American Recipes
2885 recipes found
Will Horowitz’s Watermelon Ham
When Will Horowitz, a chef and an owner of Ducks Eatery in Manhattan, unveiled his watermelon ham in 2018, he sparked an Instagram revolution, inspiring foodies from as far away as Germany and Japan to try incarnadine slabs of his brined, smoked watermelon. It sure looked like ham, right down to the crosshatch scoring on the surface. It sure smelled like ham, fragrant with the smoky scent of hickory. It even had some of the briny umami tang you associate with ham. Though it didn’t really taste like ham, it did firmly establish plant-based charcuterie as a big thing. This watermelon “ham” starts with a tamari-herb brine, is smoked low and slow for the first four hours, then seared. This recipe is adapted from “Salt Smoke Time” by Will Horowitz, Julie Horowitz and with Marisa Dobson (William Morrow, 2018).
Fourth of July Shortcake
Strawberries and blueberries under a drizzle of cream has long been an Independence Day favorite, but when Jean Hewitt introduced this recipe in 1968, it was as an alternative to another Fourth of July favorite: “The first red, white and blue dessert that comes to mind is watermelon and blueberries with ice cream, but for those who prefer something a little different, there is a recipe for strawberry and blueberry shortcake with ricotta sauce. Pitchers of clear, cold iced tea are all that have to be added.” The original recipe called for bran breakfast cereal, but we’ve adapted it with wheat bran, found in the bulk section of the grocery store, which gives this shortcake its rustic, colonial feel.
Giant Cinnamon Roll Scone
Just when you thought the world couldn’t improve upon cinnamon rolls, this dreamy mashup comes along. Adapted from “Procrastibaking: 100 Recipes for Getting Nothing Done in the Most Delicious Way Possible” (Atria, 2020) by Erin Gardner, they are actually quite easy to put together: Toss together a basic scone dough, then roll it out, spread it with a sweet cinnamon-butter filling, cut it into strips, roll it up, score and bake. Once cooled, drizzle the roll with a simple vanilla sugar icing, gently break into wedges and serve to the delight of your loved ones.
Hot Fudge Sauce
This recipe for a classic hot fudge sauce came to The Times in 2004, from Kay Rentschler. “A well-constructed homemade hot fudge sauce moves forward with dark smoky accents and arrives with plenty of chew,” she wrote. Here, bittersweet chocolate and high-fat Dutch process cocoa bring that smokiness, while heavy cream, butter and sugar mellow it out. It’s a perfect contrast to the milky sweetness of a sundae loaded with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.
Mocha Ice Cream
Think of this as a chocolate Vietnamese iced coffee in dessert form. The original recipe appeared in The New York Times in June 1944 — wartime, when cream was scarce and the paper’s home economists experimented with gelatin and rennet to give ice cream texture. After the war, the recipe reappeared (along with the cream) in the pamphlet “12 Frozen Desserts.” Undiluted cold-brewed coffee is substituted here for the strong black coffee in the original recipe to produce a much smoother taste.
Two-Tone Ginger Custard Pie
This silky, spiced custard is especially dreamy inside a crisp, flaky crust. Some custard pies use eggs as a binder — this one uses flour for a thick custard that always sets perfectly, creating a flat surface that’s ideal for a dusting of sugar. This striking design requires just a sheet of paper and a sifter, while the topping itself is ground freeze-dried mangoes and strawberries mixed with confectioners’ sugar. You can find the freeze-dried fruit at most grocery stores and health-food stores, where they are often grouped with the nuts and dried fruit. The pie can be made up to 1 day ahead, but for the cleanest look, it’s best to apply the sugar within 2 hours of serving; beyond that, the sugar will eventually absorb moisture from the pie and begin to change color. But even if you skip the topping, the filling is beyond delicious all on its own.
Grilled Corn and Avocado Salad With Feta Dressing
This lively salad of corn, scallions, jalapeño and avocado tossed with a tangy buttermilk-feta dressing is like summer on a plate. The sweetness of peak-summer corn and the richness of creamy avocado balance out the tartness of the dressing. To choose the perfect corn, make sure that the corn husk is bright green and slightly dewy to the touch, and that the silks peeking out at the top are yellow, not browned. Finally, the corn should be heavy for its size: the heavier the corn, the plumper the kernels.
