Snack
974 recipes found
Pecan Pralines
To make pralines is to show a great deal of love and care for the recipient of these resplendent treats. This incredible tradition should be embraced: They are perfect to wrap in glassine bags and hand out one by one, or place in a tin by the dozen as gifts. They’re also perfect to eat standing up in your kitchen. A nod to the Louisiana gas station treats of yore, this version cuts through the sweetness with a bit of salt and vanilla paste. For Southerners, the pralines feel like a bit of a homecoming in their warm, sweet (with a bit of salty) nature.
Cheese Sambousek
These crescent-shaped pocket pastries from Rachel Harary Gindi, a home cook living in Los Angeles are popular in one form or another throughout the Middle East and India. Cooks will find, of course, many variations from all over. This Syrian Jewish version from Aleppo creates the dough using flour and smeed, a fine semolina often also used in Middle Eastern cookies, which is not essential but adds a pleasing texture to the tongue. Some Syrian Jews add several kinds of cheese including feta to the cheese mix. Make this dish your own, as this recipe does with the use of nigella seeds. Topping the sambousek with sesame seeds or (nontraditional) nigella seeds adds a slight complexity to the taste of this mild, homey snack. Though you could certainly brush the tops of the sambousek with water and sprinkle with the seeds, for efficiency you can do as Poopa Dweck, author of “Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews” (Ecco, 2007), instructed: “Dip the dough ball or formed sambousek into sesame seeds before baking. The seeds will stick onto the dough.”
Maritozzi (Sweet Cream Buns)
Soft and stuffed with cream, these buttery buns also have a smear of jam for an additional pop of sweetness in this version of the traditional Italian treat. Maritozzi are a variation of quaresimali, Roman breads made with almond flour and sweetened with honey and dried fruit. Maritozzi are usually made without dried fruit and they’re small, the size of your cupped hand, distinct with their generous filling of cream. Sold in bakeries across Rome, and increasingly around the world, they’re a fun project to make at home too since the steps can be done ahead of time and in stages. This version is tangy with buttermilk and spiced with a hint of nutmeg. They are best enjoyed soon after assembly and can be finished with a sprinkling of confectioners’ sugar for a bit of extra flair.
Sugared Doughnuts
Made from a delicate yet sturdy brioche dough with rich pats of good butter folded in, these doughnuts are soft with almost feathery middles and a delicious deep golden-brown crust. This recipe begins by letting part of the yeasty dough sit for 20 minutes in what’s known among bakers as a pre-ferment. This simple step, along with full-fat buttermilk, gives the doughnuts a lovely tang, and fresh grated nutmeg adds a hint of spice. Like most yeasted doughs, this recipe will require some time on your part, but the steps can be done ahead of time and in stages. These doughnuts are best had while warm, and a quick toss in granulated sugar delivers crunch with every bite.
Chex Mix
While store-bought snacks often inspire copycat recipes by home cooks, the Chex Mix found in every grocery store was actually created in response to the popularity of the recipe first printed on Chex cereal boxes in the 1950s. The savory, crunchy snack mix has proven to have enduring appeal, and many variations and flavors have sprung up since, including puppy chow, the popular sweet version. This savory version is inspired by the original recipe with a few modern tweaks. The ratio of the ingredients makes for a balanced mix, but feel free to tip the scales towards your favorites.
Easy Crudités
A crudités platter can be as simple as a bunch of vegetables piled on a plate, or as composed as a work of art. Use a mix of raw and blanched vegetables, or just raw, keeping in mind that a variety of colors, shapes and textures will help create a beautiful platter and provide guests with more options. Keep the platter simple, or dress it up with additional snacks, such as marinated olives, artichokes, crackers and nuts, and add homemade or store-bought dips, such as hummus, tzatziki or ranch. This recipe easily scales up or down, just plan on about 1 cup vegetables total (blanched and raw) per person. Serve crudités alongside a charcuterie board for a more substantial spread.
Cheesy Pull-Apart Bread
If pulling apart slices of warm, cheesy, garlicky bread is your idea of a good time, do this: Slice crusty bread into a grid pattern, coat every nook and cranny with garlic butter, tuck in some shredded mozzarella and bake the whole thing. What was just a loaf of bread is now a worthy party centerpiece. You can prepare, wrap and refrigerate the loaf up to one day ahead. The format is adaptable, too: Season the butter with scallions, rosemary or other flavorings, or swap the mozzarella for Cheddar, pepper Jack or another melty cheese you’d use for a grilled cheese.
Onion Bhajiya (Spicy Fritters)
On Diwali, people in India light up their homes, say prayers and go door-to-door exchanging boxes of snacks and sweets. In the northern part of the country, some people fry fresh onion bhajiya, or crispy onion fritters, as an appetizer or snack for visiting guests. Palak Patel, the author of “The Chutney Life: 100 Easy-to-Make, Indian-Inspired Recipes” (Abrams, 2023), included her mother’s recipe in her cookbook, which represents Ms. Patel’s life as an Indian American. Her mother is from Raipur, where the street food is dipped in cilantro chutney, but her children and husband like to dip the fritters in ketchup. Depending on the region, bhajiya can also be called pakora or bhaji. They’re often eaten as a snack during monsoons and served with masala chai.
