Snack
974 recipes found
Chew Bread
For many families growing up in North Carolina, chew bread was commonly served as dessert or a snack, especially after a Sunday church service. This recipe is from Doretha Mitchell, the mother of Ed Mitchell and grandmother of Ryan Mitchell, longtime pitmasters in Wilson, N.C., who now help run True Made Foods, a food company making barbecue sauce and other condiments. She sold the chew bread, along with other desserts, in the 1980s at a supermarket she owned with her husband. Adapted from “Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” by Ed Mitchell and Ryan Mitchell (Ecco, 2023), this recipe is significantly chewier, denser and less sweet than a blondie. The snack likely originated from sharecroppers who made it with leftovers they received from white families. It also has different names throughout the South, like cornbread cake, or chewies in South Carolina.
Everyday Dal
The warming, soothing and downright healing effects of dal are well known throughout South Asia and its diaspora. This is an everyday dish for a good reason: It’s simple to make but tastes complex, and the flavor only deepens over time. There are countless ways to make dal; this version requires just 10 minutes and five ingredients (not including salt), all serving important purposes: The lentils cook quickly, the turmeric lends an earthy wholesomeness and the rich chhonk, or tempering, made by sizzling spices with ghee, brings instant depth. To gussy it up, try adding a packet of frozen spinach, or stirring minced garlic into the chhonk. If you’re tempted to use ground cumin instead of cumin seeds, resist! The seeds have a distinctly smokier flavor and add a pleasant texture to the dal.
Muufo (Corn Flatbread)
Fluffy and slightly sweet on the inside, with crunchy outer pockets, this cornmeal flatbread needs time to rise but cooks up quickly in a skillet. In Somalia, muufo is normally baked using a traditional tinaar (tandoor) clay oven. For many that are a part of the Somali diaspora, the cooking method has adapted from using a tinaar to pan-frying muufo or making it on a grill. Muufo’s texture is best when it's consumed right after it's freshly made, as it stiffens over time. If consuming on a different day, freeze the dough and pan fry when you’re ready to eat it. Pair muufo with chicken suqaar or suqaar hilib, or vegan fuul or cagaar. Muufo’s pillowy interior is great for soaking up all the delicious juices and flavors from any of these dishes.
Sheet-Pan Quesadillas
A single quesadilla thrown together on the stovetop takes mere moments, but when you want to make a larger batch all at once, a sheet pan comes in handy. Lightly greasing the pan results in the richness of a stovetop quesadilla, and the dry heat of the oven gives you crisp tortillas and bronzed, bubbling cheese in 10 minutes. A sprinkle of salt on the tortilla maximizes its inherent nutty flavor and all it needs is cheese to be a great quesadilla. But, a little extra filling in the form of vegetables — like corn kernels and onions, or leftover beans or shredded chicken — would be welcome. Serve with the usual accouterments: raw onion, cilantro and avocado, maybe sour cream and salsa or hot sauce, whatever you like to eat with your quesadillas. This recipe makes 6 quesadillas, but that amount can easily be scaled down.
Chewy Lemon Cookies
These cookies have an Italian-inspired taste and an American texture. The flavors of lemon, polenta and rosemary may remind you of biscotti, or a lemon-polenta cake, but the cookies are as crisp-edged and chewy-centered as they come. The recipe uses Sarah Kieffer’s pan-banging technique, which requires quite a specific dough-ball size and wide spacing on the sheet pan to work. Make sure each round of dough is 3 ounces, and don’t bake more than four balls on one pan. These giant cookies are even better when they’ve cooled slightly — they become chewier and the rosemary emerges.
Spice Bun
Widely believed to be a descendant of hot cross buns, this Jamaican spice bun soars with vibrant spices. It boasts a moist, tender crumb, and a rich, earthy hue thanks to the inclusion of molasses and stout. While this anytime snack is enjoyed year-round on the island, it’s also a beloved Lenten and Easter tradition for many. Typically, it’s served with a generous slice of sharp Cheddar cheese, but spreading a small pat of good salted butter on a piece of the warm, straight-from-the-oven loaf also delivers a special kind of pleasure.
