Snack
995 recipes found
Smoked-Trout Spread
The guests are trickling in, and soon the table will be overflowing. But not just yet. What to do? Several days in advance, you may want to whip up your own smoked trout spread to pack in a bowl and offer with bagel chips or squares of pumpernickel. Those impatient stomachs will thank you.
Pear Snacking Cake With Brown Butter Glaze
This moist and tender cake has a similar texture to pumpkin or banana bread, with a delicate pear flavor scented with nutmeg and a touch of clove. But the real star is the brown butter glaze, which is nutty and rich, tasting a little like butterscotch, with a strong vanilla sweetness. The cake keeps well when stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, though the glaze will lose its snap from the chill. Or, bake the cake ahead, then glaze it a few hours before serving for the best texture. You can freeze the unglazed cake as well, up to a month ahead.
Caramelized Bananas With Pecan-Coconut Crunch
This cozy dessert comes together quickly and fills the kitchen with a sweet, buttery aroma. The textures play well together: The spiced caramel is silky but robust, the bananas tender, and the pecan-and-coconut topping crunchy and crisp. Pick ripe but firm bananas so they’ll maintain their shape after cooking. (The bananas should be yellow with no black spots; green bananas won’t work.) Broil them until sizzling, then allow the bubbling caramel to cool and thicken a bit before serving. Devoured directly out of the skillet, or spooned into individual servings, these caramelized bananas are a lovely way to end a meal. Top with a scoop of ice cream for a cool contrast to the warm dessert.
Brooks Headley's Ice Cream Sandwich
Wait a second. Brooks Headley, the pastry chef from Del Posto, is encouraging you to make an ice-cream sandwich with store-bought white bread and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia? Indeed. And he’ll even make the cheeky argument that this quick treat has Italian roots. “A typical Sicilian breakfast is gelato on a brioche roll,” he said. “Ice cream for breakfast! Who isn’t going to love that?” Truth be told, for a dessert at Del Posto Mr. Headley would most likely use a preserved-cherry and stracciatella gelato, but its flavor and texture are not so far off from what you get with Ben & Jerry’s. So butter the bread, crisp it up in a pan, let it cool, then coat it with ice cream and smush it all together. “I finish it with olive oil because, in the words of the great chef Paul Bertolli, olive oil is the best sauce,” Mr. Headley said. He called the result “admittedly trashy, but wildly satisfying.” How could it not be?
Chewy Chocolate Snowcaps
Dense and rich with the flavor of toasted pecans and dark chocolate, these cookies evoke brownies or fudge. They are made with egg whites for leavening and contain no flour, so they are a great gluten-free alternative. The batter comes together fast, although it will seem like the egg whites can’t possibly provide enough moisture. Just keep stirring with a strong spoon and a very thick batter will quickly materialize.
Linzer Trees
These are a reworking of an old “Joy of Cooking” recipe I learned from my friend in Atlanta, Allison Dykes. They are the precious stars of her holiday cookie plate. The dough can be slightly finicky but can be re-rolled and re-chilled several times so all the scraps get used. The ideal thickness is somewhere between an eighth and a fourth of an inch. They need to be thin but not so thin that the delicate cookie breaks. The roasted almonds can be ground in a food processor.
Wet Black Walnuts
Like the wet walnuts you get at your summer soft-serve ice cream place, a pint of this sweet condiment kept in your home fridge will find many uses. Try them on plain Greek yogurt with fresh bananas for breakfast. Black walnuts have a distinct, particular flavor — somewhere between menthol and mold! That intensity is softened to simply pleasant and intriguing by vanilla, maple syrup and strong Earl Grey tea.
Pear Crumb Cake
When it comes to crumb cake, the cake itself is often an afterthought, with all the attention going to the moist brown-sugar crumbles on top. Not so here. This recipe, based on a sour cream pound cake, has a velvety texture and buttery flavor that’s good enough to stand on its own. Of course, the thick pile of large crumbs only sweetens the deal, as does the juicy layer of honey and lemon-spiked pears in between the cake and crumbs. You can bake this cake a day or two ahead; keep it loosely wrapped at room temperature (the refrigerator will make the crumbs soggy). And if you don’t like pears, feel free to substitute about a cup of any gently cooked fruit you do like – apples, fuyu persimmon, pineapple, blueberries, grapes, even leftover cranberry sauce – will all work nicely.
