Dessert
3903 recipes found
Almond-Walnut Thumbprint Macaroons
These cookies are less sweet and chewier than many traditional nut macaroons. The recipe is from Eileen Dangoor Khalastchy, an 86-year-old cook and baker who remembers her mother making something similar when the family lived in Iraq. Ms. Khalastchy moved from Baghdad to London in the 1970s, but she remembers her mother making cookies like these and then sending them to be baked in the public oven because there was no oven at home then. Ms. Khalastchy has tinkered with the recipe, substituting walnuts for some of the almonds and adding an egg yolk to the traditional whites.
Coconut-Nut Macaroons
The reward of these classic one-bowl cookies far outweighs the effort of making them. They are so easy – just dump and stir – and you don't need any special equipment. Here, Mark Bittman adds a generous handful of pistachios for crunch and color. They are also gluten-free, and the perfect treat for Passover.
Chocolate Chip Hamantaschen
This tricorner pastry is as closely linked to Purim, a Jewish holiday which celebrates the Jews’ deliverance from a plot to kill them by Haman, as matzos are to Passover. Fillings of poppy seeds, nuts and dried fruits used to be as exciting as these Eastern European sweets got. But these days, unconventional fillings like marzipan, sour apple, dates with sweet red wine and cinnamon, and halvah are not uncommon. Here, a version for chocolate lovers.
Vegan Ice Cream
The combination of high-fat hemp and coconut milks gives this nondairy ice cream base an ultra-creamy texture, with a taste mild enough not to obscure any flavorings. The liquid sugar (corn syrup or agave syrup) along with a little vodka help to keep ice crystals from forming, giving the smoothest texture. If you can't find hemp milk, substitute cashew milk. It has a similar fat content, though the flavor is slightly less neutral. Nondairy ice cream is best eaten within a week of freezing.
Lemon Meltaways
These tender cookies are an elegant teatime snack, packed with bright lemon flavor. Bake them all at once or save half of the dough, well wrapped, in the freezer for later. If you’ve frozen the dough, let it warm slightly before slicing to prevent cracked cookies.
Orange-Almond Mandelbrot
Mandelbrot (or mandel bread) is an Eastern European Jewish cookie, a variation on biscotti. The dough is baked twice: first in a log, and then again after it's been sliced into cookies. This recipe includes the smart trick of freezing the dough after baking it the first time, then cutting it into slices when still frozen before baking again. This makes for a thinner slice, fewer crumbs when cutting and a crispier texture. You can make it with matzo cake meal during Passover — a delicious variation.
Faloodeh (Persian Lime and Rose Water Granita With Rice Noodles)
Faloodeh is an ancient Persian dessert, a sort of granita threaded with rice noodles and spiked with rose water and lime. Though you may typically cook noodles until al dente, you’ll need to really cook them through here before adding them to the syrup so that they soak up enough liquid to become as crunchy as possible as they freeze. In Iran, most ice cream shops sell just two items: traditional saffron ice cream and faloodeh, which is typically topped with bottled lime juice that tastes mostly of citric acid. Faloodeh has been my favorite since childhood, but now I prefer it with the juice of freshly squeezed limes. It’s incredibly refreshing and the ideal end to a rich meal filled with complex flavors.
Ka’ak el Eid
People all across the Arab world make some version of date-stuffed semolina cookies to celebrate both Muslim and Christian holidays. The recipes vary from country to country, even from family to family, as do the spicing, stuffing and cooking methods. But wherever you go, if you are served one of these cookies, you know it’s a call for celebration. This recipe is a Palestinian version in which the dough is fragrant from anise, fennel and nigella seeds. The cookies are also shaped into rings, making them easier to prepare than the ones made with molds or decorated with serrated edge tweezers. While they still require some effort, they keep quite well in an airtight container for several weeks and can be frozen for several months. One bite into the crispy, spiced crust with a soft date interior will make you understand just why they are worth the effort.