Cast Iron Orange Cake
This is an elegant version of an easy Sunday cake – one that can be made early in the morning for eating a warm slice right out of the oven with coffee, and then letting it sit on the counter to enjoy it as a snack cake as the week rolls along. It magically gets better and better each day. It is adapted from Paul Bertolli’s Bitter Orange Cake recipe in his masterpiece, “Cooking by Hand,” which uses blood oranges. Here, a humble navel orange is used for its friendly sweetness. Rubbing some zest into the sugar, adding fennel and vanilla and flexing the charms of its main character ingredient (the orange), this beautifully simple cake becomes a bit deeper in its character. Playing around a bit with the flour, replacing some of the all-purpose with a toasted chestnut flour or by adding a little semolina, as this recipe calls for, makes for a delightful play on flavor, texture and crumb.
Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake With Coffee Frosting
Tieghan Gerard, who runs the wildly popular Half Baked Harvest blog, posts a new recipe nearly every day, all year round, but her favorite season is (of course) fall, when she brings out the pumpkin-shaped pots, pumpkin-scented candles and toasted pumpkin seeds. Even if you don’t identify with the P.S.L. set, separating the pumpkin spice (cake) from the latte (frosting) makes this a delicious snack cake. Pumpkin purée makes it very moist, so test to be sure the batter is baked all the way through.
Easy Skillet Brownies
These simple brownies are mixed and baked in the same skillet. Chewy and fudgy, they’re everything you want in a brownie but faster and with less mess to clean up. If you don’t have an ovenproof nonstick skillet (preferably ceramic, or you could try this in a very well-seasoned cast-iron pan), pour the batter into a greased 9-inch square pan for baking. You can let the brownies cool and cut them into wedges or squares. Or, serve them warm from the oven and straight from the pan, preferably with a scoop of ice cream plopped on top.
Tomato Pie
The Italian American tomato pie is an elemental dish that lets its simple components — a flatbread covered in tomato sauce — really sing. It comes in different forms in different cities. In Philadelphia, tomato pie is an institution unto itself, typically sold from old-school Italian bakeries. Joe Beddia of Pizzeria Beddia is among a younger generation of chefs in the city who are making their own version of tomato pie. His 24-hour fermented dough produces a focaccialike flatbread with a springy interior and a crunchy, golden-brown crust. He covers it with a thin spread of rich tomato sauce, and finishes it with a generous drizzle of fruity olive oil and restrained sprinkle of Sicilian oregano. Eat it at room temperature as they do in Philadelphia — it makes for an ideal, make-ahead buffet addition, especially on Eagles game days.
Easy Banana Bread
This recipe makes a simple and classic banana bread — lightly spiced with a hint of cinnamon, and incredibly tender thanks to a dollop of sour cream in the batter. For best results, use very ripe bananas, but know the recipe will still work if yours are not yet at the speckly stage. While banana bread is, of course, delicious when it’s warm from the oven, the flavor and texture are actually the best on the second day (if you can wait that long). Feel free to mix 1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips, or a combination, into the batter for this easy, everyday treat.
Sheet-Pan Zucchini, Tomatoes and Feta
The star of this speedy supper is the golden-topped, lightly scorched feta that remains irresistibly spreadable and melty when sliced. Thanks to the direct heat of the broiler, charred and burst tomatoes add juiciness to the sheet pan, along with tender zucchini spears. You could also scatter some arugula or baby spinach over the ingredients, gently tossing to wilt, and eat this dish right out of the pan with some bread for a warm, late-summer salad. During other times of year, you could swap the zucchini for asparagus or broccolini.
Cumin and Cashew Yogurt Rice
Yogurt rice is a nostalgic dish for many South Asians, and especially South Indians. It’s the ultimate comfort food, and a no-fuss dinner that’s easy to put together. Cool, creamy yogurt and crunchy, warm spices create a dreamy contrast that makes this dish feel more whole meal-worthy than snack-friendly (though it’ll serve you well for both). Traditional versions include mustard seeds, curry leaves and urad dal, but this variation includes a different set of pantry staples: cumin seeds, cashews and red chile powder. The trio, plus fresh green chiles, gets sizzled in ghee, enhancing all the rich, smoky, spicy flavors, then gets poured directly over the yogurt rice. Add grated carrots and zucchini to give the rice more heft, or try it with a different combination of spices.
Zaalouk (Eggplant and Tomato Salad)
Zaalouk is a Moroccan cooked salad, similar to baba ghanouj and moutabal, that highlights eggplant in all its glory. Just a few ingredients come together to create a lightly aromatic, herby and melt-in-your mouth dip. There are many ways to prepare zaalouk; what varies is the way in which the eggplant is cooked. It can be steamed, boiled, chargrilled, baked or, as in this recipe, simply cooked on the stovetop with the rest of the ingredients. Zaalouk is commonly served as a starter, however, feel free to enjoy it as a side or as a spread in a tasty sandwich with grilled meat or vegetables.
