Milk & Cream
3644 recipes found
Spicy, Creamy Weeknight Bolognese
This pasta sauce captures the soul-soothing essence of a long-simmering Bolognese even though it cooks quickly. Searing ground beef gives it a caramelized taste that mimics the depth of slow-cooked meat. Adding a few spoonfuls of red curry paste doesn’t make it taste like curry, but gives it instant nuance and depth. Some rich cream at the end rounds the sharp heat to an enveloping warmth. To save even more time, you can chop the vegetables while the meat is cooking. The sauce tastes great on any type of pasta, but it’s especially nice with varieties that can capture it in their curves.
Baked Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
Perfect for breakfast, these bars feel like cake but taste like a granola bar in the best way. They are light but substantial. Instead of old-fashioned rolled oats, these bars call for quick-cooking oats and a little bit of all-purpose flour. Rolled oats don’t soften enough in a quick bread but quick-cooking oats bake up soft and fluffy. Delicately flavored with cinnamon and a bit of applesauce, they are simple but satisfying and easily dressed up. Try adding up to 1½ cups of mix-ins like chocolate, shredded coconut or dried fruit, or a combination. Leftover slices are delicious toasted in a skillet with butter and sprinkled with flaky sea salt.
Instant Pot Yogurt
Making yogurt from scratch is just one of the Instant Pot’s many functions — and one worth exploring if yogurt is a repeat purchase on your grocery list. Like many homemade approaches, DIY yogurt offers big benefits, including the low cost as well as ingredient control. Any plain yogurt with active cultures will work here, but a powdered starter can also be used (see Tip). Go wild on flavorings (add vanilla, coconut or almond extracts; espresso or cocoa powders; lemon zest; or saffron threads) and sweeten to taste with honey, agave or maple syrup. (Just make sure the enhancers are mixed in after the yogurt is fully set and chilled.) The yogurt lasts in the fridge for up to 2 weeks; make use of any extra in smoothies, rice dishes, curries, baked goods and marinades.
Chocolate Sesame Dumplings
Can you wrap just about any filling in dough and consider it a dumpling? These bite-size desserts prove you can. Lightly salted melted chocolate, creamy like a truffle, is stuffed into chewy homemade wrappers, naturally sweet from glutinous rice flour. Taking cues from black sesame treats often made for Lunar New Year, these sticky steamed dumplings include toasted sesame oil in both the filling and wrapper. Making dumplings from scratch is a fun group project and these are especially great for kids. The dough is the easiest possible kind to shape — it doesn’t require a rolling pin; it’s simply rolled into balls then pressed into flat rounds by hand.
Skillet Gnocchi Alla Vodka
Penne pasta might be the most common canvas for creamy, dreamy vodka sauce, but consider branching out: Toss plump, pan-fried gnocchi with the Italian-American favorite and the result is possibly even more cozy. To keep this dinner weeknight-friendly, everything comes together in a single pan. While the recipe is quick-moving, don’t skimp on the few minutes it takes to caramelize the tomato paste: Cooking an entire can of tomato paste until it’s rusty red in color and almost burnished in spots is the secret to a deeply savory sauce without hours of simmering on the stovetop.
Broccoli-Quinoa Soup With Turmeric and Ginger
Turmeric and ginger are generous ingredients: You need only a little of each to deliver plenty of complex, comforting flavors. They work together in this recipe to bring warmth, earthiness, smokiness and spice to this hearty soup. Often a salad ingredient, quinoa proves its versatility here, providing a substantial and protein-packed foundation. The quinoa will continue to absorb the broth once the cooking is complete, so serve immediately for the ideal broth-to-quinoa ratio. (However, if you plan to prepare this soup ahead of time, you can simply thin it out with a little water or stock once you’ve reheated it.) There’s a lovely finishing touch: The chile oil cuts through the richness of the coconut milk and adds to the vibrant colors of this dish.