Orange Butter Cookies
The most common mistakes made by home bakers, professionals say, have to do with the care and handling of one ingredient: butter. Creaming butter correctly, keeping butter doughs cold, and starting with fresh, good-tasting butter are vital details that professionals take for granted, and home bakers often miss.
Salty-Sweet Peanut Butter Sandies
This modern classic is reverse-engineered from a cult cookie at City Bakery in Manhattan. They are saltier, richer and tangier than the usual crisscross rounds, thanks to updated ingredients like sea salt, cultured butter and brown sugar. And like any good “sandy” cookie, they have a soft, crumbly texture that melts away on first bite.
White House Fruit and Oat Bars
This recipe came to The Times in an article about Bill Yosse, the White House pastry chef under President Obama. "Mr. Yosses’ most recent mission is changing the White House tradition of the bottomless cookie plate. (Among White House journalists, President Clinton was known for going straight from a grueling run into the pastry kitchen. Only part of it is visible through a window, but reporters outside recognized him by his sneakers.) To edge out the cookies, Mr. Yosses decided to create a child-pleasing crunchy granola bar without nuts, chocolate or white sugar. “We went through many tastings on this one,” he said in his skinny galley kitchen, patting the final result, a mix of toasted oats, sesame seeds and chewy dried fruits into a sheet pan."
Marbled Shortbread With Ginger and Turmeric
This cookie combines ground ginger and turmeric with roasted cashews and white chocolate. A simple shortbread dough, made with a larger ratio of butter to sugar, allows the complex flavors to shine. Shaping the dough into a rectangular block and cutting it into logs keeps things compact in the freezer while also allowing for easy and even slicing and baking. Thanks to the spices and aromatics, the cookies even get a little better with age. Don't worry about getting your swirls perfect. No matter how you do it, these cookies will be as beautiful as they are delicious.
Chocolate-Mint Thins With Candy Cane Crunch
This cookie is a handmade homage to the Girl Scouts’ classic combination of dark chocolate and mint. A bright, festive decoration of crushed candy canes adds color and crunch. If store-bought dark chocolate cookies are available, you can use them instead of making your own. And if you temper the coating chocolate instead of simply melting it, your chocolate shell will have a bit more snap and durability.
Kaya Toast
In Malay, kaya translates to rich, which perfectly describes this toasted bread spread with custardy kaya jam and cold salted butter. Kaya toast is popular throughout Malaysia, Singapore and other regions of Southeast Asia where pandan, the star ingredient, grows as a tropical plant with palm-like leaves. Kaya jam is made with fresh pandan, coconut milk, palm sugar and lots of eggs, which make it creamy. In this version, adapted from Kyo Pang, the founder and the executive chef of New York City’s Kopitiam, milk bread slices sandwiching kaya jam come with soy-seasoned half-boiled eggs for dipping.
Banana Snacking Cake With Salted Caramel Glaze
This buttery snacking cake is a bit like banana bread, but richer, and topped with a sticky caramel frosting that is dotted with crunchy flakes of sea salt. The frosting, made from brown sugar and heavy cream, is easier than a classic caramel, but just as compelling, with the sea salt contrasting perfectly with its sweetness. It’s important to use ripe bananas here. Soft, spotty ones with dark yellow skins will be the sweetest and most complex. Firm, pale yellow bananas just don’t have enough intensity to flavor the cake.
Tahini Shortbread Cookies
Flavored with sesame seeds and tahini paste, these sophisticated shortbread cookies, adapted from "Soframiz" by Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick, have a pleasing crumbly texture and an intense, almost nutty flavor. Serve them as part of a cookie plate for dessert, or with coffee or tea as a midafternoon snack.
Red Pepper Crab Croquetas With Garlic-Almond Sauce
In Spain, golden-fried croquetas are served in tapas bars to the delight of all. They may be made of any number of things, like salt, potatoes or cauliflower. Béchamel is used to bind the mixture, which gives these crab-meat croquetas a luscious center. The crisp and creamy bites are perfect for any gathering, eaten out of hand with drinks.
