Susan Spungen

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Some cookies feature tightly piped designs that require a master draftsman’s talents. That’s not this cookie, which looks best decorated with a looser hand. Here, sugar cookie dough is flavored with rosemary and lemon zest, baked, coated with lemony glaze, and sprinkled with crushed pistachios, freeze-dried raspberries, rose petals and pomegranate seeds. Finally, they are drizzled with a bit of pink glaze, Jackson Pollock-style. Each one looks like a little abstract painting, no special skills needed.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This easy sugar cookie dough is perfect for rolling and cutting and bakes into cookies ideal for frosting. It holds its shape well during baking, tastes great, and the flavor can be changed according to whim: Swap out the vanilla and try adding orange zest, lemon zest, finely chopped rosemary or almond extract. You can also give these cookies a radical makeover by decorating them with icing. A few drops of gel food coloring turn them into Color-Field Cookies; red stripes transform them into Peppermint Stripe Cookies; or a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds and pistachios create Abstract Art Cookies. Rubber spacers on your rolling pin are especially helpful here: They’ll help you roll the dough to an even thickness, resulting in beautiful, uniform cookies.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

The classic linzer cookie provided inspiration for this sandwich cookie. You’ll want to roll out the dough on a silicone baking mat or sheet of parchment paper, removing the excess, rather than trying to move each cookie, which might distort its shape. The added bonus is that you can also slide them onto a baking sheet should the dough warm up too much, and chill it until it’s workable again. You can fill these window cookies with any kind of marmalade, jam or preserves — even lemon curd. If using any of the first three, warm the filling in the microwave, adding a dribble of water if very thick. Strain through a sieve to remove the solids, if you want.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This big, irresistible cookie takes almost no time to make, and is great for those occasions when you want a delicious treat, fast. If you think you don’t like anise seeds, you might enjoy their fragrant notes in this recipe, but you can always use sesame seeds instead. Or leave them out altogether — these cookies are still good with just sugar (use turbinado if you don’t have sanding or sparkling sugar). You can keep the rolled-out dough in the freezer, and throw it in the oven for a dinner party. With a little sorbet or ice cream, you have a dessert ready for company.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Caramelized and crunchy on the outside, soft and custardy on the inside, these almost comically thick sourdough slices taste like the love child of bread pudding and French toast. But instead of the usual brioche or challah, this calls for sturdier bread, preferably a not-too-tangy sourdough or country bread with a crust that’s neither chewy nor thick. You want a round or oblong loaf large enough for big pieces and soft enough to absorb the custard. It’s easy to caramelize the French toast in the oven, but the timing depends on your oven and pan, so check it frequently to ensure that it’s burnished but not burned.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Japanese buckwheat noodles are usually served cold or in a hot soup, but here, they’re given a bright jolt of color and texture. Delightfully chewy soba noodles are combined with chicken, mango, snap peas, cucumber and a spicy peanut dressing for a great warm-weather lunch that’s also picnic-friendly. Serve it alongside any grilled meat or fish, or leave the chicken out to make it vegetarian. To make this ahead, prepare all the salad components in advance, but wait until serving time to combine to keep flavors and textures vibrant.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Originating in Capri, Caprese mimics the colors of the Italian flag in salad form using the now-classic combination of mozzarella, tomato and basil. Here, that trinity transforms everyday chicken cutlets into something special. Thanks to the proliferation of hothouse tomatoes (which are better enjoyed cooked than raw), this dish can be enjoyed year-round. Cocktail tomatoes, slightly larger than a golf ball and often sold on the vine, are perfect for this, but any size will work. Simple to assemble, this dish forms its own delicious pan sauce as the liquid from the cheese and tomatoes mingles with the caramelized juices from the browned chicken.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

In the age-old French tradition of fruit confit, it takes many days and many pounds of sugar to make a whole clementine shimmer like a glass orb, preserving it for many and making it more of a conversation piece than anything you actually might want to eat. This is a decidedly fresher take that requires less sugar and time. Individual segments of the tart citrus take a long, warm oven bath in a light sugar syrup until chewy and translucent. They are a perfect topping for Ginger Chocolate Cake almost any dessert or even a bowl of yogurt, fruit and nuts.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

