Milk & Cream
3644 recipes found
Spicy Cucumbers With Yogurt, Lemon and Herbs
This recipe brings together two contrasting components to create a bright summer dish. A simple yogurt sauce is dressed up with herbs and zest, then topped with cucumbers that have marinated in a spicy oil. Coriander, cumin and red-pepper flakes bloom in a neutral oil, and the cucumbers take on the flavors as they sit. For the yogurt, a variety of garden fresh herbs work well, but dill and mint are crucial. Both the yogurt and the cucumbers can be prepared up to a day in advance and kept refrigerated until serving. When you’re ready, spread the yogurt sauce in a wide bowl or plate. Spoon the cucumbers on top evenly so each each bite gets a little yogurt and a little cucumber: One will temper the spiciness of the other. Save a handful of the herbs for a fresh garnish.
Mast-o Khiar (Persian Cucumber and Herb Yogurt)
Yogurt, both plain and with cucumbers, is everywhere on Iranian tables — the thicker and sourer, the better. Mast-o khiar is an everyday side similar to Indian raita or Greek tzatziki, but raisins, walnuts and rose petals elevate this version of the dish, adding a host of different flavors and textures. Dice, rather than grate, the cucumbers to keep them from getting watery, and don’t skip the dried mint and dried dill, which add dimension to the fresh herbs.
Hawaiian Guava Cake
Now considered a classic Hawaiian dessert, guava cake was created at Dee Lite Bakery in Honolulu, where it became widely popular. This version is adapted from blogger Alana Kysar’s “Aloha Kitchen: Recipes From Hawai‘i,” a cookbook of traditional Hawaiian dishes. Outside of Hawaii and California, pink guava concentrate can be tough to find, but you can also use white guava concentrate or 100 percent guava juice. (If using juice, you’ll need to reduce it; see Tip below.) To mimic that lovely pink color, add a few drops of red food coloring. If you don’t, the cake will still taste like guava, but will look more like a vanilla cake.
Cucumber Salad With Roasted Peanuts and Chile
Easy to assemble but far from basic, this cucumber salad delivers a riot of flavors and textures with snappy cucumbers, velvety peanut sauce, crunchy cilantro-peanut topping and zingy chile oil. The details make all the difference: First, salting the cucumbers mutes the fruit’s subtly bitter notes while heightening flavor. Next, the simple peanut sauce adds richness to the cool cucumbers. (Make a large batch and store it in the fridge to drizzle over vegetables, chicken and salads.) Finally, a flurry of finely chopped peanuts, cilantro and red-pepper flakes gets dusted over the salad in layers to disperse flavor.
Scotcheroos
Originally printed on the Rice Krispies box in the 1960s, Scotcheroos are Rice Krispies treats minus the marshmallow but with gobs of peanut butter, chocolate and butterscotch chips. Use either natural, unsweetened peanut butter or the more conventional stuff. Either will work just fine, with the natural version tasting a tad less sweet. For a twist, you could also swap the corn syrup for honey, golden syrup or a mix of both. Bittersweet chocolate, as opposed to semisweet, helps to balance the sweetness. A sprinkling of flaky salt and crushed peanuts aren’t traditional, but they look as good as they taste.
Strawberry Poke Cake
One easy way to elevate a simple sheet cake is to infuse it with strawberry-flavored gelatin. The method of poking holes in the cake and pouring gelatin into them serves two purposes: giving the cake a poppy pink-striped look when you cut into it, and ensuring you get that nostalgic strawberry flavor in every bite. Like many gelatin-based dishes, poke cakes were likely popularized in the 20th century as part of an advertising push for Jell-O mixes.This recipe is adapted from April Anderson, an owner of Good Cakes and Bakes, a bakery in Detroit, whose mother used gelatin mixes to punch up some of her desserts. The basic poke cake formula is made to be modified: If you don’t like strawberry-flavored gelatin, try lemon or cherry.
Strawberry Cheesecake Bars
Great for picnics or potlucks, these portable cheesecake bars incorporate cooked berries directly into the custard, which means they take on a rosy hue. You can even add a few drops of red food coloring if you want to make up for out-of-season berries, which are less vibrantly colored, or if you just want a livelier result. Feel free to use frozen berries in place of fresh, though you’ll need to thaw them fully before beginning the process.
Butter Mochi
Tender and chewy, this big-batch dessert — as comforting as cake and as fun as bar cookies — is always a hit at parties. Mochiko, sweet rice flour, not only gives it its distinctive marshmallow-like softness, but it also lends a natural sweetness. This version of butter mochi uses only coconut milk for its richness and subtle nutty taste, but you can substitute equivalent amounts of whole milk, evaporated milk or a combination of those liquids. Butter mochi develops a crackly top that stays crunchy the day it’s baked, making it a delicious dessert to eat without adornment. But, if you’d like more crunch, you can sprinkle dried shredded coconut evenly over the top before baking, or, for a tangy, colorful top, you can coat it with the passion fruit glaze below. (Watch the video of Genevieve Ko making butter mochi here.)
