Thanksgiving
2220 recipes found
Oven Fried Sweets
Cranberry-Cheddar Gougères
Cranberry and Walnut Relish
A knob of butter helps mellow the lip-puckering quality of cranberries in this savory-sweet holiday staple.
Rose Apple Tart
This striking tart is all about the apples, and — believe it or not — it’s fairly simple to make. The crust is the pat-in-the-pan variety, and a mandoline makes quick work of slicing. For the most beautiful results, use firm tart apples with red or pink skin like Honeycrisp, Empire or Cortland, and stand the slices up vertically, rather than laying them flat. This tart is best the day it's made, but the shell can be made a day in advance, if you’d like to break up the work a bit. If you keep vanilla sugar in your pantry, this would be a great place for it. A sprinkle of cardamom wouldn’t hurt either. However you choose to embellish, make sure to use a smooth apricot jam, rather than chunky preserves, for a smooth finish.
Beef Empanadas
Filipinos take snacking seriously, so much so that we devote an entire meal to it: merienda, which may take place midmorning or midafternoon, if not both. Empanadas are a great treat for this in-between time, but also keep well at room temperature — the grace of food built for a warm climate — so you can graze all day. (My family used to buy these by the tray for parties, but it’s nice to make your own and store them in the freezer for later.) In these, a ground-beef filling is tucked inside sturdy but flaky dough, with raisins added early in the cooking to plump with the beef juices. There are variations on empanadas all over Latin America; ours rely on the potency of onion and garlic, and exploit it to the hilt.
Berry Apple-Butter Pie
The deliciously tart apple butter filling in this pie has a deep rosy color, bolstered by raspberries and blackberries. Apples with darker red skins will produce a filling that contrasts beautifully with the decorative golden brown crust: We opted to top the pie with triangle cutouts, but you could use any shape, or even substitute a woven lattice. You can make the apple butter up to 5 days ahead and refrigerate it in an airtight container, but the pie itself is best the day it is made. Store leftovers at room temperature, tightly covered with plastic wrap.
Sourdough Stuffing With Kale and Dates
This stuffing from the chef Suzanne Goin, a Los Angeles native, pays tribute to California, with nods to the sourdough that you associate with fog-strewn San Francisco and to the almonds and dates of the Central Valley. Turkey sausage, kale and sliced chiles are also tossed into the mix. As Ms. Goin explained, “There is no egg and no real attempt to emulsify it like your mom’s stuffing — it’s loose, laid-back and doing its own thing, California-style.”
Cranberry Parker House Rolls
Here's a delightful, tangy twist on the fluffy breadbasket staple; cranberry butter is brushed between two layers of dough then baked until golden. They're fun, they're unexpected, they're delicious. (Bonus: they can be made ahead and frozen up to two weeks before.)
Turkey Gravy From Scratch
The stock can be made weeks ahead; so can the gravy itself. The golden turkey fat from the roasting pan is reserved and forms the base for a rich roux. The finished gravy freezes beautifully and only needs to be whisked in a hot pan and tasted for salt and pepper before serving.
Old-Fashioned Butterscotch Pudding
This creamy pudding, thickened with cornstarch and egg yolks and stirred together on the stove, is as homey as it gets. Spiking the mixture with a little bourbon or Scotch isn’t strictly traditional, but it does add a pop of flavor. Choose bourbon to underscore the caramelized notes of the brown sugar, or Scotch for a savory smokiness and a nod to the name. Here’s a tip: Make sure to bring the pudding to a full, vigorous boil to activate the cornstarch. Otherwise, it may not set. If you’ve ever ended up with thin, runny pudding, undercooking may have been the issue.
Salty Pluff Mud Pie
Community-supported agriculture takes many forms these days, but only in Charleston, S.C., will you find a C.S.A. for pie. Amy Robinette, who grew up in Spartanburg, S.C., is committed to adapting Southern desserts, which have often come to rely on supersweet and artificial ingredients, back to real food. In her kitchen, the chocolate chess pie her grandmother always made — filled with white sugar, evaporated milk, and cocoa powder — has been adapted to local ingredients. The pie gets its name from “pluff” mud, the sticky, sulfurous sediment that lines the bottom of the South Carolina tidal marshes; some say it is the true source of Lowcountry flavor. (Don't let making your own pie crust intimidate you: our pie guide has everything you need to know.)
