Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Maple-Walnut Blondies
An autumnal riff on classic blondies, these are a treat for the true maple fanatic. Adding maple syrup to the batter and toasting the walnuts in maple syrup gives the blondies double the maple flavor, while a splash of bourbon in the batter mellows the sweetness. Make sure to underbake these slightly: The key to moist, chewy blondies is to take them out just before they’re fully baked. Refrigerate the blondies for optimal chewiness; they're especially good straight from the fridge.
Ham and Cheese Quick Bread
This is the kind of savory cake that you make once and then play around with for years to come. In this version, there are chopped roasted red peppers, small chunks of ham, some herbs and three cheeses (mozzarella, Parmesan and fontina). The cheeses could be Cheddar and Gruyère and a semisoft, easily meltable cheese of your choice. The batter could have chopped Calabrian chiles or pepperoncini (go easy on these hot peppers), a different mix of herbs, scallions or shallots for the chives and pancetta or bacon bits for the meat (or you can skip the meat). Cut the cake into fingers to have with wine or serve it alongside soup or salad. And if it goes a little stale, simply toast it.
Pumpkin Fudge Torte
With a texture that falls somewhere between pudding and ganache, this bittersweet torte is silky smooth and very rich. The whipped cream topping, run through with spiced pumpkin purée, is a fluffy contrast to the torte’s denseness. You can make the torte two days ahead. Store it, well wrapped, in the refrigerator, then let it come to room temperature before serving.
Pound Cake With Brown Butter and Pecans
This twist on a traditional pound cake takes the ordinary and turns it into something extraordinary, making the longtime favorite taste like a buttery, nutty maple-glazed doughnut. Beyond being delicious, it’s also a great way to use up any pecans, rescuing them by toasting them and tossing them in a sweet glaze. (If you like, you can also use a mix of pecans and walnuts.) It’s a big cake, great for a crowd, and a little goes a long way. But it keeps well in the fridge and is especially nice heated up for 15 seconds in the microwave.
Strawberry Jelly Cake
This layer cake is affectionately referred to as “Grandma’s Cake” by many Southerners. Using jelly as the filling and the frosting is a wonderful way to add fruity flavor to a cake year-round. The jelly seeps into the cake, so there’s no need to brush on a simple syrup to keep it moist. This recipe uses cake flour, which has less protein than all-purpose flour and yields a more tender crumb. But it can be prone to clumping. Sift it into the mixing bowl, or use a whisk to aerate it and break up any lumps. “Frost” the sides of the cake with jelly or buttercream, or just let it drip down the sides. When making this cake in the summer, you can top it with sliced fresh strawberries.
Fluffy Cheddar Biscuits
These biscuits are golden and crisp outside, light and fluffy inside, and wonderfully cheesy inside and out. They come together in minutes, and triple basting them in butter (before baking, halfway through baking and once more when they come out of the oven) really takes them over the top. You may be tempted to skip the 3 tablespoons of sugar in this otherwise savory biscuit, but don’t: It’s the secret to the biscuit’s tender interior. Inspired by Red Lobster’s buttery biscuits, these are drop-style, which means you just scoop up the batter and gently plop it onto baking sheets. Try to handle the dough gently to avoid compressing it, which can result in a less-than-fluffy biscuit.
Parsnip Sheet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting and Ginger
Like carrot cake, parsnip cake is lightly spiced, exceedingly moist and slathered with cream cheese frosting. This version, adapted from Susan Spungen’s cookbook, “Open Kitchen,” is less sweet than most. In her original recipe, Ms. Spungen candies slices of fresh ginger root to make a spectacular presentation, but store-bought crystallized ginger tastes just as spicy-sweet and delicious.
Skillet Gingerbread Cake With Apple Butter
Apple butter is the surprise ingredient here. Along with molasses, it makes the gingerbread moist, flavorful and a good keeper. The cake’s got a mix of traditional spices — ground ginger, cinnamon and cloves — as well as crystallized ginger, which has a soft, chewy texture and adds a bit of heat. If your ginger is hard, steep it in hot water for 30 seconds, drain and pat it dry. The gingerbread is sweet, but not very, so it’s as good with ricotta, yogurt, a swish of cream cheese or even a slice of Cheddar as it is with whipped cream, ice cream or hot fudge.
