Dessert
3850 recipes found
Rolled Walnut Bread (Kalacs)
Grilled Rose-Water Poundcake
Rose water adds a delicate, floral note to this otherwise traditional pound cake. Two teaspoons is just enough to stand up to the smoky flavors of a light toasting on the grill. Serve it all with a peach compote, also with a touch of rose water, for an elegant warm-weather treat.
Mendiant Tart With Dark Chocolate Ganache
Queen of Puddings
Joan Nathan’s Matzo Chremsel
Crisp Raw Apple Pie
Instead of an oven, use a food processor to create this crisp, fresh apple pie. It was created for raw-food dieters, but it also gives home cooks a fast and refreshing dessert option that takes a fraction of the time of a traditional fruit pie. Well reader, Marie Delcioppo, who submitted this recipe, says “It’s incredibly fresh. You can really taste the flavors.”
Spelt Sablés
Strawberry Sour Cream Shortcake
Guava Créme Brûlée
Haft Mewa (Seven Fruits)
Haft mewa, which means seven fruits in Persian, is a symbolic compote of dried fruits and nuts traditionally prepared for Afghan Nowruz, the celebration of the new year and vernal equinox. Durkhania Ayubi shared this version in her cookbook, “Parwana: Recipes and Stories From an Afghan Kitchen.” She received the recipe from her mother, Farida Ayubi, who grew up making it in Afghanistan and continued the tradition with her family in their adopted home of Adelaide, Australia. Different types of nuts and fruits, which sometimes number more than seven despite the dish’s name, are soaked in water for two days to allow the fruits to plump up and release their natural juices. The nuts are peeled so they don’t make the syrup bitter and murky.
Savory Tomato Sorbet
This homemade savory tomato sorbet evokes the flavors of gazpacho. It makes a spectacular first course with a salad of cherry tomatoes spooned right over it, along with a few basil leaves.
Cinnamon Basil-Infused Whipped Cream
Eliza Larmour's Gingersnaps
Cold Candied Oranges
Slowly poaching fresh, firm seedless oranges in a light sugar syrup is a simple yet magical kind of alchemy. You still end up with oranges, yes, but now they are glistening jewels — cooked but juicy, candied but fresh, bitter but sweet — that make an uncommonly elegant and refreshing dessert after a heavy winter meal. These cold candied oranges keep up to a month in the refrigerator, and any that are left over can be delicious with thick yogurt in the morning, or beside a cup of mint tea in the afternoon. But in every case, they are most bracing and most delicious when super cold.
Pear Upside-Down Cake
Edna Lewis’s Spiced Pears
These sweet, sour and aromatic pears are terrific served with ice cream or yogurt, or they can be canned for preserving after cooking. Edna Lewis calls for Seckel pears, but this recipe works for Bosc or other varieties that will keep their shape when cooked. If you have to substitute, try to find smaller fruit, and halve them lengthwise if needed to fit in the pan. The leftover syrup is delicious in drinks.
Chocolate Sugar Cookies
These are almost brownie-like in flavor, and remain slightly softer than many traditional sugar cookies. The recipe was developed by Georganne Bell, a professional cookie-decorating teacher in Salt Lake City who doesn’t like traditional vanilla sugar cookies. Unlike many sugar cookies, these don’t need to chill, and can be rolled out immediately after they are mixed. Avoid the temptation to add more flour (unless the dough is really sticky), or to use too much flour while rolling and cutting them, or the cookies will be dry. They don’t spread in the oven, so you can bake them close together. They are sturdy enough to decorate wildly with colored royal icing, but also taste good with just buttercream or a simple glaze of powdered sugar and water flavored with a little lemon juice or vanilla.
Vanilla Butter
This sweet butter is meant to be served with chocolate bread, but we think it would be an awesome addition to the weekend breakfast table. Slather it on waffles, muffins or scones.
Grapefruit Fluff
This recipe first came to The Times in 1941, published under the rather humdrum title “Grapefruit Dessert,” only to be revived in 2010, as part of Amanda Hesser’s Recipe Redux column. Adapted from Maurice Gonneau, the executive chef at the Park Lane and the Chatham in New York City, this recipe is whipped up with just a few items you may already have on hand: egg whites, sugar, grapefruits, and a bit of brandy. The end result is, Hesser wrote, “the love child of broiled grapefruit and baked Alaska,” a dish “as joyful as it is unexpected.” A photo accompanying the column bears an enticement, and a mild warning: “This dessert is best served to good friends with an appreciation for weird and delicious treats.” Find those friends, and you have a dish worth sharing.
Field Day Poundcake
Every cook needs a go-to poundcake recipe, and this one, adapted from Denise Moseley of Houston, is just that. It's nothing fancy – just butter, flour, sugar, eggs, vanilla, heavy cream and salt – but the result is equally befitting a school bake sale or a fancy dinner party. By definition, it is a true poundcake (it calls for a full pound of butter), yet despite its richness, it is still remarkably light and tender. For better or worse, it's the sort of cake you wouldn't mind snacking on all day. (A few tips: Be sure to butter and flour the pan meticulously, and let the cake cool for a full 10 minutes before unmolding it from the pan. Also, do take time to stir the flour in by hand until just combined. This ensures a tender, delicate crumb. Lastly, if you're the type of person who sprinkles salt on their chocolate chip cookies before baking, consider adding an extra pinch or two of salt to the batter.)
Mexican Street-Corn Paleta (Corn, Sour Cream and Lime Popsicle)
Fany Gerson makes her paletas, Mexican fruit ice-pops, the traditional way: with real fruit for intense flavors. Although this flavor isn't traditional, it was inspired by esquites, a favorite Mexican street food of corn dressed with sour cream, lime and chile. To make it, infuse milk with fresh sweet corn and chile, and then blend it into a smooth base. Fold in some lime and sautéed corn for texture, and freeze for a rich, sweet-savory treat.
Bananas Foster
The New York Times food editor Jane Nickerson first published this recipe in 1957 as part of an article on New Orleans-style Creole cooking. Adapted from Brennan’s restaurant, this recipe is meant to be a showstopper. But it’s deceptively easy. Be sure to have a lid at the ready to extinguish the flame in case things get out of hand. If you cannot find banana liqueur, just add a teaspoon more rum.
Pâte à Choux
These elegant swans are made just like an eclair — using two pastry kitchen workhorses: pastry cream and pâte à choux. Pipe the pâte à choux into perfect teardrops, pulling the pastry bag away from the bodies as you finish each one to achieve that pointed tail end. When you are piping out the question marks for the necks, drag the tip of the pastry bag against the baking sheet ever so slightly to create a tiny beak. You'll have so much fun running those golden beaks through a flame after they are baked and watching them blacken into the uncanny likeness of swans.