Birthday
158 recipes found
Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies
You might think there's nothing new to learn about chocolate chip cookies, but this recipe by the baker and blogger Sarah Kieffer will prove you wonderfully wrong. The easy trick of banging the pan a few times during baking, causing the cookies to "fall," produces rippled edges that shatter in your mouth and a center that is soft and full of chocolate. Make sure to follow her instructions about freezing the dough and the size of the balls.
Peach Raspberry Pie
The character of fresh raspberries can be fleeting when cooked, especially when the berries are mixed with other fruit like ripe, juicy peaches. To deepen the berry flavor in this summer pie, a little raspberry jam is mixed into the filling in place of some of the sugar. Instant (minute) tapioca serves as a clear, flavorless thickener here, with the tiny tapioca pearls echoing the texture of raspberry seeds. For a runny, syrupy pie that leaks when you cut into it, mix in the minimum amount of tapioca. Using all 3 tablespoons yields a pie with a thick, jammy filling. As for the stone fruit, peel the peaches or don't, to taste. Or substitute ripe nectarines, whose peels are less pronounced.
Raspberry Pavlova With Peaches and Cream
This Pavlova’s meringue foundation has freeze-dried raspberry powder shot through it, tinting it pink and giving it a fruity, candy-like flavor. But if you can’t get the freeze-dried berries, just leave them out. The meringue will still bake up with a shatteringly crisp shell and a marshmallow-like interior that makes an edible bowl for the whipped cream and fruit. If it’s not humid out, the meringue shell can be baked up to a day ahead. Otherwise, it’s best made the day you plan to serve it.
Peach-Raspberry Ice Cream Cake
Adults swoon and children squeal at the prospect of ice cream cake. This from-scratch version, with layers of peach-studded ice cream, raspberries and tender butter cake, will delight both those contingents. The ice cream here does not require an ice cream maker; it's made by folding freshly whipped cream into a mixture of chopped peaches, peach preserves and evaporated milk. It is deliberately less sweet than other no-churn ice cream recipes you'll see, to avoid overwhelming the delicate peach flavor. But if you prefer, you can use store-bought ice cream in place of the cream mixture here. Omit the evaporated milk and heavy cream; instead, combine the chopped peaches with the peach preserves and salt, then fold into two pints of softened good-quality vanilla ice cream. It will be richer, but a little messier to assemble.
Clementine Cake
This dessert, loosely based on a Sephardic orange cake, uses whole clementines, peels and all, for a flavor rich in citrus. The cooking time may seem long, but much of it doesn’t require much attention from the baker. And the first step, reducing the fruit, may be done ahead of time.
Coconut Marzipan Cake
If you live near a store that sells good coconut ice cream, then please buy a tub to serve alongside. But these days I am all restraint and go simply for a jeweled scattering of raspberries.
Pan-Seared Steak With Red Wine Sauce
You can use any cut of steak, either bone-in or boneless, to make this classic French bistro dish. Steaks cut from the tenderloin, such as filet mignon, are the most tender pieces of beef, though they lack the assertively beefy chew of sirloins and rib steaks. Adding brandy to the pan sauce not only contributes flavor; its high alcohol content and acidity help extract flavor from the pan drippings. However, if setting it on fire makes you nervous, skip that step and let the brandy simmer down for an extra few minutes to cook off most of the alcohol. Make sure to open a good bottle of red wine to use in the sauce here, preferably one that you’re happy to finish off with dinner. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Peanut Butter Balls
Depending on where you live, these chocolate and peanut-butter confections are known as either peanut butter balls or buckeyes. In the Midwest, they are known as buckeyes because they look like the nut of a buckeye tree, thanks to an exposed circle of peanut butter that's left after they're dipped in chocolate. Be sure to start with a good-quality peanut butter, and don’t skimp on the salt. Those small touches carry a lot of impact.
Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce
Chocolate sauce is easy to make, but it’s a good idea to do so in a double boiler, which eliminates the possibility of accidentally burning the sauce. If you don’t have a double boiler, improvise one by placing a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Use high quality dark chocolate, not generic “baker’s chocolate,” for the best results.
Rib-Eye Steak and Potatoes for Two
For a special occasion with a sweetheart, sharing a simple, luxurious dinner at home is even better than going to a restaurant. Splurge on a cut like rib-eye or tenderloin and open a great bottle of wine. It’s a simple, no-fuss endeavor, yet very special.
Pizza With Sweet and Hot Peppers
This pizza is in the light-handed California style, with no tomato sauce. If you prepare the dough in advance (it takes only 20 minutes or so, and can be refrigerated for several days), putting a pizza or two together for dinner is actually a breeze, arguably easier than making a pasta. Omit the sausage for a vegetarian version.
No-Churn Ice Cream
Made without an ice cream maker, this custard-base ice cream is frozen solid in a loaf pan, then churned until creamy in a food processor or blender. It's best scooped straight from the machine, when it has the satiny-chewy texture of soft serve. If you do want to make it ahead, you can return it to the freezer for up to a week, then let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving.
Classic Hot Fudge Sundae
There is a reason a hot fudge sundae is such an enduring classic: That combination of warm, rich chocolate fudge mixing with frozen ice cream and melting it slightly is absolutely irresistible. Of course, if you have homemade fudge sauce and homemade ice cream, it gets even better. Vanilla ice cream is the standard here, but feel free to use your favorite flavor, or a combination of flavors. And if you like nuts, by all means use them here. The added crunch is marvelous against all the rich creaminess.
