Snack
993 recipes found
Biscotti
These classic Italian cookies get their signature crispness from being twice-baked: First, the dough is cooked in logs, cut into slices, then baked again. Because they travel and keep well, a pile of them makes an excellent gift wrapped in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon. Feel free to experiment with add-ins: Sub in hazelnuts or pistachios for the almonds. Add mini chocolate chips or dried cranberries, or a teaspoon of citrus zest. Or take the cookies over the top by drizzling with melted chocolate, glazing with icing or dusting with sprinkles. You do you.
Butterscotch Wheels
This recipe first appeared in “More Quick Breads,” a pamphlet from the Food News Department of The New York Times, published in 1954. The booklet was one of 15 produced by the section covering “easy-to-make” recipes on topics ranging from fish to party cakes. For this recipe, feel free to substitute the nuts, and be sure to eat these small cinnamon rolls right out of the oven.
Cutout Sugar Cookies
This recipe is adapted from a 1981 Mimi Sheraton recipe for Murbeteig, a pie and sugar-cookie dough from Germany. This buttery cookie isn’t too sweet, which makes it an excellent canvas for sugary holiday adornments, like Royal Icing. The dough warms quickly because of the high butter content, so work fast to roll, cut out and transfer the dough to the baking sheets to get the best results.
Creamy Collard Greens Dip With Shito
Cooking Dawn Burrell’s creamed greens is an exercise in extracting as much flavor as possible, as economically as possible: With the trinity of garlic, onion and bell pepper, the dip’s flavor profile is distinct, but the collard greens and shito, a chile sauce from Ghana, are still allowed to shine. This dip can be served as an appetizer, side dish or as the star of a series of smaller plates. And its texture is both inviting and distinct, creamy and wholly spiced. Ms. Burrell serves the dip with crunchy fritters made with rice and fonio, a tiny grain popular throughout West Africa. Pairing the dip with a baguette, a bowl of tortilla chips or slices of toasted bread would also make a solid meal.
Shrimp Bathed in Olive Oil and Lemon
A simple but lavish bath of olive oil and lemon juice is the Italian way of showing off superfresh seafood. The key, according to Marcella Hazan, is that the dish should never see the inside of a refrigerator, which changes the texture of the seafood and the flavor of the olive oil. She calls for shrimp in this recipe, but the formula also works with squid, clams and meaty fish fillets.
Quesabirria Tacos
The little puddle of fat floating on top of a pot of birria is pure gold, stained red from chiles, and rich with all the concentrated flavors of the original stew. In other words: Don’t waste it! Instead, spoon the fat off the top of the broth and reserve it for crisping tortillas to make quesabirria tacos, pan-fried until crisp, with cheese smushing out of the edges and browning in the pan. You can enjoy the tacos with salsas or hot sauce, but the birria meat and cooking oil are so flavorful that a little cilantro and onion are all you really need.
Focaccia
Seasoned with little more than olive oil and crunchy sea salt, focaccia is an ancient bread that is unexpectedly easy to make. Once a staple at Caroline Fidanza’s now-closed sandwich shop, Saltie, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, this recipe from the “Saltie: A Cookbook” is perfect on its own, but also serves as a base upon which you can experiment. If you want to alter its flavor, sprinkling some aromatic dry herbs on top of the dough provides deep savory notes. Or decorate it vibrantly with the vegetables and fresh herbs of your choosing for an Instagram-worthy focaccia garden (see Tip).
Conchas
Conchas, the faintly sweet buns that are made fresh every morning at bakeries in Mexico, are perfect with hot, milky coffee. Their name, meaning “shells,” comes from the pretty, sugary scalloped topping that covers each bun. The chef Gabriela Cámara, of Contramar in Mexico City, says that cooks in Mexico rarely bake conchas at home, but she developed a recipe out of necessity when cooking at Cala, her restaurant in San Francisco. At lunchtime, she splits leftover conchas to make sandwiches, which she says are especially good with spicy fillings.