Smashed Beef Kebab With Cucumber Yogurt
This quick skillet dinner of spiced, seared ground beef over cooling yogurt combines elements of two Persian classics: kebab koobideh (grilled kebabs) and mast-o-khiar (cucumber yogurt). The creamy yogurt base keeps close to the original, while the ground beef is hard-seared on one side like a scallop for a crisp texture. Walnuts and raisins, traditionally toppings for mast-o-khiar, get toasted in the beef fat, adding crunch and sweetness to balance the savory meat and tangy yogurt.
Sheet-Pan Coconut Curry With Squash and Tofu
In this warming sheet-pan dinner, winter squash receives the royal treatment, as it roasts in a (shallow!) coconut curry. Choosing a thin-skinned winter squash such as red kuri, kabocha, delicata or butternut means that no peeling is necessary. (In fact, the skin helps the squash keep its structure while cooking.) The whole curry is cooked on one sheet pan: The squash is roasted first, then the tofu, greens and coconut milk are added for an easy, hands-off approach. All curry pastes will vary in saltiness and heat, so add according to your taste preference. If you wanted a bigger flavor punch, you could add some grated ginger and garlic to the coconut milk. The leafy greens will crisp up around the edges, bringing a lovely textural contrast.
Cinnamon Date Smoothie
When the craving for a cinnamon bun strikes but you don’t want to go through all the proofing, forming and baking, this smoothie almost hits all those notes in a snap: buttermilk steps in for the tang of cream cheese icing, dates offer their caramelly sweetness, and nutty flax brings that freshly baked aura. Don’t skimp on the salt, which helps all the flavors pop.
Roasted Mushroom Soup
You don’t need fancy mushrooms to make a rich soup, you just need to brown them. To do that, spread creminis — save fancier mushrooms for another recipe — on a sheet pan and roast them until they’re juicy. Pour off and save the umami-heavy juices — they’ll provide a savory backbone to the soup — then keep roasting the mushrooms until they’re glistening brown. Blending so many mushrooms with plain water (or stock, if you have some) creates a thick soup, not to mention one with a deeply earthy flavor. For a more substantial meal, top with croutons, farro or sautéed spinach, or serve alongside buttered toast, roasted sausage or a green salad.
Applesauce Coffee Cake
This warmly spiced, moist apple cake is the cozy breakfast, afternoon snack or dessert that dreams are made of. The top is covered with a generous layer of crumble that’s spiced with cinnamon or your favorite pumpkin spice blend and caramelized on the edges, which adds delicious toasty flavor and wonderful crunchy texture. The topping is at its most crisp the day that it is baked, but the cake stays soft and delicious for a few days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Brew a cup of tea or coffee, slice a piece of cake and enjoy these cozy flavors in any season.
Creamy Butternut Squash and Coconut Noodle Soup
Sweet, savory, and full of flavor, this easy weeknight noodle soup takes a cue from the warmly comforting northern Thai dish khao soi, with a curry-spiced coconut broth and toppings that offer crunch and contrast. First, the butternut squash is simmered in the fragrant broth until very tender. Then the squash is mashed, becoming one with the coconut milk before stock and sweet and savory seasonings are added (to keep the soup vegetarian, use soy sauce instead of fish sauce). You can use any type of egg noodles here, from wide dried egg noodles to flat fresh egg noodles (sometimes labeled as wonton noodles). Ladle the flavorful squash broth over the noodles and garnish with as much garnish as your heart and stomach desires. Those toppings can be — but are not limited to — a lot of lime juice to cut the richness, cilantro, sliced fresh shallots, crispy shallots, fried noodles, chile oil or pickled mustard greens.
