Milk & Cream
3644 recipes found
Classic Cheesecake
If there’s one dessert that would least benefit from innovation, it would have to be New York-style cheesecake. No tricks, no twists; Just a crumbly graham cracker crust and lots of lightly sweetened cream cheese. Baking a cheesecake without a water bath might seem like you're tempting fate, but if you do so at a low enough temperature, it will cook the filling gently and evenly without the risk of curdling or scorching. While cracks on the cheesecake's surface won’t affect the taste, they can be unsightly and are most likely to occur when there’s a sudden temperature change (say, from the oven to the fridge). To reduce the chances of cracking, let the cheesecake rest in the oven a few minutes before transferring to the counter to cool completely.
Mushroom Wafu Pasta
Wafu directly translates to “Japanese style.” As it relates to pasta, you can expect uniquely Japanese flavors and twists like mentaiko pasta, which is made with spicy cod roe, or the Napolitan, which is made with mushrooms, green peppers and bacon, sausage, or even hot dogs, in a tangy ketchup-based sauce. Kinoko, or mushroom, wafu pasta is a spaghetti dish made with a variety of Japanese mushrooms (and occasionally bacon) in an umami-rich soy-butter sauce emulsified with pasta water. Using bronze-cut dried pasta, with its rough surface, is optional but results in a superior final dish. Bronze-cut pasta is normally labeled as such on the package, otherwise, look for pasta with a surface that is more coarse. (Traditional Italian brands and some organic pastas are often made in this manner). This recipe calls for a full pound of pasta, but it halves easily. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Chocolate Truffles
If the word “ganache” intimidates you, you are not alone. Maybe if the stuff were called “basic, simple and entirely superior chocolate sauce,” more people would make it. Ganache is not just chocolate sauce, though; it is also the basis for the easiest chocolate truffles.
Soft Corn Pudding
Japanese Curry Brick
This recipe for buttery curry brick comes from the cookbook author and teacher Sonoko Sakai, who wanted a homemade alternative to the industrial, store-bought cubes that make the thick, spicy sauce for Japanese curries. Sakai wanted to avoid palm oil, preservatives and artificial ingredients, so her version starts with whole toasted spices, ground into a fine powder and stirred into a gently browned roux of butter and flour. Feel free to play with the spice proportions — increase the chile powder for a hotter curry or the kombu for more sweetness. No matter how you tweak it, the best part about Sakai’s recipe is that it makes enough for several meals, and you can store the extra curry bricks in the fridge or freezer, so you’re ready to make a curry whenever you like (see the note below for instructions).
Chocolate-Butterscotch Icebox Cake
With homemade chocolate wafer cookies and a maple-laced butterscotch whipped cream, this recipe takes icebox cake to a more sophisticated level without sacrificing any of its lusciousness. You can build the cookies and cream into any shape you like — a round, a rectangle or a heart, which is what we do here. If you have cookies and cream left over, you can sandwich them together, whoopee-pie style. The wafers can be made up to a week ahead of when you’d like to assemble the cake. Store them airtight and try not to eat them all before you make the rest of the cake.
Chocolate Pudding With Raspberry Cream
This rich, creamy chocolate pudding is a comforting dessert for two that comes together in no time at all. Use Dutch-process cocoa powder for the richest chocolate flavor, but natural cocoa will work too, if that’s what you keep around. This pudding is also easy to dress up for any occasion. Raspberry cream and a handful of fresh raspberries adorn this version, but you could also top with a dollop of whipped cream or crème fraîche.
Good Housekeeping's Popovers
Pasta With Sausage, Squash and Sage Brown Butter
Whether you’re after a night in with your special someone or your sweatpants, this is your pasta: a cozy combination of spicy sausage and squash that’s glossed with nutty, sage-spiked butter and Parmesan. It’s inspired by the cavatelli with sausage and browned sage butter at Frankies 457 Spuntino in Brooklyn — the most ordered dish on dates, according to the owners, but appealing no matter the occasion, according to us. The key to making the dish sing is the unsexy color (brown). You'll want to get a hard sear on the sausage and the squash, and let the butter bubble until brown and toasty. If you’re looking for a vegetarian option, omit the sausage. The meat will be gone, but the comfort won't be.
Peanut Butter Cookies
No mixer is required to make these craggy rounds that deliver all the comfort of eating a spoonful of peanut butter straight out of the jar — but with the creamy-candy richness of peanut butter chips in each bite. (If you’re a crunchy peanut butter person, you can throw in whole salted nuts, too.) Because of their low proportion of flour, these little disks develop fudgy centers inside lightly crisp edges. There are countless varieties of peanut butter in markets and all yield different cookie results. These use natural peanut butter, which is just peanuts blended with salt, so they taste especially peanutty.
Pasta With Creamy Herb Sauce
This cozy pasta is the perfect place to use up any hard-stem herbs like sage, thyme or rosemary that are languishing in your fridge. Add the herbs and a cinnamon stick to a pot of heavy cream. As they bubble together, the cream takes on a surprising but subtle herbaceousness. Use it to sauce pasta noodles and winter greens. If you don’t have the herbs listed, leave them out or swap in marjoram or bay leaves, or even dried chile, lemon peel, garlic, shallot or leeks. The method of infusing cream with flavorings, then using it to sauce pasta, is open to adaptation. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter.
Puppy Chow
This delightfully messy Midwestern treat is simple enough for kids to make: Just toss crispy cereal with melted peanut butter and chocolate, then dust with lots of confectioners’ sugar. The recipe’s origins are murky, but puppy chow, or muddy buddies, can probably be traced back to recipe pamphlets and community cookbooks from the 1960s. Unlike the version on the back of the Chex cereal box, this recipe calls for a whole box of cereal and for cooling the chocolate-coated cereal a bit, which encourages clusters to form and helps the sugar stick. The cooled cereal is then tossed with confectioners’ sugar on a baking sheet for even coverage. There are many additions to consider: popcorn, chocolate chips, pretzels, nuts, mini marshmallows — the list goes on.