Bánh Cuốn
Bánh cuốn, or Vietnamese steamed rice rolls, pack platefuls of flavor into every bite. The dish originated in northern Vietnam, utilizing a batter that forms a delicate rice sheet, which gets rolled around a mixture of pork and wood ear mushrooms. Bánh cuốn’s accompaniments generally include bean sprouts, fried shallots, herbs and chả lụa (Vietnamese pork sausage), along with a dipping sauce of nước chấm. Though the dish has a number of ingredients, its preparation consists of simple steps; give yourself ample time to prepare and the cooking process will be seamless. This meal is best eaten immediately, but it can hold in the refrigerator for a day or two.
Stone Fruit and Frangipane Toast
Juicy, late-summer fruits and rich almond frangipane do the hard work here. Consider making these toasts an exercise in generosity rather than technique: Spread frangipane thickly and all the way to the edges of the toast and err on the side of too much fruit, torn roughly and tossed with a pinch of salt, and some sugar to encourage caramelization. If serving this for an after-dinner dessert, add a splash of red wine to the fruit and serve with a dollop of mascarpone. If this is breakfast, you might prefer Greek yogurt as an accompaniment, or a glug of heavy cream.
Crispy Tofu With Sweet-and-Sour Sauce
Inspired by McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets dipped in sweet-and-sour sauce — a classic combination that debuted nationwide in 1983 — this tofu appetizer gets its inexorable crunch from potato starch. Pan-fried until shatteringly crisp, pressed tofu, cut into cute little rectangles, eats a lot like Chicken McNuggets and cooks up gorgeously every time. But the true joy of a nugget lies in the dipping, and this recipe stars a totally chill, no-cook sweet-and-sour sauce. Apricot preserves provide fruity sweetness as well as body, and rice vinegar, soy sauce and onion powder add savoriness.
Bananas Foster Poundcake
Named after a customer at Brennan’s restaurant in New Orleans, bananas Foster is traditionally served over vanilla ice cream or over pound cake. But what if we told you that you could have your bananas Foster baked into cake and glazed with that same sauce? This slightly dense, buttery cake is delicious warm, and super moist. Take care when flambéing — keep a lid nearby to smother any flames — or skip it altogether: Bypass adding the alcohol in Step 3 and simply reduce the sauce on the stovetop. And don’t forget to add that scoop of ice cream and a dollop of fresh whipped cream. You’ll thank us later.
Homemade Dumpling Wrappers
From-scratch dumpling dough requires only two ingredients — flour and water — and the water temperature yields different types of wrappers. Cold water is best for boiled dumplings because it causes the flour’s proteins to form the gluten that makes dough chewy and able to withstand vigorously boiling water. Hot water denatures flour’s proteins, resulting in dough supple enough to roll very thin and into tender wrappers ideal for pan-fried and steamed dumplings, such as chile crisp dumplings. The hot water for this dough should be hotter than warm and cooler than boiling and can come from the faucet’s hot tap. Letting the dough rest allows it to more fully absorb the water and relax, which will make rolling even easier.
Gamja Salad With Cucumber, Carrot and Red Onion
Gamja (“potato”) salad is likely to be included among a sea of other banchan at Korean restaurants, and is typically mounded on a plate using an ice cream scoop. It’s similar to mashed potatoes in texture, mayo-laden like many potato salads, and studded with crunchy vegetables and hard-boiled egg. It’s generally a restaurant food, but when home cooks do make it, the salad might be sandwiched between two slices of soft white bread and eaten for lunch. The world is your oyster when it comes to gamja salad: It may include apples, peas, corn kernels, raisins and even nuts, and you can add whatever you like and nix whatever you don’t. But the cucumber is gibon (“standard”), and essential, because it adds a vegetal freshness that pulls this dish back from feeling heavy in any way.
Carne Asada Cheese Fries
The Piper Inn is one of the oldest, oddest and friendliest restaurants in Denver, loved by bikers and hipsters alike. It’s been owned by the Levin family since opening in 1968, but because so many different cooks have passed through the kitchen over fifty years, it has a Chinese-American-Mexican menu that is entirely unique. Carne asada fries, French fries topped with the fillings of a carne asada (steak) taco, are a California-Mexican classic. The Piper Inn adds a Midwestern-style beer cheese sauce to its popular version.
