Samantha Seneviratne

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

These lightly sweetened, chewy little bars are made with rolled oats, apple butter, cinnamon and maple syrup — all the essentials for a cozy breakfast. Try them freshly baked with a hot latte, or top them with a little bit of yogurt, fresh berries and a drizzle of honey for a fun breakfast sundae. You could even finish the day with a square tucked under a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Is it cake? Is it a breakfast? You decide.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Perfectly petite, these apple cinnamon muffins are sweet, spiced and ideal for breakfast or an on-the-go snack. Use whichever apple you like best — Granny Smith for tartness or Fuji if you like your apples on the sweeter side. Brushing with melted butter and cinnamon sugar gives them a soft doughnut-like vibe, but a crunchy, crumby topping would be nice too! To switch it up, combine ¾ cup flour, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ¼ teaspoon kosher salt with 4 tablespoons of melted butter. Sprinkle this mixture over the batter before baking.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

An apple galette is the quintessential fall dessert. With so few ingredients and only a bit of sugar, the apples can really shine. Look for sweet apples that hold their shape after baking like Golden Delicious, Pink Lady or Honeycrisp. If you’d like a little more acidity you can mix the apples to include more tart varieties like Granny Smith. Brushing the crust with heavy cream helps achieve a bit of shine and nice color. If you don’t have heavy cream, you can use milk or a lightly beaten egg to create a similar effect.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

These perfectly portable hand pies are made with standard pie dough ingredients, but the method is slightly different. In order to create puffed, layered, super-flaky pastry, the dough is rolled out and folded multiple times in order to create thin layers of butter that melt and create steam in the oven. This step is somewhat unnecessary when it comes to baking pies in pie plates because the filling would prevent major puffing anyway. A hand pie is baked free form, so it has all the room in the world to puff up. These are lovely and just sweet enough, but if you’d like to dress them up a bit, combine 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 to 2 tablespoons of whole milk, and ½ teaspoon vanilla and drizzle before serving.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Perfect for breakfast, these bars feel like cake but taste like a granola bar in the best way. They are light but substantial. Instead of old-fashioned rolled oats, these bars call for quick-cooking oats and a little bit of all-purpose flour. Rolled oats don’t soften enough in a quick bread but quick-cooking oats bake up soft and fluffy. Delicately flavored with cinnamon and a bit of applesauce, they are simple but satisfying and easily dressed up. Try adding up to 1½ cups of mix-ins like chocolate, shredded coconut or dried fruit, or a combination. Leftover slices are delicious toasted in a skillet with butter and sprinkled with flaky sea salt.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

The quintessential breakfast on-the-go, these banana muffins are tender, light and just sweet enough. A pinch of cinnamon is all they need but ½ cup of chopped walnuts, chocolate or even candied ginger wouldn’t hurt. Starting the oven at 425 degrees gives the muffins a boost right at the start. The water in the batter (from the bananas and sour cream) turns to steam quickly and the muffins puff up and create a nice dome. Lowering the heat to 350 degrees then allows them to cook through more gradually. Just don’t forget to turn the oven down right before you pop the muffins in.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

These waffles tick all the boxes. They’re light, crisp, delicately sweetened and will make your kitchen smell like heaven as they cook. Belgian waffles are thicker than standard waffles and are often leavened with yeast. This version uses baking powder and whipped egg whites to make it easy to cook up big, crisp fragrant waffles without a lot of foresight. There are two important factors that ensure the lightest, crispiest waffles. First, make sure that your waffle iron is very hot and that the waffles are cooked through completely and well-browned. Secondly, when ladling batter into the waffle iron, make sure to completely fill the wells. Crisp edges can only develop if the batter makes contact with all of the grooves.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