Chocolate Doughnut Muffins
These supersoft, pillowy chocolate muffins are reminiscent of your favorite chocolate doughnut, but with no fussy frying necessary. Packed with sour cream and just a drop of oil, they stay moist and delicious for days. They come together quickly in one bowl, so you can mix them up for a morning treat or afternoon snack without much effort. The cinnamon-sugar coating gives them a crunchy and lightly spiced exterior, which is a pleasing contrast to their soft centers, but they are just as tasty with a heavy dusting of confectioners’ sugar instead.
Doubles
Easily the most recognizable and beloved dish from Trinidad and Tobago, doubles are an expression of migration and fortitude. Badru Deen is the son of Emamool and Raheman Rasulan Deen, who conceived of the dish in 1936 in Princes Town as a way to support their large family, bridging Indian flavors with the ingredients of their Caribbean home. Doubles are addictive: The turmeric-and-cumin-laced bara (fried bread) are crisp but soft, cradling spiced chickpeas that are punctuated with sour, spicy, sweet and crunchy condiments. As with all deep-frying, have a splatter guard handy, and open a window. Traditionally, doubles are served with mango chutney and pepper sauce, chadon beni or culantro chutneys, but, inspired by the cross-island connections found in “Islas: A Celebration of Tropical Cooking” by Von Diaz (Chronicle Books, 2024), these can be topped with mint-cilantro chutney from Mauritius and tamarind sauce. Sauces are optional, but strongly encouraged. Doubles are messy by design, and turmeric will stain your clothes.
Vegan Banana Bread
If you’ve never tried to bake anything before, this is a great place to start. (You don’t even need a cake pan!) And if you’re an expert in the kitchen, you’ll be delighted with this quick bread that’s as tender as cake. Overripe bananas not only deliver their deep sweetness, but also bind together the batter made from pantry ingredients. With neither dairy nor eggs, this treat tastes like the purest form of banana bread and also ends up being vegan. You can skip the crunchy topping or swap in your favorite nuts, or black or white sesame seeds. You also can stir a cup of mini chocolate chips or finely chopped chocolate into the batter before baking to take this from breakfast treat to dessert.
Birthday Cake Blondies
Think of these as a starter birthday cake to make for friends — they travel well and feel like a party wherever you’re handing them out. Despite the sheet of sprinkles coating the top, these blondies aren’t cloyingly sweet. The batter has just enough brown sugar for a gentle butterscotch richness and a good hit of salt. Toasted at the edges and chewy in the center, these bars also have tiny crackles of caramelized sprinkles throughout.
One-Bowl Chocolate Cake
Fluffy and tender, this chocolate cake comes together quickly in one bowl. It’s a friendly little birthday cake with its dead simple frosting (or a really great snack without). A blend of oil and buttermilk or yogurt keeps the crumb moist, as does a nice pour of hot tea. Oolong gives the cake a floral aroma, while using coffee instead highlights the cocoa’s bittersweetness. Plain hot water gives this an old-fashioned chocolate cake flavor. The two-ingredient frosting – essentially cream and chocolate melted together, then cooled until thick enough to swoop and swirl – can be made in the same bowl used for the cake batter. You can sprinkle flaky salt, chopped toasted nuts or sprinkles on top too. But, frosted or not, this cake welcomes coffee, tea or ice cream.
Chunky Chocolate Cookies
Crisp at the edges and soft in the center, this chocolate cookie is lumpy with hooks of broken pretzels and melty chocolate chips. Built on a foundation of beating an egg with sugar until pale and full of tiny bubbles, it combines all the satisfying richness of a brownie with an almost airy lightness. Baking soda also helps lift the dense, dark dough in the oven. Once out, the craggy rounds deliver the irresistible pair of salty crunch and creamy sweetness in the tender, chocolaty cookie. You can switch-up the mix-ins with whatever you like: chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, toffee bits, nuts or a combination. Just use a cup total for this amount of dough. And do consider keeping the pretzels no matter what else you throw in. Those little hits of salt turn perfectly good cookies into great ones.
Fruit Crumble
The buttery blend of oats and nuts in this easy, warm dessert stays nubby and crunchy while baking over the juicy fruit. (It also happens to be gluten-free.) A chai spice blend is especially nice in the mix, but other sweet-leaning spices like cinnamon and cardamom taste just as good. Any blend of fruit works, and keeping the peel on apples, pears and stone fruit not only streamlines the preparation but also adds a pleasant chewiness. If you want to go all berry, stick with fresh options; frozen fruit ends up too wet. (Thawed frozen berries work just fine with a mix of sturdy fresh apples and pears, though.) You don’t have to serve a warm bowl of this crumble with ice cream, but you probably want that creaminess swirling into the jammy fruit.