Japanese Sweet Potatoes With Maple-Tahini Crème Fraîche
Compared to garnet sweet potatoes and other types of sweet potatoes, the flesh of the Japanese variety is pale in color, sweeter and somewhat drier. This means that after cooking, they become pleasantly fluffy and creamy, as opposed to watery, and are ready to take on copious amounts of dairy and salt. Here they are topped with a super-simple tahini crème fraîche. Feel free to use sour cream as a substitute for the crème fraîche, but you may want to adjust the lemon juice as sour cream has a bit more tang. If you don’t have a steamer basket or colander that can accommodate 2½ pounds of potatoes, simply roast them.
Chicken and Red Lentil Soup With Lemony Yogurt
If you’re feeling a bit worn down, one bowl of this hearty lentil soup will bring you back to life — or at least fool you into thinking so. The broth is simply (and deeply) flavored with charred onions and six garlic cloves, plus a generous pinch of turmeric that stains the soup gold. As they cook down, the lentils melt into the broth, making it thick and rich. A healthy dose of black pepper brings gentle heat to clear your head, and the final sprinkle of fresh dill and parsley adds a bright, herbal finish. This soup is soothing and satisfying on its own, but feel free to add a few extras: hearty greens like kale or spinach to wilt, a soft-boiled egg, or even chile oil for some heat.
Cabbage With Spiced Rum Butter and Scallions
Steamed cabbage is easily the unsung hero of any Jamaican takeout container. This recipe mimics the well-seasoned Caribbean side dish with a few additions and subtractions. Regardless of its edits, this particular steamed cabbage is a top choice to nestle next to rice and peas, brown stew chicken, fried plantains or all three. A spiced butter enriched with rum adds a few extra layers of flavor, and an entire bunch of scallions, along with onion and garlic, provide plenty of savory allium notes. Instead of including a more typical blend of carrots, bell peppers and other vegetables, the cabbage takes center stage as the star of the dish. Steaming the cabbage with the least amount of added moisture takes some attention and monitoring, but the concentrated flavors are worth the effort.
French Onion Dip
The simple combination of a packet of French onion soup mix and a tub of sour cream is instantly delicious. Paired with crinkle cut potato chips, it’s the dip that everyone can’t stop eating. All the flavor found in that packet of soup mix can be duplicated — and perhaps improved upon — in this homemade version. Dried onion flakes are replaced with sweet and silky caramelized onions, which are time consuming but worth every minute. They are joined by onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne and Worcestershire sauce and stirred into sour cream, which creates a smooth and deeply flavorful dip that promises not to break your chips. If you want to make this recipe vegetarian, replace the Worcestershire sauce with a few splashes of soy sauce to taste. If you are looking for extra tang, replace some of the sour cream with Greek yogurt. If you crave a bit more fatty flavor, replace some of the sour cream with mayonnaise. And if you somehow don’t crave potato chips, serve this dip with crudités.
Fragrant Coconut Chicken and Sweet Potato
This deeply flavored saucy skillet meal comes together quickly thanks to rich coconut milk and fast-cooking ground chicken (though ground pork would also work well). Sweet potatoes get a head start in the skillet, where they’re speedily cooked until golden and tender; the simple act of covering the skillet with a lid expedites the process. The meat is browned with plenty of scallions, garlic and ginger, which impart lovely aromatic fragrance and depth to the dish. Coconut milk is added at the end to maintain its creamy texture and fresh flavor, while a finish of lime juice and chopped cilantro brightens and balances the sauce.
Pão de Queijo (Chewy Cheese Buns)
Brazil's pão de queijo stands out among Latin American cheese breads for its simplicity and irresistible chewiness. The secret lies in tapioca starch, extracted from cassava root (also known as manioc or yuca) native to Brazil, which gives these buns their distinctive texture. Pão de queijo is traditionally made with queijo minas, a cow’s milk cheese with a mild flavor, plus sweet or sour tapioca starch (or both), but this adapted version uses more readily available cheeses and omits the sour tapioca starch without compromising that addictive chewy texture. The straightforward nature of this recipe is a great way to highlight your favorite cheese's flavor. While pão de queijo is traditionally enjoyed on its own, the optional tangy, sweet-heat guava dipping sauce pairs perfectly with it, offering a Caribbean twist on that classic guava and cheese pairing. You can freeze the buns for future meals and bake them off as needed, as they are best eaten the same day they are baked.