This beauty has all the beloved flavors of the classic Black Forest cake — cherries, chocolate and cream — re-assembled into a casual sheet cake perfect for summer picnics and birthday parties. To make the process even simpler, you can make and refrigerate the cherry jam up to 3 days in advance. Feel free to use fresh or frozen fruit (and there’s no need to thaw first, if using frozen). You can make this cake in the summertime, when fresh cherries are at their peak, or in the dead of winter, when you need something fresh and fruity to brighten your day.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Brownie brittle is the perfect treat for that person in your life who loves the edges of the brownie. It’s deeply chocolaty and gives a very satisfying crunch with every bite. This version is topped with chocolate chips, but you can dress them up any way you like. Consider a trio of chocolate chips, crumbled graham crackers and mini marshmallows for s’mores fans. Or try broken candy canes and chocolate chips for a wintry mix. Freeze-dried raspberries and toasted coconut could be a lovely fruity combination. Whatever you do, don’t skip the chocolate chips; they are essential.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Fluffy, soft butter cake and fresh peaches are a match made in heaven. This butter cake is made using the reverse-creaming method (the dry ingredients are coated in fat before the wet ingredients are added), which makes for a supertender, melt-in-your-mouth cake. While you can use fresh or frozen peaches in this recipe, it would be best to save the juiciest in-season fruit for eating out of hand, as overly ripe fruit could make the cake soggy. Baking the medium-ripe peaches, artfully nestled in a buttery bed, brings out their natural sweetness and transforms even less-than-perfect fruit into something special.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Buttermilk pie is one of those desserts that can be made with pantry staples whenever the fancy strikes: a make-do pie, if you will. It belongs to a category of pies, also called desperation pies, that home cooks turned to when ingredients were scarce. Start with a store-bought crust or your favorite pastry and then fill it with a deliciously simple custard flavored with the appealing tang of buttermilk and lemon and the creamy richness of butter. Blind baking, or baking an empty crust with pie weights, is an important step for many custard pies. The baked custard slightly softens the underlying crust, but blind-baking sets the crust and gives it a head start towards crispness. Be sure to fill the empty, chilled crust with enough pie weights, beans, or rice to come all the way up to the top so that the edges don’t slump down while it bakes.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Preserved lemons are lemons that have been packed in salt and spices and allowed to ferment in their own juices. The resulting fruit softens and becomes even tangier with a satisfying salty pucker. You can rinse them before chopping and adding them to soups, stews and dressings, or you can use them as is. Here they add an unexpected zing to a simple buttermilk-based potato salad. Look for them in the international aisle at the supermarket or make your own.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

What happens if you take carrot cake and cross it with oatmeal cookies? You get a lovely little portable snack that’s soft and tender (thanks to a bit of cream cheese in the dough), chunky in all the right places and drizzled with just the right amount of tangy frosting. Try the cookie recipe as written, or add in 1 cup of chopped walnuts or golden raisins for even more varied texture.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Agrodolce means “bittersweet” in Italian and usually refers to a tangy sauce made with honey or sugar along with vinegar. This summertime riff is inspired by the Italian classic but uses fresh plums to add an additional sweet tart element. Simmered with sherry vinegar and honey, the softened plums make a beautiful sauce to top simple chicken thighs making this a weeknight meal that’s lovely enough for company. Round out the meal with some rice and roasted asparagus.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Overripe bananas find another happy home nestled in these super-moist, chocolatey muffins. These muffins teeter between breakfast and dessert thanks to the addition of semisweet chocolate chips. For an extra special treat, warm halved muffins in a skillet with a pat of butter and sprinkle with a bit of kosher salt. A swipe of cream cheese wouldn’t hurt either. Freeze overripe bananas peeled in order to make baking with them even easier. Let them thaw first and then stir any liquid back in before measuring the mash.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Simple but satisfying, these little snack cakes check all the boxes: They have a buttery, vanilla-scented crumb and the perfect amount of chocolate. They look like dessert, but could also make a sweet, transportable breakfast. They are perfect as they are, but if you’d like to dress these cupcakes up for a party, you can dust them with powdered sugar or frost them with some chocolate buttercream.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Malted milk powder, made from barley malt, milk powder and wheat flour, adds a subtle toasted, nutty flavor to baked treats. It pairs beautifully with chocolate and is used here to add a hint of roasted sweetness to both the chewy, fudgy brownies and the glaze. Don’t skip the crushed malted milk balls, which really take these brownies to the next level. Extra malted milk powder can be sprinkled over ice cream, whisked into milkshakes or hot chocolate, or stirred into frosting.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