Peppermint Brownies
These crowd-pleasing treats start with a dense, chewy brownie that’s topped with a layer of creamy peppermint filling, dark chocolate glaze, and a sprinkle of crushed peppermints. For the cleanest slices, chill the finished brownies thoroughly, then use a warm knife to slice them. Dip the knife blade into hot water and wipe it dry with a kitchen towel between each cut, and you’ll be rewarded with clean layers of chocolate, peppermint and glaze. It’s fine to sub chocolate chips for the chopped chocolate, just make sure they are fully melted before proceeding.
Stuffed Ham, Southern Maryland Style
There are as many recipes for southern Maryland stuffed ham as there are families in St. Mary’s County. It shows up on Christmas and Easter tables, and at almost every community fund-raising supper. This recipe, compiled from cooks whose families have been making it for generations, uses raw stuffing and is spiced with plenty of black and red pepper. Because the ham boils for so long, the spiciness will mellow. The most challenging part is the finding the ham itself. Corned hams — which are simply fresh hams that have been cured in salt or brine — aren’t usually in the grocery meat case, and butchers will often require advance orders. Corning your own fresh ham is not hard, but it can take several days and turns this into even more of a project.
Hot Brown
The Hot Brown was invented in 1926 at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Ky., by the chef Fred Schmidt. The open-faced turkey sandwich, smothered in Mornay sauce and topped with bacon, was served to customers at late-night dances, while the band was on its break. The dish has become a Louisville staple, one well suited for Derby Day or after Thanksgiving, when roast turkey is plentiful. Thick slices of bread, sold as Texas Toast in some parts of the United States, do not get lost under the meat and sauce. Hand-carved turkey is best for the dish; deli turkey slices do not deliver the same Hot Brown experience.
Ginger Mango Cream Tart
Festive enough for a holiday party or a summer cookout, this bright and creamy mango tart has a crisp gingersnap crust and is topped with candied ginger, pistachios and toasted coconut. The no-bake crust, which is made from store bought gingersnaps, butter and light brown sugar, comes together in the food processor with the press of a button. For the filling, fresh or frozen mango is cooked with ginger and turmeric to deepen its flavor and brighten the color of the finished dessert.
Coconut Pound Cake
Coconut oil and coconut milk add a tasty tropical essence to this moist pound cake. Be sure to buy unrefined virgin coconut oil, as it has the best coconut flavor and aroma. Coconut oil is much easier to measure and incorporate when it has been softened than at room temperature, when it is firmer. Try popping it into the microwave for very short bursts, about 5 seconds each, until it is roughly the same consistency as softened butter.
Guinness Brownies
The earthy flavors of stout beer pair perfectly with three kinds of chocolate in these dense, fudgy brownies. You can use bittersweet or semisweet, bars or chips, depending on what you have on hand, but this recipe is at its best using bar chocolate because of its meltability. A sprinkling of milk chocolate chips before baking is a sweet counterpoint to the rich, complex brownies. Do not overbake them: When the brownies are done, they will appear just set in the center and on the verge of underbaked. They’ll set further as they cool. Chilling the brownies makes them easier to cut, but allow them to come to room temperature before serving for the best flavor.
White Russian
Not all that long ago, the White Russian was considered passé and often likened to an alcoholic milkshake. The cocktail, whose culinary precursor is the Alexander, is believed to date to the 1950s or early 1960s. And it gained popularity in the days of disco, which may have added to its dated reputation. But then, the Coen Brothers released "The Big Lebowski," a movie about an aging slacker who calls himself the Dude, played with slouchy brio by Jeff Bridges. The Dude's chief pursuits involve bowling, avoiding work and drinking White Russians, or as the character calls them, "Caucasians."
Buttermilk-Brined Roast Chicken
This recipe, adapted from Samin Nosrat's "Salt Fat Acid Heat," is inspired by the Southern grandma method of marinating chicken overnight in buttermilk before frying it. You're roasting here, but the buttermilk and salt still work like a brine, tenderizing the meat on multiple levels to yield an unbelievably juicy chicken. As an added bonus, the sugars in the buttermilk will caramelize, contributing to an exquisitely browned skin. Be sure to leave 24 hours for marinating the chicken. While the beauty of roast chicken is that you can serve it anytime, anywhere, try serving it alongside panzanella, which plays the role of starch, salad and sauce.
Dirty Shirley
The Dirty Shirley, a vodka-spiked variation on the classic, kid-friendly Shirley Temple, is a syrupy-sweet nostalgia trip for adults. Topped with a cheeky maraschino cherry, the cocktail is evocative of a time before drinks had to be balanced or nuanced, a time when a bright red glass of sugary bubbles was the pinnacle of festivity. While a classic Shirley Temple is made with either lemon-lime soda or ginger ale, the “dirty” version is commonly made with the former (Sprite or 7Up).