French Chocolate Brownies
Good brownie recipes abound, and all you have to do is follow them. For a soft, light, buttery brownie, I like Dorie Greenspan’s French Chocolate Brownie.
Spiced Pecan Date Shortbread Bars
Cardamom, allspice, clove and nutmeg are the culprits in these flavorful bars, along with molasses and orange zest.
Pistachio, Rose and Strawberry Buns
Meant for breakfast or as an accompaniment to a mug of hot tea, these Danish-like yeast buns are filled with pistachio cream and strawberry jam, then soaked in a rose water-scented sugar syrup. Adapted from "Golden," a cookbook from Honey & Co. cafe in London, the buns sweet but not at all cloying, with the rose water and pistachio adding a heady perfume. Feel free to substitute apricot or raspberry preserves, or orange marmalade, for the strawberry jam. And if you’re not a fan of rose water, try orange blossom water or even brandy instead. These are best served within eight hours of baking, but leftovers can be refreshed the next day by heating them in a 300-degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until just warmed through.
Caramel Pudding With Chex Streusel
Briar Handly left Vermont for the Rocky Mountains as soon as he finished high school. “I didn’t have much of a plan beyond skiing,” Mr. Handly said. But jobs cooking burgers in turn-and-burn dives led to high-end ski resorts, and then culinary school. Now he’s among a few chefs who are cracking the code of how to make Utah restaurants individual, seasonal and profitable. (Working against 100-mile-an-hour wind gusts and the state’s labyrinthine liquor laws isn’t easy.) Handle, which opened in Park City in September, is his first restaurant as chef and owner, but he knows the local palate backwards and forwards. “Pudding always sells,” he said. Pudding, like Jell-O (Utah’s official state snack) is a staple at Mormon gatherings, where sugar is a favorite indulgence. (Alcohol and nicotine are forbidden by the church.) His sneaky and delicious twist on butterscotch pudding has a breath of whiskey from the High West Distillery across the street; you may leave it out. The Chex streusel brings back every Thanksgiving Day, as he snacked endlessly on bowls of Chex Mix while watching football.
Swedish Almond Cake
Fika is the Swedish custom of stopping twice daily for coffee, conversation and a little something sweet; the word was created by flipping the two syllables in kaffe. Minutes after I had a fika in the Stockholm studio of the pastry chef Mia Ohrn, I started thinking about what I’d serve at my own first fika. This cake, so much easier to make than you’d guess by looking at it, has become my favorite. The recipe turns out a moist, buttery, tender cake, which would be lovely as is. But when the cake is half-baked, I cook a mixture of butter, sugar, flour and sliced almonds, spread it over the top (a homage to Sweden’s famous tosca cake), put the pan back in the oven and wait for the mixture to bubble, caramelize and create a shell that is a little chewy, a little crackly and very beautiful. It’s a perfect cake for fika, and great for brunch.
Black Pepper Taralli
Packaged taralli, available at Italian and gourmet markets, are usually as dry and bland as wood chips. That’s why making your own is so satisfying. These melting little rounds are rich with olive oil and fiery with black pepper — more black pepper than seems possible, or reasonable. If your palate really can't handle heat, use half the amount in the recipe. But if you like chiles, it's fun to be reminded that black peppercorns can also give that delightful burn. The taralli will seem chewy when they come out of the oven, but as they cool and dry out, they will become crumbly, like shortbread. Serve with drinks, preferably something light with a little sweetness, like a rosé, a Champagne cocktail or an Italian Spritz.
Focaccia With Herbed-Honey Plums and Prosciutto
Featuring a combination of tart plums, sweet honey and salty prosciutto, this focaccia is delicious as a snack or appetizer and also as a light lunch when paired with a salad. Go with fresh, ripe but firm plums as they will soften once baked. The herb of choice is rosemary, but any fragrant, woodsy herbs, such as thyme, marjoram or oregano work well, too. Letting the dough ferment slowly in the refrigerator builds more flavor. The dough can be refrigerated up to 3 days in advance of baking.