Mixed Apples Pie
This is essentially a classic double-crusted apple pie, packed tight with fruit, but it calls for a wide variety of apples, giving it far more flavor. For the most nuanced filling, use as many different types as possible: A mix of sweet, tart, crunchy and tender apples will yield complex tastes and textures. The sharp acidity of lime juice heightens the tanginess of your blend, half of which should be firm apples to keep the filling from collapsing. To ensure success with the crust, keep the ingredients cold, popping them into the freezer if needed, and work quickly with a gentle touch. A generous layer of spiced cookie crumbs prevents the bottom crust from getting soggy and lends even more warmth.
Garlicky Mashed Potato Cake
If you like the creaminess of mashed potatoes but not the uniform texture, try this potato cake, which is like a cross between hash browns and a classic mash. Made with fluffy baked russet potatoes and flavored with garlic, browned butter and tangy sour cream, the cake is cooked on the stovetop, then transferred to the oven, where it takes on a crispy, golden brown crust. Make sure your nonstick skillet is oven-safe, or use a very well-seasoned cast-iron skillet.
Cranberry Spice Bundt Cake
This tall and tender Bundt cake pulls off the trick of being cozy and zingy at the same time. It gets its soft crumb from yogurt (although you could use sour cream or buttermilk) and its pop from puckery fresh cranberries and a mix of cardamom, coriander and ginger. It’s festive with a cranberry icing and classic with a dusting of powdered sugar. And it’s a cake that can go through the seasons — think about swapping the cranberries for dried fruit in the winter and berries in the summer. It’s great with blueberries.
Champagne Cocktail
To toast The Minimalist column upon its exit from the pages of the Dining section, a Champagne cocktail — developed with help from the bartender Jim Meehan. It is appropriately celebratory and bittersweet.
Mango Pie
When Hrishikesh Hirway was a kid, his parents, who immigrated to the United States from Maharashtra, in western India, began hosting Thanksgiving. The meal soon evolved into a hybrid of a traditional Thanksgiving and an Indian potluck. “Out of that cultural mash-up, my mom started making this mango pie,” he said. She’d gotten the idea from other Indian aunties in the States, but their versions weren’t as good. “They weren’t making it with the best kind of mango,” Hirway explained. “The Alphonsos have a stronger, more intense flavor.” That Alphonso flavor shines as brilliantly as the pie’s bright filling, made tangy and rich with the addition of cream cheese and whipped cream. And the salty, crumbly graham cracker crust is the perfect foundation for the golden cloud of custard that sits atop it. It’s so satisfying that you'll catch yourself cutting sliver after mouthwatering sliver of pie.
No-Bake Cheesecake With Caramelized Pineapple and Coconut
Pockets of jammy caramelized pineapple are a thrilling discovery in this creamy tropics-inspired cheesecake. Coconut milk and lime zest are added to the cream cheese filling, which is set in a crisp gingersnap crust. Caramelize the pineapples ahead, if time permits — the longer they sit in the syrup, the better they’ll taste. Serve the cake sliced in squares, topped with toasted coconut flakes, if desired.
Keema Samosas (Chicken Samosas)
In Pakistan, home cooks have varied takes on samosa fillings — this one combines spiced ground chicken with cilantro and green chiles for freshness — but most agree on store-bought spring roll wrappers for the shells. Convenience aside, these ready-made pastry sheets are the key to unparalleled crispness. Samosas are commonly assembled in big batches and frozen uncooked so they’re ready to fry anytime.
Classic Carrot Salad
Maybe your family has made carrot salad forever, or maybe you’ve seen it at potlucks, but if you’re not familiar with this Southern classic, your inner voice might be screaming, “Raisins don’t belong in salad!” But relax: This just might be the only time they do. The soft, sweet raisins complement the crunchy carrots, which are finished with a tangy dressing. Soak the raisins in hot water to give them a different, more plump texture. If you aren’t a fan of mayonnaise or yogurt, use 2 tablespoons avocado oil or olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice, and add some chopped fresh parsley. Let the crunchy-sweet flavors roll over your tastebuds as you realize you’ve made a simple, and delicious, dish in less than 15 minutes.
Cacio e Pepe Cheese Puffs
Ina Garten’s 12th cookbook, “Modern Comfort Food,” was published in October 2020. As always, she seemed to have her finger on the culinary zeitgeist: Comfort was the order of the day. These puffs, which she adapted from the Brooklyn chef Missy Robbins, combine the richness of classic gougères with the bite of black pepper and Parmesan.