Namoura (Syrup-Soaked Semolina Cake)
Amanda Saab, a social worker and home cook who lives near Detroit, riffs on her Lebanese grandmother's recipe for namoura, a cake made from semolina flour, soaked in syrup while it's still warm. When she serves it at iftar dinners during Ramadan, Ms. Saab often doses the syrup with a little bit of lavender extract. You could follow her lead, or use another floral note like vanilla or rose. The cake has no eggs, but this version gets its rich flavor and texture from aerated yogurt, which goes bubbly within minutes of being mixed with a little baking soda.
Pecan Squares
A cousin to the pecan pie, but much less fussy: Pecan squares are a kitchen classic. Here, we've updated a version that came to us in 1998 from William Grimes, scaling it down and moving away from the original pâte brisée. The pecans are mixed in an addictive caramel sauce, which — if you can stop eating it on its own — is spread over shortbread and baked until just set. The end result is sweet, but not cloying, balanced by the crust and sure to please.
Peanut Butter Brownies
Joanna Gaines of Magnolia Table in Waco, Texas, developed this recipe for a layered treat that combines the best of a brownie, a candy bar and an ice cream sandwich. The fudgy texture of brownies makes a perfect base for peanut butter and a fluffy chocolate topping. You can use a different chocolate frosting or glaze for the top layer, depending on what ingredients you have on hand.
Chocolate Birthday Cake Butter Mochi
Sprinkles always bring joy to a cake, but add Pop Rocks and you have a celebration, complete with a mini fireworks show. This recipe from the chef Sheldon Simeon and Garrett Snyder’s 2021 book, “Cook Real Hawai‘i,” takes chocolate butter mochi to the max with a creamy peanut butter topping and lots and lots of candy. Add the Pop Rocks just before serving; the candy has a tendency to ping off as it reacts with the moisture in the frosting. The butter mochi is best the day it is made, but will keep a couple of days covered in the refrigerator.
Savory Corn Fritters
These corn fritters use fresh, whole kernels, mixed with spices, scallions and a simple batter. Corn fritters come in many types, from the cornmeal-based, deep-fried hush puppies, to the more patty-shaped, pan-fried fritters. Pan-seared in hot oil until crisp, these patty-like fritters contain Cheddar, which adds creaminess while still allowing the crunchy corn kernels to provide a pop of sweet flavor and texture with each bite. Fritters make an excellent side for a cookout, as they stand up to smoky barbecue flavors and can be enjoyed warm or at room temperature. Leftovers make an excellent breakfast, with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt on top.
Cinnamon Apple Sheet Cake
This simple cake is studded with large pieces of fruit, so that each slice has its own piece of tender baked apple. Press the apples gently into the batter and be aware that the pound cake-style batter will rise around them. The cake is sweet enough that it needs no frosting, and is finished simply with a dusting of cinnamon-scented confectioners’ sugar that dissolves onto the surface of the apples, leaving only its sweetness behind. Cut the cake into 12 large squares and serve with ice cream, or cut the squares in half for a sweet snack.
Strawberry Slab Pie
On Juneteenth, which celebrates the abolition of slavery in the United States, the picnic table overflows with summertime pies and red foods, a symbol of perseverance. That makes this festive strawberry slab pie ideal for Juneteenth, though it’d be welcome anytime in berry season. The rectangular pie is made in a quarter sheet pan; if you don't have one, use a comparably sized casserole dish. Cracked black pepper in the crust and fresh ginger in the filling add a bit of spice. This isn't an especially sugary dessert, so if you want something sweeter, top it with vanilla ice cream.
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake
With just a 9-by-13 pan, a spoon and four store-bought ingredients, you can make an ice cream cake that’s creamy, crunchy and fudgy in every bite. It starts with crushed chocolate-mint cookies that are covered with mint chocolate chip ice cream. Next, it’s topped with a layer of ice cream sandwiches, with their cakey cookies and vanilla ice cream. Follow that with more mint chip ice cream, and you’ve made a six-layer cake without breaking a sweat. Feel free to experiment here: Swap out the mint cookies for snickerdoodles, pretzels or broken waffle cones, and the mint-chip ice cream for coffee, peanut butter or strawberry ice cream — or any combination that sounds good to you. Slice the cake into pieces big or small, then drizzle them with hot fudge or Magic Shell. This cake serves a crowd, but you can halve the ingredients and build it in an 8-by-8-inch pan for a smaller group.