Condensed Milk Pound Cake
A dulce de leche swirl adds caramel sweetness to this light, moist pound cake, adapted from Margarita Manzke of République in Los Angeles. Although Ms. Manzke makes her own dulce de leche, the jarred kind works just as well here, especially after being marbled into the vanilla-scented, buttery batter. This cake is best served within 2 days of baking. Store it, well-wrapped, in the refrigerator, then bring it to room temperature before serving to best appreciate its gentle flavors.
Rosemary Spiced Nuts
These lightly-spiced cocktail nuts are a cut above the store bought sort. Cayenne adds kick, brown sugar balances the salt and fresh rosemary provides an unexpected woodsy note that really makes them something special. They're fancy enough to toss into a shiny cellophane bag, tie with a bow and give as a gift.
Miracle Mushroom Gravy
This vegetarian gravy has all of the hearty sausage flavor without all of the meat. It came to The Times in 2012 by way of Amy Lawrence, and her husband, Justin Fox Burks, who write the Chubby Vegetarian blog.
Blotkake (Norwegian Cream Cake)
Blotkake, layered spongecake covered with drifts of whipped cream and fruit, is a dessert that Norwegians are passionate and possessive about. It is a traditional sweet finish for any festive meal, whether a long, dark winter lunch or a long, sunlit summer dinner. “Scandinavians really value lingering and feasting at the table,” said Maren Waxenberg, a Norwegian-American cook who lives in New York City and serves this cake at Thanksgiving. Cloudberries are a protected crop in Norway and are rarely available fresh in the United States, but raspberries are a good substitute.
Cheddar Cheese Puffs
Cheddar replaces the more traditional Gruyère, Roquefort or Parmigiano-Reggiano in this French recipe for gougères. The Cheddar performs admirably.
Apple Crumb Crostata
When I saw my mother making her apple turnover, I knew company was coming. I also knew the dough scraps would be my treat. She’d roll them in sugar and cinnamon, bake them and we’d enjoy the flaky, light, buttery morsels together with a cold glass of milk. My mom’s specialty was that apple turnover. Mine, apple crostata. I love its organic shape, and fact that it doesn’t require a dish or pie pan. And because the crostata is baked directly on a sheet pan, it retains its flakiness better than a pie.
Cheese Straws With Pimentón
Back in 2009, Julia Moskin spent some time with Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, the women behind Canal House Cooking. At the time, the two ran their photo and design studio for cookbooks and magazines out of a former newspaper office in the Delaware River Valley. And they spent their days creating recipes for cocktails and snacks, like these cheese straws with pimentón. Ready in a half-hour, they're as good as a party hors d’oeuvre as they are a snack for the whole family.
Lemon-Caper Dressing
Here’s a salad dressing that falls somewhere between special-occasion Caesar and “toss lemon juice and olive oil onto lettuce.” By adding a craggy paste of capers and garlic and a pouf of shaved Parmesan to the lemon and olive oil, you get a puckery, salty mix that’s packed with umami, just like Caesar, but isn’t weighed down by mayonnaise or egg yolks. It works great on arugula, Romaine, kale or radicchio; steamed or roasted vegetables; hard-boiled eggs; and even grains. The recipe developer's mom has been feeding her this dressing since she could chew. Ali adds a bit more garlic and lemon than what you’ll find here, so adjust it until it tastes good to you.
Arroz Con Leche
This recipe for arroz con leche came to us from Veronica Garcia of Houston. The original came from her maternal grandmother, but Ms. Garcia has since made a few adjustments: a little less sugar, a split vanilla bean and no raisins. But she still soaks and rinses the rice two times, making it a little lighter than a traditional rice pudding.
Cane Syrup Popcorn Balls
Cane syrup, a caramelized, concentrated version of pure cane juice, is one of the basic flavors of southern Louisiana, where about half the sugar cane in the United States is grown. Here, use it to give popcorn balls a deep, buttery caramel taste, perfect for a Halloween treat. Make sure to butter your hands well before shaping the mixture into balls. And if you live outside a region where you can get cane syrup, try Lyle’s Golden Syrup, a British sweetener often found in supermarket baking aisles.
Squash Stuffed With Vegetables
Mashed Celery Root And Potatoes
Sugared Cranberries
These little gems are the perfect garnish for just about any dessert, and they are delicious on their own, too. They are pleasantly sweet, tart, and addictively crunchy. Standard granulated sugar is what you need here, but vanilla sugar is really nice if you have it.