Elaine's Scrambled Eggs
Custard Pie
Inspired by dan tat, small egg custard tarts popular in Cantonese dim sum, this pie is also reminiscent of American and European baked custards and flan from around the globe. The slick, jiggly vanilla filling is delicious for its comforting eggy flavor. It’s simple to whisk together, but if that whisking results in bubbles that pop and crater on top, simply cover them up with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar or ground dehydrated berries. The berries add a pop of color and a hint of fruitiness.
Whipped Cream
Desserts are good. Desserts topped with a flourish of whipped cream are better. For the best results, start with cold heavy cream as well as a chilled bowl and whisk (or attachment if you're using an electric mixer). Play around with one or two of the optional flavorings, but don't go overboard: Whipped cream should enhance a dessert, not upstage it.
Chocolate Dump-It Cake
“A couple of years ago, my mother taught me to make her dense but moist chocolate birthday cake. She calls it 'dump-it cake' because you mix all of the ingredients in a pot over medium heat, then dump the batter into a cake pan to bake. For the icing, you melt Nestlé's semisweet-chocolate chips and swirl them together with sour cream. It sounds as if it's straight from the Pillsbury Bake-Off, but it tastes as if it's straight from Payard. Everyone loves it.”
Thai-Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup
This stellar soup is reviving and cozy, made in one pot, and ready in 30 minutes. It starts with ginger-scented chicken-cilantro meatballs that are browned, then simmered in a fragrant coconut milk broth that’s inspired by tom kha gai, a Thai chicken-coconut soup seasoned with lemongrass, galangal, makrut lime leaves and chile. A heap of spinach is added for color and flavor, and a squeeze of lime adds brightness and punch. The soup is brothy, so serve it over rice or another grain to make it a full meal.
Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake
Fluffier than both cheesecake and pumpkin pie, this dessert combines a silky cream cheese-pumpkin filling and a tangy sour cream topping with a graham cracker crust. The warmth of ginger, ground and candied, ties together the other warming spices: cinnamon, cardamom and turmeric for flavors reminiscent of — and as soothing as — turmeric tea and chai.
Pan-Roasted Fish Fillets With Herb Butter
A blast of heat in a cast-iron pan and a basting of golden butter does wonders for plain fish fillets. This life-changing method is adopted from a former chef and current fishmonger, Mark Usewicz of Mermaid’s Garden in Brooklyn, who also teaches cooking classes in topics like “How to Cook Fish in a New York City Apartment.” The cooking time is so short that the smell — which, if your fish is fresh and not funky, should not be overpowering — will dissipate quickly. And in the meantime, you have an easy dinner of tender fish with a toothsome crust, anointed with nutty, lemony brown butter and perfumed with herbs. You can use virtually any fish fillet, skin on or off, as long as it is not too thick. If the butter is browning too fast, reduce the heat and add a nut of cold butter to prevent scorching, or squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
Salted Peanut and Caramel Matzo Brittle
This is a more advanced version of the popular chocolate matzo toffee, but it’s still easy to make: A layer of caramel bakes on top of then soaks into the unleavened bread, which next gets slathered with peanut butter and topped with crunchy peanuts. For those with peanut allergies — or those who do not eat peanuts at Passover — you can substitute any creamy nut butter and nuts. You can also use tahini and halvah; add snipped, dried apricots or dried cranberries for color; or keep it simple and stick with chocolate — preferably dark, to counter the caramel’s sweetness — as in the original recipe by baker Marcy Goldman in her book “A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking” (Doubleday 1998). Be aware: This dish is addictive.
Vegan Mac and Cheese
Many creamy vegan pasta recipes call for an arsenal of expensive ingredients, but this one relies on more approachable ones, like cashews and almond milk for richness, nutritional yeast for tang and soy sauce for complex saltiness. Sautéed onions do double duty: They serve as a thickener and help offset the sweetness of the cashews. This simple stovetop pasta is wonderful on its own, but feel free to add roasted vegetables, fresh herbs, spices, harissa or hot sauce. For a quick-baked version worthy of Thanksgiving dinner, pile the prepared mac and cheese into a casserole dish, top with panko and more nutritional yeast, and broil for a few minutes until golden brown.
Coconut Macaroon and Mango Bombe
This is a cheater's version of those fancy iced bombes from the ’80s, with two or three layers of bright-hued whipped frozen mousse packed into a decorative mold. Here, a layer of mango ice cream swirled with fresh mango sits beneath a layer of macaroon-studded coconut ice cream. It's a stunning dessert, perfect for a dinner party, and quicker to put together than the time you'll spend locating the macaroons at the supermarket.
Cod and Corn With Old-Bay Butter
This one-pot seafood dinner is inspired by the New England clambake, a festive meal cooked in a fire pit and enjoyed with melted butter. Here, cod and corn cook in a garlicky broth of bottled clam juice for instant shellfish flavor. A final swirl of paprika-spiked Old-Bay butter adds smoky depth to the dish, usually brought by smoldering logs. Leftover butter can be refrigerated or frozen for later use; it’s great on roasted potatoes and grilled shrimp or steak.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
This very simple recipe for silky mashed potatoes calls for roasting potatoes whole instead of chopping and boiling them, which concentrates their flavor and avoids a watery final product. The riced potatoes are light and fluffy, and just enough milk and butter are added to create rich, velvety potatoes while still allowing pure potato flavor to shine through. The mashed potatoes can be made a few hours ahead and pressed on top with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming; rewarm over low heat before serving, adding a touch more milk if necessary.