Chicken Alfredo
Chicken Alfredo is like a distant American cousin of the Roman fettuccine Alfredo. The original dish was created, in 1908, by Alfredo Di Lelio using only a handful of ingredients: namely rich sweet butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano and pasta water artfully tossed together. Heavy cream, while not traditional and only used in the American iteration, gives the sauce its rich flavor and creamy consistency and requires less tossing. The addition of well-seasoned chicken breasts makes this an American restaurant classic beloved by children and adults alike. The flat wide shape of fettuccine noodles is ideal for the cream sauce to embrace, but you can also use linguine or spaghetti. Be sure to use freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (a food processor does the job quickly) to ensure that the cheese is incorporated into the sauce — pre-grated cheese contains additives that don’t allow the cheese to melt properly. For something green, serve with a side of broccoli or a green salad.
Tres Leches Cake
Tres leches, which means “three milks” in Spanish, refers to the whole milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk that make up a creamy soaking sauce for the baked cake. Over time, it saturates the cake, making it soft and luscious. While a thick garnish of softly whipped cream may seem excessive, it actually tempers the sweetness of the whole confection. Serve with some berries or sliced fruit to complete the presentation.
Rocky Road Ice Cream Bars
This recipe takes the classic American ice cream and turns it into simple, festive bars. They start with a no-bake chocolate cookie crust that gets topped with chocolate ice cream, salty toasted nuts and, of course, mini marshmallows, making this a treat everyone will love. Using a rich, dense ice cream is key to these bars, so buy a premium ice cream for this recipe if you can, since some supermarket versions may have a lot of air incorporated. Serve the bars straight from the freezer (with napkins!) or on dessert plates with a drizzle of hot fudge sauce, and watch them disappear.
Seis Leches Cake
This recipe for a tres leches cake (a traditional syrup-soaked confection from Latin America) takes a good thing — namely the combination of milks that saturate its crumb — and doubles it. Instead of just the usual three milks (sweetened condensed, evaporated and heavy cream), it calls for six, adding coconut milk, condensed coconut milk and dulce de leche. Like the original version, it’s a dense, puddinglike cake flavored with cinnamon and rum. But here, notes of coconut and caramel lend complexity and even more richness. Serve this in small squares, preferably with a bitter espresso or some tea to sip between syrupy bites.
No-Bake Cheesecake Bars
No-bake cheesecake is an excellent dessert for cooks with a lot of friends and not a lot of time. Unlike a traditional cheesecake, the no-bake variety is eggless, making it smooth, light, and all about the dairy. This version includes tangy Greek yogurt and a bit of whipped cream for added loft. Serve big squares with in-season fresh fruit or a dollop of fresh jam.
Yellow Sheet Cake With Chocolate Frosting
This is the kind of dessert worth dreaming about: a buttery yellow cake topped with a chocolate-sour cream frosting, made doubly rich with cocoa powder and melted chocolate. The batter may seem thin when you spread it in the pan, but, once baked, it rises to perfection. It’s not a towering, lofty cake — it’s not meant to be — but when it’s covered with a generous layer of frosting, it makes for the ideal cake-to-icing ratio. For a perfect cake, make sure designated “room temperature” ingredients truly are; this helps ensure that the batter is fully incorporated so the cake bakes evenly.
Lemon Sheet Cake With Raspberry Whipped Cream
This lovely cake was inspired by the colors and flavors of pink lemonade. Don’t be tempted to skip the first step of this recipe, which asks you to rub lemon zest into granulated sugar: The sugar granules help release the essential oils in the zest, making for a brighter lemon flavor and fragrance. (If you’re really short on time, you can skip using your hands and just mix with the paddle attachment inside the mixer bowl on low speed for 1 minute.) Slather this sunny cake with swoopy, easy-to-make raspberry whipped cream then serve as is, or dressed up with lemon zest or sprinkles.
Buttermilk Banana Pudding With Salted Peanuts
Banana pudding typically sits on the sweeter side of the dessert spectrum. Despite layers of instant pudding, vanilla cookies, sliced bananas and meringue or whipped cream, the sweet snack can feel a little one-note. But with a few simple tweaks and some new ingredients, it can feel fresh. The addition of buttermilk gives the custard a tangy zip of acidity, and tossing the Nilla Wafers with salted brown butter imparts a nutty, caramel-like flavor. Sour cream is incorporated into the whipped-cream topping, which helps the heavy cream stay firm while refrigerated and turning this into a fail-proof make-ahead dish. Garnishing the top with some more crushed cookies and chopped salted peanuts provides the pudding with crunch.