemon cake. And, as a bonus, the cake layers bake up nice and flat, so you don’t have to worry about trimming them.
Easy Chocolate Cake
This classic chocolate layer cake is big enough for a celebration but can be easily made with pantry staples and a hand mixer. The cake layers are deeply chocolatey, fluffy and even tastier if you make them the day before you plan to eat the cake. They also bake up nice and flat so you don’t have to bother with trimming. The sour cream makes the cake layers nice and plush, and adds a bit of tanginess to the American-style buttercream made with confectioners’ sugar, a hefty dose of cocoa powder, vanilla and plenty of salt to balance the flavor. Cover the cake with swoops and swirls of buttercream, and top with sprinkles, if you like.
Berries and Cream
Made with just a few ingredients presented beautifully, berries and cream is the perfect cap to a summer meal. If you keep vanilla bean paste on hand, this would be an excellent way to use it: Substitute an equal amount of vanilla bean paste for the extract. If you’re feeling up to it, you can whip the cream by hand, but you can also use an electric mixer. The berries and cream can be assembled up to four hours in advance, covered and stored in the refrigerator. But for the best appearance, wait until just before serving to add the final layer of berries on top.
Citrusy Shortbread
This brightly flavored shortbread has a short ingredient list and is simple to make, with no electric equipment required. There are two types of sugar in these cookies, and each serves an important purpose: Rubbing grainy granulated sugar with citrus zest helps break down the zest and release its flavorful oils, and powdered sugar gives this shortbread a fine, tender texture. Use whatever citrus you have on hand, but do make sure to gently wash the outside before zesting to remove any wax. You can cut these cookies into neat rectangles or break up the slab into irregular shapes.