These little cuties are light and fluffy, with just the right amount of chocolate flavor to complement but not overpower the salty-sweet peanut butter frosting. Made with oil instead of butter, the batter can be made by hand in minutes, and the resulting cupcakes stay nice and moist. They’re sure to be hit at the next bake sale or picnic.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Torta caprese is a dark, rich almond and chocolate cake lifted only with whipped eggs. Originally from the Italian island of Capri, they’re usually made with raw almonds or almond flour. This version uses toasted, salted almonds to add a bit more savory, roasted almond flavor. The almonds must be ground in a food processor before folding into the batter, but if you don’t have one, feel free to substitute 6 ounces almond flour plus ½ teaspoon more salt. Adding some of the sugar to the egg whites while beating makes it much easier to achieve medium-stiff peaks without over-beating them. It also makes them smoother and easier to incorporate into the chocolate mixture and helps create a light flaky top.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Clams, tomatoes and chorizo come together quickly to make a simple and satisfying one-pot dinner. It tastes of the sea without being overly fishy, and the tomatoes add acidity and brightness while the chorizo gives it richness and a bit of smokiness. While some brands of tinned shellfish can be on the pricier side, consider that each 4-ounce can packs in up to 4 dozen clams without the bulk of the shells. Look for whole clams in brine and olive oil for the best flavor.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Rice Krispies treats are a classic dessert for a reason. They’ve got everything: crunch, chew, buttery sweetness and just the right amount of salt. You’ll get extra credit for browning the butter first. What happens if you also stir some cocoa powder into the browned butter before mixing in the rest of the ingredients? The classic transforms into something deeply chocolatey, gooey and even a bit sophisticated. These treats are reminiscent in flavor to hot chocolate, thanks to the cocoa and marshmallows, but you can enjoy them any time of year. For some campfire vibes, stir in about ½ cup broken pieces of graham cracker with the crisp rice cereal.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Reminiscent of the Almond Joy candy bar, these blondies are gussied up with a hefty dose of chewy, sweetened coconut flakes and crunchy salted almonds. They are made with melted butter, which makes the process of throwing them together super simple and gives the final product that heavenly chew. For extra pretty bars, be sure to reserve some of the add-ins to sprinkle on top before baking.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Not to be confused with macarons, macaroons are chewy coconut cookies that are super simple to make and naturally gluten-free. This version uses a bit of condensed milk to make them creamy and rich as well as some whipped egg whites to lighten them up. The result is a perfectly chewy and fluffy macaroon. A little almond extract and some toasted nuts make them reminiscent of Almond Joy candy bars and take them to new heights. If you’re short on time, skip the chocolate dipping step and simply drizzle them with the melted chocolate and sprinkle with nuts.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

These holiday cookies take all the best parts of a towering coconut cake — the buttery, yellow cake and billowy cream cheese frosting — and shrink them down to the cutest tiny treat. Sweetened shredded coconut and unrefined coconut oil (for the most coconutty essence) in the dough is the source of their signature flavor, while a finish in glaze and more shredded coconut — tinted in whatever color you like — gives them their bright flourish. If you’re tight on time, though, skip the frosting and drizzle the cookies with some melted chocolate or toss them in powdered sugar to finish. They'll still look like they're ready to party.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

What’s better than rich and fudgy cocoa brownies? Decadent brownies with a layer of creamy cheesecake swirled throughout. When making the cheesecake layer, the cream cheese should be just soft enough to incorporate with the other ingredients easily but not super soft. If it is too warm, the cheesecake batter will be too runny and will flow over the top of the brownies. Instead of creating a swirl, you’ll have two layers. If you want to take these brownies to another level, dollop a bit of your favorite jam or preserves on top of the cream cheese batter before swirling everything together.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

What could be better than an ethereal, sugar-dusted cream puff, with its light and crisp pastry shell and creamy vanilla custard filling? Not much. And they taste even better when you know how easy they are to make. You have a choice when making cream puffs. If you’d like them to look more professional, use a pastry bag when piping out the dough to make perfect, identical buttons. But if you don’t mind wabi-sabi cream puffs, a cookie scoop or a small ice cream scoop makes the job super easy and fast. They bake up a little bit irregular, but beautiful just the same. The same goes for the cream filling. You could use a pastry bag with a small tip to pipe in cream from the bottom of the puff for a seamless finish, but it’s easier to simply cut off the top, scoop in the custard, and replace the top. Just be sure to bake the pastry thoroughly so the filled puffs end up crispy and chewy, not soggy.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