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PB&J
The perfect PB&J has an ideal ratio of peanut butter to jelly, a particular bread thickness, and a deliberate construction. Here's the explanation.
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Chip Butty
The chip butty, a sandwich of fried potatoes on buttered, untoasted white bread, is a staple at fish and chip shops across the United Kingdom—and is the sandwich you never knew you needed.
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British Chips
Shatteringly crisp with a soft, fluffy interior, British chips are something of a marvel when done right, and are especially delicious when you season them liberally with a dash of salt and malt vinegar.
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Bread Pakora (Potato Fritter Sandwich)
Dipped in a chickpea flour batter and fried, these turmeric and chile-spiced potato sandwiches are a favorite snack for many across India, where they’re a popular street food and also frequently made at home.
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Vada Pav (Indian Deep-Fried Potato Balls on Rolls)
To make vada pav—one of Mumbai's most popular snacks—layer spiced, deep-fried potato balls with savory garlic and a bright cilantro and mint chutney.
One-Bowl Molasses-Chocolate Cake
This simple recipe, rich with chocolate chips and earthy molasses, is both forgiving and budget-friendly. It gets much of its moisture and fat from oil, which has a number of benefits. First, oil-based cakes also keep wonderfully, staying moist and delicious – sometimes even tasting better – after a few days at room temperature or in the refrigerator. But, best of all, its reliance on oil means that the batter comes together in one bowl and quickly. Bake it today, and serve it alongside a milky tea or coffee.
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Shokupan (Japanese Milk Bread)
After experimenting with various flours and methods, I've finally landed on a foolproof recipe. Here's the science behind how to make a gorgeous, tender, and long-lasting loaf.
Homemade Pop-Tarts
These adorable D.I.Y. Pop-Tarts are a bit more work than the original toaster pastries, which were created by Kellogg in the 1960s as a sort of all-in-one, portable toast and jam, but making them at home means you can customize the fillings and toppings to suit your fancy. You can use two rounds (about 14 ounces) of store-bought pie dough for the pastry, but this cream cheese version is easy to put together and even easier to work with. If it starts to get too soft while you’re rolling and cutting it, pop it into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes and try again. This recipe includes a quick berry jam for the filling, but you can use about 3/4 cup store-bought jam, too. Peanut butter and jelly would be pretty great, as would chocolate-hazelnut spread. These keep well stored in an airtight container for about a week. Wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, they also freeze like a dream for up to 3 months.
Whole-Wheat Za’atar Flatbreads
These herb-smeared flatbreads can be an ideal snack or appetizer with (or without) a little labneh or feta, or they can accompany a main course. The dough is easy to mix by hand, preferably several hours in advance of baking to let it hydrate and mature and allow gluten to develop. Za’atar, a lightly salted spice blend containing wild thyme, sumac and sesame, makes a delicious topping. Though you can make your own, it’s worth a trip to a Middle Eastern grocery where many different versions are sold.
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Pengat Pisang (Malaysian Banana Coconut Soup)
Lightly sweetened with palm sugar, pengat pisang—a delightful Malaysian dessert with pleasantly chewy sago pearls, bananas, and rich coconut milk—is the best kind of afternoon pick-me-up.
Ricotta Toast With Roasted Grapes
In this sophisticated take on ricotta toast, Raquel Villanueva Dang, the chef of Baby’s Kusina and Market in Philadelphia, roasts grapes with fresh thyme and salt until the skins pucker and the flesh grows slouchy, verging on collapse. Taste and texture become almost one: jammy and louche, with a tinge of dark wine. She tumbles the grapes over velvety whipped ricotta, with hunks of sourdough on the side. Deepening the contrast of flavors is a salty-sweet glaze of balsamic vinegar cooked down with honey and fish sauce, a nod to her Filipino heritage. If you like, add 1/4 teaspoon mushroom seasoning (an umami-rich blend of pulverized dried mushrooms and salt) to the grapes before roasting, to lend earthiness, and finish the ricotta with a flourish of flaky sea salt and scattered torn mint for a touch of freshness and color.