Dessert
3853 recipes found
Flan Almendra (Almond flan)
Fresh-Fig Cake With Honey Cream-Cheese Frosting
This dense and deeply figgy cake, adapted from Eli's Table in Manhattan, gets its complex flavor from a combination of fresh figs and fig jam, seasoned generously with cinnamon, cardamom and ginger. It’s then filled and topped with cream cheese frosting that is sweetened with a combination of confectioners’ sugar for lightness and honey for richness. Over all, it’s a bit like carrot cake, except softer and sweeter. You can make the cake two to three days ahead and store it, well wrapped or under a cake dome, in the refrigerator. It gets even moister as it sits. If you can’t get fresh figs, chopped peeled apple works nicely as a substitute.
Microwave Pralines
Guinness Stout Ice Cream
Sour-Cherry Sauce
Old-Fashioned Butterscotch Pudding
This creamy pudding, thickened with cornstarch and egg yolks and stirred together on the stove, is as homey as it gets. Spiking the mixture with a little bourbon or Scotch isn’t strictly traditional, but it does add a pop of flavor. Choose bourbon to underscore the caramelized notes of the brown sugar, or Scotch for a savory smokiness and a nod to the name. Here’s a tip: Make sure to bring the pudding to a full, vigorous boil to activate the cornstarch. Otherwise, it may not set. If you’ve ever ended up with thin, runny pudding, undercooking may have been the issue.
Sugar Pie
This recipe came to The Times in a 1991 profile of Laurent Comeau, the kitchen manager of Cirque du Soleil. In his role managing the meals of the performers, he often had to scramble to find ingredients like Canadian maple syrup for the Québécois in the troupe, who expected it on or in everything from pancakes to maple mousse pie. Mr. Comeau thought Vermont maple syrup is just as good, "but try explaining it to them," he said. "The contortionists, it's like wine to them. They'll taste it and know right away if it's not from Quebec." This sugar pie, sweetened with brown sugar and sweetened condensed milk, tastes like pure butterscotch.
Salty Pluff Mud Pie
Community-supported agriculture takes many forms these days, but only in Charleston, S.C., will you find a C.S.A. for pie. Amy Robinette, who grew up in Spartanburg, S.C., is committed to adapting Southern desserts, which have often come to rely on supersweet and artificial ingredients, back to real food. In her kitchen, the chocolate chess pie her grandmother always made — filled with white sugar, evaporated milk, and cocoa powder — has been adapted to local ingredients. The pie gets its name from “pluff” mud, the sticky, sulfurous sediment that lines the bottom of the South Carolina tidal marshes; some say it is the true source of Lowcountry flavor. (Don't let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide has everything you need to know.)
Condensed Milk Pound Cake
A dulce de leche swirl adds caramel sweetness to this light, moist pound cake, adapted from Margarita Manzke of République in Los Angeles. Although Ms. Manzke makes her own dulce de leche, the jarred kind works just as well here, especially after being marbled into the vanilla-scented, buttery batter. This cake is best served within 2 days of baking. Store it, well-wrapped, in the refrigerator, then bring it to room temperature before serving to best appreciate its gentle flavors.
Granny’s Chocolate Cake
This cake recipe was adapted from the chef Larry Forgione, who served his grandmother's cake recipe at his restaurant An American Place. The dessert proved so popular that every time he tried to take it off of the menu, he said his customers threatened to riot. It's a perfect proportion of crumb to buttercream, ideal for birthdays or other celebrations where layer cake is required.
White Chocolate Truffles
White chocolate does not engender feelings of neutrality; typically, one either loves or hates it. These truffles, adapted from the pastry chef and cookbook author Nick Malgieri, are unapologetically sweet and rich, everything one loves (or hates) about the controversial ivory sweet. This ingredient list is short (just five!), but quality is key. Skip the supermarket white chocolate chips and invest in a good brand like Valrhona or Callebaut.
Popcorn Crunch
Café con Leche Syrup
Blotkake (Norwegian Cream Cake)
Blotkake, layered spongecake covered with drifts of whipped cream and fruit, is a dessert that Norwegians are passionate and possessive about. It is a traditional sweet finish for any festive meal, whether a long, dark winter lunch or a long, sunlit summer dinner. “Scandinavians really value lingering and feasting at the table,” said Maren Waxenberg, a Norwegian-American cook who lives in New York City and serves this cake at Thanksgiving. Cloudberries are a protected crop in Norway and are rarely available fresh in the United States, but raspberries are a good substitute.
Panna Cotta With Figs and Berries
The classic Italian panna cotta — cooked cream — is a pure white custard set with gelatin instead of eggs or starch. It can be prepared up to 2 days in advance, in individual ramekins or a larger mold. In season, it is lovely served with a compote of figs and berries. At other times of year, use other fruits or a simple fruit coulis. Alternatively, a caramel sauce or a bittersweet chocolate sauce drizzled over the panna cotta can be quite nice. Wait until just before serving to unmold.
Apple Crumb Crostata
When I saw my mother making her apple turnover, I knew company was coming. I also knew the dough scraps would be my treat. She’d roll them in sugar and cinnamon, bake them and we’d enjoy the flaky, light, buttery morsels together with a cold glass of milk. My mom’s specialty was that apple turnover. Mine, apple crostata. I love its organic shape, and fact that it doesn’t require a dish or pie pan. And because the crostata is baked directly on a sheet pan, it retains its flakiness better than a pie.
Quick Mango Kulfi
Traditional kulfi is made by boiling milk to reduce it, and to concentrate the milk solids, then freezing the base with flavorings such as fruit pulp, spices or nuts. Though kulfi is often compared to ice cream, it's nothing like it: Kulfi isn't churned. The protein and sugar create a rich, dense texture that is slightly crystalline and quick to melt. This recipe for instant mango kulfi takes short cuts, using canned sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream. It's a recipe that has no fixed season, that takes no time to mix up and that comes straight from my mother. She made it all year long when I was growing up, to hold us over in the lonely gaps between trips to see family in India. It's inauthentic — and delicious.
Popcorn Pudding
Peanut Brittle
Here is a recipe for the easiest candy to make: brittle. The only thing even remotely tricky about it is getting the sugar to the tint of brown you want -- not too light, and definitely not too dark, which can happen in a flash. You can use any nut you want with this, but do add some salt if you use unsalted nuts.
Cyrus's Express Bread-And-Butter Pudding
Strawberry Cassata
The classic Sicilian cassata is a spongecake layered with creamy sweetened ricotta, a heavenly combination. Though usually topped with colorful candied fruits, this summery version is covered with ripe red berries. Ideally, the spongecake should be made a day ahead and the cassata assembled at least several hours in advance. Look for the freshest, tastiest ricotta; most good cheese stores can supply it.
Broiled Melon With Balsamic
Arroz Con Leche
This recipe for arroz con leche came to us from Veronica Garcia of Houston. The original came from her maternal grandmother, but Ms. Garcia has since made a few adjustments: a little less sugar, a split vanilla bean and no raisins. But she still soaks and rinses the rice two times, making it a little lighter than a traditional rice pudding.
Cane Syrup Popcorn Balls
Cane syrup, a caramelized, concentrated version of pure cane juice, is one of the basic flavors of southern Louisiana, where about half the sugar cane in the United States is grown. Here, use it to give popcorn balls a deep, buttery caramel taste, perfect for a Halloween treat. Make sure to butter your hands well before shaping the mixture into balls. And if you live outside a region where you can get cane syrup, try Lyle’s Golden Syrup, a British sweetener often found in supermarket baking aisles.