Muzaffar Seviyan (Sweet Vermicelli With Cardamom)
Desserts made with seviyan — toasted vermicelli noodles — are popular all over South Asia. Sumayya Usmani, who writes the food blog My Tamarind Kitchen, remembers eating this particular dish, Muzaffar Seviyan, every year in Pakistan, where she grew up, to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the feasting holiday that signifies the end of Ramadan. Toasting the broken noodles in butter until they smell nutty is the key to the dish’s depth; the next layer of flavor comes from cooking them in spice-scented milk or syrup; finally, nuts and dried fruit provide crunch and chew.
Chocolate-Sesame Crunch Bars
For Philippe Massoud, the Lebanese-American chef at Ilili in New York, sesame desserts are the taste of childhood. In this easy recipe, he adds tahini and milk chocolate to breakfast cereal and comes up with a crunchy bar cookie that's delicious eaten on its own or sublime crumbled over ice cream.
Maureen Abood’s Lavender and Orange Blossom Cookies
These buttery, shortbread-like cookies, called graybeh, have a particularly crunchy texture that comes from clarified butter. If you’ve never clarified butter, this recipe is a good place to start, and the process is extremely simple (though you do have to plan it several hours ahead). If you’re not a lavender fan, feel free to leave it out. And for a more familiar flavor, substitute vanilla extract for the orange blossom water. These cookies keep well, so you can make them up to a week in advance.
Peach 'Doughnuts'
These doughnuts are pure fruit. They are inspired by a baked pistachio-encrusted Saturn peach doughnut I learned to make from the pastry chef Sherry Yard. I coat mine with a mix of ground almonds and raw brown sugar, sear them in butter and set them on a lime-inflected raspberry sauce. It’s a match made in heaven.
Condensed Milk Ice Cream
Caramel Apple Pudding
Whipped cream desserts are a light and lovely affair, especially at the end of a big meal like Thanksgiving. Some people love crunch, but the particular joy of this pudding lies in its voluptuous softness, as it needs to sit in the fridge overnight for the layers to cohere: vanilla cookies, caramel-fried apples and salted cinnamon whipped cream. It’s an airy fall dream in dessert form.
Chia Pudding With Berries and Popped Amaranth
Based on flavors from the Ohlone tribe, this simple pudding doubles as both breakfast and dessert, and gets its silky texture from chia seeds. Though optional, the wild manzanita berries that grow abundantly throughout California make a wonderful addition to this dish. When the berries are ripe, they turn a burned-red hue and become slightly sticky. The flavor is often likened to sour apple, which adds a nice tang when crushed with milder mixed berries, though any combination of mixed berries lends plenty of acidity. Toasted amaranth seeds gives it all a nutty crunch.
Mini Oatmeal-Cranberry Whoopie Pies
These whoopie pies may be small, but they are packed with flavor. Chewy oatmeal cookies are spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, and studded with dried cranberries. After baking, they’re sandwiched around a tangy, fluffy cream cheese and cranberry filling. Make them up to three days ahead and store them in the refrigerator, stacked between pieces of parchment paper in an airtight container, or freeze them for up to 1 month. Feel free to add chopped pecans or walnuts for crunch, and substitute other dried fruit (raisins, chopped apricots, diced apple) for the cranberries. These are as adaptable as they are adorable.
Churros With Strawberry Sauce
Squiggly churros are a crispy, crunchy alternative to sufganiyot for one of the nights of Hanukkah. Serve them coated in cinnamon sugar and, instead of injecting them with jam, dip them into strawberry sauce — or raspberry sauce, Mexican chocolate with cinnamon, even guava sauce. For fluted edges on your churros, you’ll need a pastry bag fitted with a large French star pastry tip, but you could also use a resealable plastic bag with a tip cut off. To prepare the churros in advance, try this trick: Pipe the dough into 6-inch lengths on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then freeze. Fry directly from the freezer in oil heated to 375 degrees (mixture will bubble up).