Red Velvet Cookies With White Chocolate Chunks
As easy to make as your favorite chocolate chip recipe, these cookies pack the fun and flavor of red velvet cake into a simple, and much faster, cookie. Super sweet and tender with a slightly fudgy center, they contain creamy white chocolate chunks that nod to the snowy frosting on the cake version. For particularly pristine cookies, reserve some of the white chocolate chunks to arrange on top of the cookie, as they tend to get tinted pink when mixed into the batter.
Chilled Burgundy Carrot Soup with Celery, Belgian Endive and Baby Golden Beets
This recipe from the late chef Charlie Trotter came to The Times in 2001 as part of a story about the raw food movement, in which every element of every dish is raw, organic and vegan. If you do not have a juicer, buy carrot juice instead.
Banana Cream Pie No-Churn Ice Cream
This no-churn ice cream doesn’t require any cooking or special equipment. All you have to do is mash up some bananas and whip some heavy cream. The whipped cream mimics the air that’s incorporated into traditional ice cream when it’s churning in an ice cream machine. For the strongest flavor, use really, really ripe bananas; mushy, bruised ones with black peels will work well. Large crumbles of vanilla wafers stirred into the ice cream and sprinkled on top add crunch.
Easy No-Yeast Monkey Bread
Many monkey bread recipes are made with a yeast-risen dough, but the most classic methods use biscuit dough, as this one does. A quick fold of the dough ensures it’s light and fluffy inside. When you grease the pan, you may worry that two tablespoons of butter seems excessive, but the generous amount prevents the monkey bread from sticking to the pan and combines with the cinnamon sugar to create an effortless caramel sauce as it bakes. If you’re looking for an even simpler approach, you could replace the homemade dough with about two pounds of store-bought refrigerated biscuit dough.
Caramel-Apple Dutch Baby
This recipe makes the perfect breakfast, brunch or sweet treat for a lazy weekend. Any 10-inch ovenproof pan or baking dish will work here, but for the puffiest and crispest pancake, use a cast-iron pan. Don’t skimp on the amount of butter you melt in the pan in the first step; it prevents the pancake from sticking, and helps brown and crisp the Dutch baby while it bakes. The easy, no-fail caramel sauce infuses the apples with brown sugar and vanilla, while also serving as a syrup to drizzle over each slice. For maximum ooh and aahs, spoon the apples, caramel and all, into the center of the Dutch baby and serve it in the skillet. To keep the pancake crisp longer, serve the apples and caramel separately and allow guests to top their own.
Striped Berry Pie
You can use three jammy berry fillings — strawberry, raspberry and blackberry — to create a beautiful, naturally colored ombré effect in a pie. Pre-cooking the fillings helps ensure that they’re thick enough to easily slice once they’re baked. You need to keep a close eye on the fruit here, so don’t be tempted to make more than one filling at a time. Berries can vary in juiciness, so it’s very important to make sure you have the right amount of each filling before assembling the pie (see the Note at the bottom of the recipe for how to adjust your filling if it’s too thin or too thick). The pie is best the day it’s baked, but the fillings can be made up to 2 days ahead; stir well before using.
German Chocolate Cake
German chocolate cake is an American classic, named after a chocolatier called Samuel German (as opposed to the European nation). Milder than devil’s food cake, this chocolate cake has layers that are subtle and sweet, chocolatey but not excessively so. They create a lovely, velvet-textured vehicle for the heaps of gooey, toasted coconut and pecan custard. For more chocolate appeal, rich ganache can be slathered on the sides. This not only adds another blissful layer of chocolate, but also neatens up the look and makes for a party-worthy presentation.
Chocolate Tres Leches Cake
This recipe looks hard, but it’s not. Promise. A very easy chocolate cake is transformed into a version of tres leches cake, the classic Latin American dessert, by drenching it with evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream and topping it with a lightly sweetened whipped cream. Each component of this recipe — the cake, the tres leches and the whipped cream — are all adapted from “Simple Cake: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake” by Odette Williams, a choose-your-own-adventure cookbook that provides you with several cake and toppings recipes that you can combine as you wish. Ms. Williams’s recipe doesn’t call for it, but adding a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the whipped cream is a lovely addition.