Classic Custard Ice Cream Base
Rich, creamy and deeply satisfying, there is nothing better than a classic custard ice cream. Sometimes called French-style, this base incorporates eggs, which improve the texture and help prevent ice crystals from forming. This recipe for ice cream base may be churned on its own, but it is meant to have flavors added. See the chart here for flavor options and directions for incorporating them into the base recipe.
Philadelphia-Style Ice Cream Base
Made without eggs, this ice cream is much less rich than those made with a custard base. The lack of eggs also allows the flavorings to shine through, making it a light in texture yet intense in taste. Using a combination of granulated sugar and liquid sugar (corn syrup, honey or agave syrup) helps keep the texture smooth and silky.
Arroz Gordo
Arroz gordo, or fat rice from Macau, is reminiscent of paella, which is no surprise considering that Macau was a colony of Portugal, a country that shares many culinary traditions with its Iberian neighbor, Spain. Here, deliciously seasoned rice is studded with bits of duck and sausage and a host of other savory ingredients, all seasoned with a nod to Asia. Many of the components of this recipe can be prepared separately ahead of time and refrigerated, and in the case of the chicken, up to a week in advance and frozen. All that is needed is a quick reheat and last-minute assembly. This recipe calls for chicken, pork, sausage, clams and shrimp, but feel free to make substitutions. Plump mussels would be a fine stand-in for the clams, and you could even purchase Chinese roast pork to skip the step of roasting your own.
Raspberry-Mochi Butter Cake With Matcha Glaze
This cake elicits awe on sight, and it’s a delightfully easy stir-and-bake dessert created by Margarita Manzke, the pastry chef and an owner at République, a restaurant and bakery in Los Angeles. Dense and chewy, mochi is a popular Japanese confection made from glutinous, sticky rice. It’s typically formed into pocket-size balls or squares but can also be made into cakes. As the rice flour batter comes together, it may seem gritty, but it will soak up the coconut milk and evaporated milk and soften as it bakes. Unlike many cakes baked with traditional flour, this gluten-free cake is so rich and moist that it’s hard to overbake. For the glaze, matcha powder is combined with confectioners’ sugar and coconut milk, which gives the cake an earthy tone, but you could easily swap in freeze-dried raspberry or strawberry powder.
Lemon Drizzle Cake
This light and moist lemon poundcake has a crunchy sugar glaze that crystallizes on top, giving a contrasting texture to the soft crumb underneath. It’s an easy-to-make, crowd-pleasing cake that’s excellent on its own but takes well to embellishments. A scoop of ice cream or sorbet, fruit compote and-or lemon curd are all wonderful alongside.
Soupe aux Truffes V.G.E.
Craig Claiborne brought this recipe to The Times in the summer of 1975, for a short profile of the acclaimed French chef Paul Bocuse. Guests at a lunch in East Hampton, N.Y., ate the soup out of dishes marked "Palais de l'Elysée, 25 Février 1975. soupe aux truffles V.G.E. Paul Bocuse," commemorating Mr. Bocuse's Legion of Honor award by then French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the V.G.E. in question. Mr. Bocuse created the soup for the occasion and soupe aux truffles V.G.E. went on to become one of his most famous dishes.
Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts
Making doughnuts at home might seem like a dream, but it’s an attainable dream. Golden brown on the outside with a tender, cake-like crumb inside, these classic cake-style doughnuts rely on buttermilk and baking powder for their lift and rise. The dough is slightly sticky, but resist the urge to over-flour and over-knead. Like working with biscuits, the dough must be handled delicately or the doughnuts will have difficulty rising as they fry, becoming tough and dense. Be sure to use a thermometer to determine the temperature of oil – too hot and the doughnuts get too dark before cooking all the way through; not hot enough, they’ll be greasy without that signature rise. These versatile cake doughnuts can be glazed, dusted in powdered sugar or tossed to coat in cinnamon sugar, but are their absolute best soon after they’re fried.
Malted Milk Fudge Ripple Ice Cream
If you love the flavor of malted milk, you’ll adore this ultra-creamy ice cream, which tastes like a chocolate malted in solid form. To achieve the most intense flavor, seek out the barley malt syrup (available in health food stores), which deepens the malted milk powder whisked into the ice cream base. Be gentle when folding in the fudge ripple; you want the fudge to stay in distinct pockets and not disappear into the ice cream base. Or skip the rippling altogether and serve the fudge as a sauce on top of the ice cream.
David Tanis’s Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream
Homemade ice cream is fun to make all year round, especially now that many home ice cream machines use frozen cylinders instead of ice. For this rich, smooth ice cream, seek out top quality dark cocoa and chocolate. Hazelnuts with chocolate is a winning combination, but other nuts may be substituted; you may also omit nuts altogether.
Chocolate Ice Cream Profiteroles
Profiteroles are among the most irresistible desserts. They are essentially dolled-up cream puffs, usually drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with chopped nuts. Adding dark chocolate ice cream catapults them heavenward, to everyone’s delight. More romantic recipes, from dinner for two to chocolate for all, can be found here.
Butterscotch Blondies
These rich, chewy bars get their deep caramel flavor from a combination of brown butter, dark brown sugar and an optional sprinkle of flaky salt on top. They're delicious as is, but feel free to add some mix-ins (see note), if that’s more your style. You'll want to keep the amount of extra ingredients, like nuts, chocolate and dried fruits, to 2 cups total, since blondies with a lot of mix-ins may take a few minutes longer to bake. For an especially delicious combination, try a mix of 1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate or chips, 1/2 cup toasted walnuts and 1/2 cup chopped pitted dates.