Apple Cider Honey Cake
Alex Levin, the pastry chef of Osteria Morini in Washington, adapted this Rosh Hashana honey cake recipe from his grandmother, an accomplished baker, though he put his own touches on it. Mr. Levin took out the cloves, allspice and raisins, and added an apple cider compote to the batter, which moistens the cake and gives it a caramelized apple flavor that deepens the cake beyond honey and spice. With its combination of apples and honey, it's a lovely and symbolic finale for a New Year's celebration.
Strawberry Scone Loaf
Bits of dried strawberry form jammy pockets in the tender crumb of this golden, crunchy-topped treat. Baking it as a loaf instead of individual scones keeps the interior particularly moist, while the edges bake up craggy and brown. Serve it dolloped with softened butter or clotted cream. And while adding jam might seem like overkill, it’s only in the best possible way. (Watch the video of Melissa Clark making strawberry scone loaf here.)
Fruit-Filled Scuffins
The scuffin is a frankenpastry — part scone, part muffin and, like a doughnut, filled with jam — but despite its complex genetics, it is very easy to make. It is even somewhat healthy (for a pastry, that is), using whole grain flour and flaxseeds, and keeping the butter minimal. If you are more of a butter maximalist, feel free to indulge by making a crumb topping for the scuffins: Measure 3 ounces cool butter (instead of 2 ounces melted butter) and use your fingers to rub it into the dry ingredients until coarse crumbs form. The spices can be varied (swap in nutmeg, ginger or allspice for the cinnamon or cardamom), and so can the jams. Do not use jelly, though — only jams, conserves, preserves or fruit butter will do.
Whipped Cream Scones With Chocolate and Cherries
Chocolate and cherry is a classic combination, but how these scones come together is what makes them really special: Lightly whipping the cream before folding it into the dough creates tiny air bubbles that result in a scone that leans more toward cake than bread. They also develop a delicate, crackly crust and a melt-in-your-mouth creaminess. On top of the chocolate chunks, tart cherries and the fluffiness, here’s another reason to love these scones: The dough is made by hand and doesn’t require rolling or cutting, meaning less mess in the kitchen.
Fudge Brownies
These brownies must sit for some time before they reach their deeply fudgy peak. They are a perfect midweek recipe to yield a weekend's dessert, though in truth they'll be ready after only a night's rest. Once they've matured, you end up with a mystifying brownie that is firm to the bite yet melting in the mouth. Walnuts contribute crunch if you like that sort of thing. They are entirely optional.
Apple Prune Cardamom Cake
This prune apple cardamom cake by the chef Genevieve Gergis was inspired by sticky toffee pudding, a dish that her husband and business partner, the chef Ori Menashe, loves. It’s on the menu at their restaurant Bavel in Los Angeles, where it’s served hot from the oven with date toffee sauce and whipped cream. You can serve this cake version with your favorite toffee or caramel sauce and ice cream. It makes a lovely dessert after a Rosh Hashana supper or as part of a spread to break the Yom Kippur fast.
Strawberry-Rhubarb Muffins
While rhubarb works wonderfully in baked goods, baking strawberries into scones or muffins can be a little bit more of a challenge. Though delightfully sweet and fragrant when fresh, baked strawberries have a tendency to become watery and bland. This recipe solves that problem by macerating the diced rhubarb and strawberries with sugar before folding them into the muffin batter. Doing so not only draws out excess moisture from the strawberries, but also gets a head start on breaking down the fibrous rhubarb. This recipe calls for an ample amount of sugar, which balances the tartness of the rhubarb and helps create wonderfully browned and chewy muffin tops. Finally, the cornmeal in this recipe adds great texture and gives the muffins a rustic finish. Opt for medium-grind or stone-ground cornmeal, if you can find it, but fine cornmeal works well, too.