I could eat pastina, the simple Italian dish made from tiny pasta stars, chicken broth, egg yolks and Parmesan, every day. (In fact, I’ve gone on weeklong pastina benders when I’ve been deep in work and unwilling to go to the grocery store.) It’s fortifying, comforting and tastes like a hug. My sometimes tricky-to-feed 8-year old loves it too. Is it soup? Is it pasta? Who cares! It’s a slurpable supper that takes mere minutes to make. The only downside is no veggies! But I’ve come up with an easy solution. While it’s not traditional, the addition of shredded cabbage adds flavor and nutrients without signaling “vegetable!” to the kiddos in your life. It becomes meltingly tender when simmered with the pasta and adds a mild sweetness that goes beautifully with the cheese and butter.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Soft and perfectly chewy, here is our best recipe for sugar cookies.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Like a boxed cake mix, but better, this homemade confetti cake is made with cake flour for a soft crumb, — perfect for birthdays or any occasion.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Three types of ginger — ground, fresh and crystallized — run through these flavorful cookies with a secret. Hidden inside is a creamy cheesecake filling that readily complements and tempers their spicy bite. Skip the crystallized ginger, if you like, but it really makes them pop, as does a finish in brightly colored sanding sugar. If you have only regular white sugar, they’ll still be stunning.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

This moist gently spiced cake would be delicious on its own but slathered with an extra-creamy mascarpone frosting it becomes divine, each cutting the richness of the other in just the right way. A classic cream cheese frosting would also be good, adding a slight tang to the overall cake. Be sure to use regular, unsulphured molasses. Blackstrap molasses is too strong for most baking and its use will result in a dense, unpleasant cake. For easy cleanup, measure the vegetable oil before the molasses and honey — the residual oil should help the sticky ingredients slide out with ease.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Slathered in a creamy horseradish mayonnaise, salmon fillet is a weeknight winner. (You can cook smaller fillets or one larger center-cut piece, whichever you prefer.) The key to moist, flavorful salmon is to roast it at a high temperature for a short length of time. Here it’s baked alongside tangy mustard potatoes, but asparagus, broccoli or even green beans would be nice, too. If using less hearty vegetables, just cut the initial bake time down to 5 to 10 minutes.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Compared to garnet sweet potatoes and other types of sweet potatoes, the flesh of the Japanese variety is pale in color, sweeter and somewhat drier. This means that after cooking, they become pleasantly fluffy and creamy, as opposed to watery, and are ready to take on copious amounts of dairy and salt. Here they are topped with a super-simple tahini crème fraîche. Feel free to use sour cream as a substitute for the crème fraîche, but you may want to adjust the lemon juice as sour cream has a bit more tang. If you don’t have a steamer basket or colander that can accommodate 2½ pounds of potatoes, simply roast them.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

In a cookie emergency, why waste time scooping out individual mounds of cookie dough and baking cookies in batches when you could knock the whole process out in one shot? Not only is a skillet cookie easier, but you can eat it with a spoon while it’s still warm. Plus, the edges are chewy and the center is soft and gooey. Add in toffee bits, salty snacks, leftover candy, chocolate chips, nuts or whatever you like to this kitchen sink cookie and you’ve got a great way to make dessert — and to clean out your pantry. For the tastiest combination, make sure to select a mix of sweet and salty treats.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Making a cake in the microwave may not be traditional, but it makes the whole process easy and superfast — and this recipe produces a warm, gooey, pudding-like dessert. Simply mix the cake ingredients together, top with the cocoa, sugar and boiling water, and microwave on high. (Don’t forget to take the ice cream out of the freezer to soften slightly while the cake cooks.) In the microwave, the bottom sets into a supermoist chocolate cake while the topping transforms into a rich chocolate sauce. As microwaves and dish size can vary, knowing when to pull the cake out is the only tricky part. It’s done when you can see a firm cake start to bubble to the surface. Don’t worry: A little underdone is just fine, too. This dessert will continue to set a bit while it cools. The instant coffee is optional but it really does add depth to the chocolate flavor.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