Roast Chicken
With an ingredient list just four items long (chicken, olive oil, salt, pepper), the genius of this bare-bones roast chicken is in its technique. To make it, thoroughly preheat a cast-iron skillet before sliding into it a seasoned bird, breast side up. In under an hour you’ll get a stunner of a chicken, with moist, tender white meat, crisp, salty chicken skin, and juicy dark meat all done to a turn. If you don’t already have a cast-iron skillet large enough to hold a whole chicken, this recipe is a good enough reason to invest in one.
Porchetta-Spiced Roasted Potatoes
The flavors of Italian porchetta — garlic, fennel, rosemary, sage, thyme and black pepper — infuse the olive oil that coats these potatoes for an intensely fragrant, golden and crisp side dish. The herb seasoning is added halfway through roasting to prevent it from burning, as well as to maintain the herbs’ fresh and vibrant flavors. These potatoes can accompany any large roast, such as beef, pork, turkey and chicken, and also pair beautifully with fish like salmon and cod. With the addition of some mayonnaise and chopped fresh celery, leftovers can be turned into a zesty potato salad.
Florentine Dip
A good dip transcends time — especially one with fresh herbs, which makes this 1959 recipe from Craig Claiborne stand out amid other recipes from the convenience food era of the 1940s and ’50s. Studded with capers, garlic and anchovies, the dip comes together quickly, then sits in the refrigerator, ready to buy you time should your guests arrive early while the rest of the meal runs late.
Sholeh Zard (Persian Rice Pudding)
This cozy dessert from Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico, the owners of Nixta Taqueria in Austin, Texas, is a take on sholeh zard, a loose, heavily spiced Persian rice pudding Ms. Mardanbigi grew up eating. It also borrows influence from the Mexican arroz con leche of Mr. Rico’s childhood. Their take is warm and smoky with black cardamom and saffron, velvety from egg yolks and butter, and has a savory finish. It calls for arborio rice instead of the usual basmati to add a slight chew, and strawberry powder instead of rosewater to provide similar floral notes with a punch of acid.
Cranberry Lemon Meringue Pie
All the goodness of lemon meringue pie tastes even better with cranberries in the mix. It’s not just their fruity tartness that makes them so appealing, the little berries are also full of pectin, which helps set the filling so that it’s soft yet sliceable. And, of course, they give the pie a bright magenta hue. To show it off, you can dollop the whipped egg whites only in the center, but the unanchored meringue may slide around when you cut wedges. You can cover the top completely to keep the meringue in place and surprise guests with the brilliant pink filling.
Asado
Asado, a complex, salty-sour dish of pork shoulder slowly cooked in tomato sauce flavored with garlic, soy sauce and calamansi (a small citrus fruit), is a dish frequently eaten in Pampanga, said to be the culinary capital of the Philippines, and it is often served at large gatherings. This recipe comes from Chad and Chase Valencia, brothers and owners of the Los Angeles restaurant Lasa, who serve their mother’s asado alongside turkey and honey-roasted ham at Thanksgiving. The trick to the asado’s rich depths is evaporated milk; for a little extra salt and heft, you can add grated queso de bola, the nutty Filipino cheese served during the holidays. Don’t skip the overnight refrigeration step, which really allows the flavors to deepen.
Roasted Turkey Ramen
On Thanksgiving night, with dinner pillaged and in ruins, Joshua Mangerson picks off the remaining meat from the turkey carcass, submerges it in chicken stock and lets it simmer. The next day, turkey leftovers are transformed into turkey ramen, with mushrooms, scallions and a six-minute egg in each bowl. The rich, cloudy broth is an ode to the Strongbow Inn, the turkey restaurant that Mr. Mangerson’s great-grandmother opened in 1940 on the family turkey farm in Valparaiso, Ind. Mr. Mangerson, who worked summers at Strongbow as a teenager, makes his own chicken stock first, with chicken backs and necks collected over a summer of grilling, but you can use store-bought stock and still get a strong boost of flavor. The recipe may look labor-intensive, but “I wouldn’t want anyone to be scared away,” he says. “It’s not difficult to do. It just takes time, and you have to care.”