Brussels Sprouts Gratin With Blue Cheese
Brussels sprouts are shredded and baked in a rich Gorgonzola cream topped with crushed, crispy fried onions in this lush casserole; its silky sauce is built in a blender to prevent clumps. To “shred” the brussel sprouts, discard any wilted or dark outer leaves, and using a sharp knife, trim off the ends, then thinly slice the sprouts across the core. But you can also slice them in a food processor equipped with a slicer blade or buy them pre-shredded.
One-Bowl Lemon and Olive Oil Cake
This standalone lemon cake needs no adornment; no glaze or drizzle, no syrupy soak (just a light dusting of powdered sugar if you want it to be beauty contest-ready) – yet it practically oozes with glowing citrus flavor, thanks to the fruity olive oil, tangy yogurt and a dash of piney nutmeg that highlight the various facets of lemon’s character. White chocolate and almond flour add hints of the nutty richness and velvety crumb of an almond torte to what looks like a simple yellow cake. Always seek out organic lemons for zesting, as conventional lemons can be coated with a wax you shouldn’t eat.
Lobster Mac and Cheese
This lobster mac and cheese harnesses the deep lobster flavor found in the head and shells to infuse the milk used to make the cheese sauce. As a result, a delightful undercurrent of intense lobster flavor runs throughout the dish, instead of just in random morsels. The lobster is very lightly cooked, ensuring that it doesn’t turn rubbery while it bakes in the cheese sauce. Though many lobster-studded mac and cheese recipes bake for an extended period of time, in this recipe, the cooked pasta, cream sauce and lobster are tossed together, topped with a seasoned panko mixture then briefly broiled just before serving. Perfect for company, this dish can easily be made ahead of time as part of a larger holiday spread; just ensure that the cheese sauce, pasta and lobster meat are cool before combining.
Holiday Gingerbread Cake With Molasses Whipped Cream
This recipe for hot-water gingerbread — using an old but reliable technique for a moist, tender cake that starts with a base of molasses and boiled water — comes from the cookbook author and culinary historian Dr. Jessica B. Harris, who included it in “A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook” (Scribner), updated in 2024 after its first 1995 edition. Here, the dessert is part of a six-course menu celebrating Nia, or purpose, the fifth principle of the holiday, though Dr. Harris bakes the simple cake throughout the season. The gingerbread, as well as the barely sweetened cream you should dollop generously on top, are both simple to make, and rich with the smoky, complex flavor of molasses.
Cheese Danish Bread Pudding
A whimsical hybrid of two beloved breakfast pastries – the flaky, sweet cheese Danish and buttery croissants, this recipe is the perfect, elegant but also warming centerpiece for any brunch or dessert table. Butter croissants are chopped and soaked in a flavorful brown-sugar custard and topped with a lemon cream-cheese filling, then baked in a loaf pan for easy slicing, and finished with a drizzle of icing. To freeze ahead of time, slice the loaf and place in a freezer-safe bag, separating each slice with wax or parchment paper, and tuck into the freezer. When ready to serve, reheat in the microwave.
Gingerbread Icebox Cake
Gingerbread housing is challenging work, with the cookie baking, precise cutting and delicate building — and that’s before you even get to the most important part, the decorating. Icebox cakes are much easier to assemble and much tastier than a gingerbread house could ever be. This icebox cake is disguised as gingerbread with its spiced whipped cream and gingersnap cookie base. Simply dressed with crumbled cookies, this cake is a blast of a blank canvas for decorating (see Tip), especially with little ones. But don’t deny yourself this holiday treat if you aren’t into decorating; it’s also a showstopper of a dessert.