These pies require a fairly simple ingredient list — cream cheese, canned pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice and other baking staples — but one stands out: The butter, melted and browned until the milk solids toast, adds an intoxicating nutty flavor and aroma. The simple step takes the filling to the next level. The flavor of browned butter can easily be lost when mixed into batter and baked, so here, the fragrant butter is instead whipped into a classic cream cheese frosting. Sandwiched between two fluffy, delicately spiced pumpkin cakes, it really shines.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Sweet, savory and super-simple, this dish is made mostly from pantry staples and cooked all in one pot. Chewy raisins add an unexpected sweetness tempered by a bit of acidic red wine vinegar. Canned tuna is a great protein choice for weeknight dinners but be sure to buy the oil-packed variety for cooking — it’s much more tender. If you find it, high-quality oil-packed jarred tuna is even tastier. That said, jarred and canned tuna is fully cooked, so it’s best added at the end to warm the tuna through without overcooking it.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Flavorful and quick-cooking pork tenderloin is a great choice for a weekday dinner. Here it’s paired with a nutty tahini and citrus slaw to cut through some of the breaded pork’s richness. In this recipe, the finely chopped parsley stems, which can take a bit more heat than the leaves, are added to the breading for color and freshness. Use pre-sliced red cabbage to cut down on the prep work, if you like. And, you can swap the pork out for chicken breast tenderloin or even your favorite white fish fillet.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Peanut butter and bananas make a delightful sandwich. Why not put them together in a loaf? The peanut butter gives the banana bread a pleasant savory edge. Be sure to use sweetened, conventional peanut butter, but the texture — chunky or smooth — is up to you. The chocolate chunks already give this bread a dessert vibe, but if you’d like to go all out, finish the cooled loaf with this salted caramel glaze (stirring in a tablespoon of peanut butter along with the sugar).

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

This basic pumpkin roll hits the spot. The cinnamon-scented cake has a soft, airy texture that works well with the decadent American buttercream filling. It’s simple and satisfying as is, but could also be a great jumping off point for experimentation: Fold a bit of chopped chocolate, toasted coconut, raisins or your favorite nuts into the cake batter, or flavor the buttercream with bits of spicy candied ginger, earthy molasses, maple syrup or floral honey. You could even swap the buttercream altogether and fill the cake with your favorite cream cheese frosting or a simple whipped cream. The possibilities are endless.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

These melt-in-your-mouth butter cookies get their lovely tender texture from the addition of a bit of tahini in the dough and the use of egg yolks instead of whole eggs. While sesame and pistachio are a beautiful combination, you can feel free to use whichever nuts you like and have on hand. Rich macadamia nuts or toasted almonds would also be especially nice. For an even more pronounced sesame flavor, toast the seeds before using.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

A quick rest in spicy, superflavorful Thai green curry paste — made from aromatics and herbs like cilantro, galangal, garlic, lemongrass and fresh chiles — imbues skirt steak with complex floral heat. Besides making wonderful curries and marinades, the paste makes a great addition to soups, dressings and sauces. Look for jars or cans in Thai markets or the international aisle at the supermarket. Green curry paste can pack quite a bit of heat; red curry paste will offer slightly milder results for this dish. Serve this steak alongside a sliced tomato salad for extra color and brightness.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Sweet and spicy ssamjang is a Korean sauce, mostly used for grilled dishes. Made with slow-fermented soybean paste, it’s salty and pungent and adds quite a bit of flavor, perfect to spruce up some ground pork for a quick, weeknight meatball. You can buy it in the Asian grocery section or make your own. Try these meatballs in a lettuce cup with rice and kimchi or served straight-up with some grilled vegetables.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Tahini, a smooth paste made from ground sesame seeds, is nothing short of a pantry superstar — both sweet and savory dishes benefit from a healthy swig of the rich, creamy sauce. Here, tahini flavors a one-bowl yellow cake, giving it a pillowy texture and nutty flavor. Swirled with chocolate, it’s reminiscent of your favorite halvah candy. Be sure to use semisweet chocolate – anything darker is too sour and would clash with the sesame.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

Cookies artfully decorated with royal icing are a holiday classic, but their fine details and beautiful colors can take hours to achieve. Not with these gorgeous cookies. Once the icing is made and stained, it takes only a few minutes to decorate. The icing is simply poured over the cookies, a technique inspired by the one used to pour swirly colors of mirror glaze over smooth cakes. (For a quicker alternative to royal icing, simply dip or drizzle the cookies with melted chocolate.) No two cookies will be the same, and that’s a big part of the charm. Underneath the exterior is a crisp, satisfying shortbread flavored with heaps of bright orange zest and quintessential winter spices.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

This bake-sale classic features a sandy, soft crust, a layer of caramel and pecans, and a final chocolate topping. These small bars go a long way: Usually, the caramel layer is thin and tends to melt into the crust, but this version doubles the caramel for a rich, buttery confection. Perfect for the lazy baker, the caramel cooks in the oven, making a candy thermometer unnecessary. The pecans toast while they simmer in the bubbling caramel, resulting in deep toasty flavors without much work at all.

Samantha Seneviratne · NYT Cooking

This may seem like a, everyday, birthday yellow cake. Rich with vanilla and topped with a chocolate sour cream frosting, the cake hits the mark.