Tacos Campechanos
One of the best food experiences you can have in Mexico City is walking up to a sidewalk taco stand late at night and smelling the incredible aroma of meats and vegetables simmering in a huge pot over a gas flame. The taqueros start early in the day and add meats like suadero, pork, offal, tripe, chitlins, pig and beef feet, chorizo, onions and chiles into a giant pot, where they cook until the meats fall apart and the flavors fuse together in perfect harmony. On the menu at many of these stands, tacos campechanos include a little bit of everything in those pots.
Olive Oil Refried Beans
Use whatever variety of beans and chiles you’ve got in your pantry to make this recipe, which is inspired by the silky, lard-fried, pinto bean version available at nearly every Southern Californian taqueria. Eat these however you like, whether alongside rice and greens, smeared onto garlic-rubbed toast or spread onto a warm tortilla and with a perfectly fried egg on top. The overnight soak allows the time for both water and salt to penetrate the beans, cutting down the cooking time and leading to better seasoned, more evenly cooked beans. But if you’re short on time, you can skip the presoak; the beans will just take longer to cook through, and might not cook as evenly, which isn’t the end of the world if you’re mashing them up. You can also skip simmering altogether and use the drained, rinsed beans from two (15-ounce) cans and begin with Step 3.
Drop Biscuits With Corn and Cheese
These savory bite-size biscuits are the perfect way to whet the appetite before a big meal. Adapted from “Potluck: Food and Drinks to Share With Friends and Family,” from the staff of Food & Wine magazine, the biscuits are inspired by elote, the Mexican street snack of roasted corn slathered in cheese and spices. These drop biscuits may be made in advance and frozen. Just bring them to room temperature before reheating. Desire a dip alongside? Stir a shot of lime juice and a handful of minced cilantro into some sour cream.
Homemade Tortilla Chips
Of course, you can buy tortilla chips at the store, but there are many good reasons to make your own. For one, they can support more toppings, since they’re likely to be thicker. And you can control the level of salt and browning. This recipe allows you to bake or fry them: Frying results in the crispiest, snappiest crunch, while baking is incredibly easy. If you decide to fry, mind your stovetop heat, adjusting as needed so the chips turn golden in the same time it take them to crisp. The chips are delicious on their own, with salsa or guacamole, or in nachos, chilaquiles or migas. Keep the chips in a sealed container or bag and they will stay beautifully crisp for at least one week.
Berry Hand Pies
These hand-held pies are sold at breakfast time at Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Ga., but they are also a perfect summery dessert. Cheryl Day, an owner, said that she uses less sugar than many Southern bakers do, and likes to round out the flavor of sweet summer fruit with salt and lemon. The difference between a hand pie and a turnover is in the shape. (Hand pies are half moons, and turnovers are triangles.) You can make this recipe either way.
King Cake
This Carnival cake is more like a brioche, with a bitingly sweet frosting and sugared pecans for crunch. Browse the baby shower section of a party supply store for the Mardi Gras king cake baby, where plastic babies are often sold by the dozen. A large dried bean works too. Tradition dictates that whoever finds the baby is king or queen of the party (and also has to bring the king cake to the next Carnival celebration).
Potato Rolls
These extremely soft and fluffy potato rolls make excellent slider buns or a perfect accompaniment to just about any meal. Creamy and starchy Yukon Gold potatoes work well here, as do russets. Boil them until tender, then make sure to save the water you boiled them in, because you’ll use that in the dough, too. Eat the rolls warm, slathered with butter, or turn them into a delicious sandwich. Either way, they stay soft and delicious for a couple of days at room temperature.
No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
There are those who may not find this sweet enough, and if that’s the case I recommend adding a quarter cup or so of sugar instead of increasing the honey, because you don’t want the honey flavor to become overpowering. Other flavor possibilities to add with the blueberries: any citrus you like; a teaspoon or so of very finely ground coffee or cocoa; or chopped raisins or, I suppose, chocolate chips. I prefer the straight honey-lemon combination, unadulterated.
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.