Furikake Snack Mix
This sweet and spicy snack mix is inspired by furikake snack mix, a Japanese Hawaiian dish that uses a soy-butter blend to coat a cereal mixture and then seasons it with furikake, a traditional Japanese seasoning mix that traditionally combines dried fish, seaweed and sesame seeds, creating deep umami. Taking the original as inspiration, this recipe introduces the use of a pack of store-bought ramen. The ramen seasoning is used to flavor the cereal mix, while its crunchy noodles add texture and flair. The foundation of this snack mix calls for a wide variety of crunchy ingredients, but feel free to streamline your shopping list by skipping one of the snack items listed and doubling up on another.
Pigs in a Blanket
Mini hotdogs tucked into flaky and tender store-bought crescent rolls are equal parts retro, nostalgia and comfort wrapped into one bite-size bundle. Homemade pigs in a blanket are an evergreen party staple and a cinch to make. If you can’t find cocktail-size wieners, you can simply cut half a dozen regular hotdogs into 1 1/2 inch-long pieces and use those. Serve with your favorite condiments, like honey mustard or ketchup. This is a snack that never falls out of favor.
Kosua ne Meko (Eggs With Pepper Relish)
A hard-boiled egg split slightly down the middle and stuffed with a chunky tomato relish, kosua ne meko is a quick Ghanaian snack sold by street vendors. Classic versions include hard-boiled eggs that have been cured by dredging them shell-on through dampened salt a day before. The relish, referred to as “raw pepper,” can taste different depending on the vendor, but it always has crushed tomatoes, red onions and chiles. For home cooks, this can be a simple dish made quickly (or ahead) to share broadly — at the beach, a picnic, an afternoon cocktail party or a potluck brunch. An asanka, a small mortar and pestle with a rough interior, is used to prepare the raw pepper, but a food processor can also step in. Simply salting the egg before adding the relish, or after, can at least hint at the salt-dredging technique.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/20230804-SEA-ToastedRaviloli-RobbyLozano-003-e7bb43d20b734ff7bcc9a56a49a4840d.jpg)
Cheese-Filled Toasted Ravioli
To make this St. Louis specialty, fill thin pasta dough with a mixture of ricotta and mozzarella, then bread and fry your ravioli until lightly crisp—and don’t forget the marinara sauce for dunking.
Tomato Cheddar Toasts
Tomato and Cheddar toasts don’t need fussing — just crusty bread, swoops of mayonnaise, perfect summer tomatoes and the sharpest Cheddar you can find. It’s in the construction where things can go from good to great. Instead of cheese that’s sliced (which can be stiff and unrelenting) or broiled (and coagulated), take a cue from Chris Kronner’s burger wisdom in “A Burger to Believe In” (Ten Speed Press, 2018) and stir finely grated Cheddar into the mayonnaise. When slathered on hot, toasted bread, the cheese will melt into a creamy base somewhere between a queso and pepper-free pimento cheese. It has the pluck of sharp Cheddar, albeit in a plush and delightful form.
Medieval Hummus
The roots of this recipe, an ancestor of modern hummus, date back at least as far as the 13th century, as the Iraqi food historian Nawal Nasrallah writes on her blog, My Iraqi Kitchen. As adapted by Lucien Zayan, a Frenchman of Egyptian and Syrian descent who runs the Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn, you boil chickpeas until their skins loosen and they reveal themselves, tender little hulks with souls of butter. Then you mash them in a swirl of tahini, olive oil, vinegar, spices and herbs, and fold in a crush of nuts, seeds and preserved lemon, sour-bright and tasting of aged sun. Notably absent from the recipe is garlic. Here, instead, the nuts — Mr. Zayan uses hazelnuts, for more butteriness, and pistachios, with their hint of camphor — fortify the chickpeas in their earthy heft, so close to the richness of meat.
Melon Salad With Pistachio Dukkah and Basil
Forget the beach, summer melons are the biggest reason to look forward to hotter temperatures. Run by husband and wife team Zaid and Haifa Kurdieh, Norwich Meadows Farms in upstate New York grows some of the best local produce using traditional techniques from Egypt. Their melons burst with sweet, floral nectar that plays off the basil perfectly, and the dukkah is a nod to the Egyptian farmers that work on their farm. But don’t worry if you can’t get a Norwich melon, this dukkah can exalt any supermarket fruit. A crunchy, nutty spice blend typically made with a widely varying variety of pounded nuts, seeds and spices, dukkah can be found throughout Egypt, sold in tightly wrapped newspaper cones as a quick snack. Be sure to hold onto any leftover dukkah; it’s great with crudités or mixed with olive oil to make a quick dip for warm bread.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/20230718-SEA-Pinarasakan-MichelleYip-hero-5854ba6f16164d008ff665930b326699.jpg)
Pinarasakan (Malaysian Braised Fish With Sour Fruit)
Salty, sour, spicy, and fragrant with turmeric and ginger, this braised fish is typically served with leafy greens and rice.