If you are a coconut lover, you’ll want to make these moist, chewy macaroons all the time. Crisp on the outside and pillowy within, they take only a few minutes to put together and keep extremely well. Their perfect texture comes from fluffy sweetened coconut for softness and crunchier unsweetened coconut for more chewiness. Coconut flour, ubiquitous now because of gluten-free baking, is very absorbent and works beautifully to absorb the extra liquid that would otherwise run out of the macaroon, but matzo cake meal can be used during Passover and all-purpose flour any other time of year. Just double check that whatever you use is kosher for Passover.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This fast but fabulous chicken dish pairs Thai-inspired flavors with French technique. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts have weeknight appeal, largely because they cook so quickly, but that also means they can dry out and become tough if you’re not careful. Here, the chicken is gently cooked for about 10 minutes, then simmered in a ginger-scented coconut sauce studded with green beans and corn, resulting in tender and juicy chicken. Slicing the breasts before serving allows the sauce to coat each piece, adding more moisture and flavor. If you want more heat, sprinkle thinly sliced serrano chile over the top before serving. The best part is the entire meal comes together in about a half-hour: If you’re quick, you can get all the vegetable prep done while the chicken cooks.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This tribute to the artist Ellsworth Kelly’s work “Nine Colors,” requires just one decorating skill: mixing colors. Use gel food coloring for the best results, and blend the colors together gradually, using the tip of a toothpick to control their transformation. For muted tones, add a touch of brown, or a complementary color, like a drop of purple to bright orange. Try a mixing lighter color first. Then, once you’ve used it, make it darker. For example, sky blue can be deepened with the addition of royal blue, navy blue or a combination. Don’t feel tied to the colors produced in Kelly’s work, but rather, think of these as an experiment in color.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

In case you’re wondering about the name of this cakey, chewy-edged cookie, which nearly explodes through its sugary crust, it’s a nod to a coffee bar creation in which a shot of espresso tops off a cup of masala chai, the Indian spiced tea. It’s right at home on a traditional holiday cookie plate, thanks to its festive cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves. Feel free to add a little freshly grated nutmeg, if you’re so inclined. A strong coffee flavor adds nuance; black pepper lends a spicy kick; and malted milk powder, browned butter and brown sugar all contribute toasty warm notes to this craveable treat.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Crème fraîche enriches this flourless cake, and dark cocoa powder bolsters its chocolate flavor. Both fresh and dry ginger add a nuance of heat and spice that show why ginger pairs so well with chocolate. Even though this cake is wonderful on its own, unsweetened crème fraîche dolloped on top and chewy, citrusy clementine confit takes this into a very sophisticated neighborhood.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

These chocolate cookies are irresistible warm from the oven, when the chips or chunks inside are still luxuriously liquidy. They then cool to a fudgy, brownielike texture with a chewy edge — if any manage to stay around that long. Both fresh and candied ginger lend sophistication, but feel free to leave them out if you want a pure chocolate experience. These cookies are also ideal for late-night cravings: You can be eating them 30 minutes after you start measuring the cocoa powder.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

If Cheddar on a slice of apple pie sounds good to you, you will love this twist on a grilled cheese sandwich, which marries salty and sweet elements between two caramelized pieces of buttery bread. Look for dark apple butter, with no added sugar, since it will have the richest flavor. Unlike most grilled cheese recipes, which call for building the sandwiches, cooking them on one side, then flipping, this one calls for cooking the sandwiches open-faced, then assembling them.The cheese melts more quickly and reliably if cooked this way. Depending on the size of your bread slices and your skillet, you may be able to cook two sandwiches at a time. You could also have two pans going, or just serve them as they are finished. To serve all four at once, just transfer the cooked sandwiches to a baking sheet in a 200-degree oven while you crisp up the remaining sandwiches on the stovetop.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Inspired by Chinese char siu pork, this weeknight recipe uses an easy cooking method that yields a tasty sauce with a subtle sweetness. The tangy hoisin marinade for the pork can do its job in just 24 seconds or 24 hours. It coats the tenderloin as it cooks, leaving behind caramelized bits in the bottom of pan, which then get deglazed to create a dressing that flavors the rice. As for the garnishes, use as many crisp-tender vegetables as you like, and change them up as you please. Sugar snap peas would be good here, as would shredded napa cabbage, or just about anything fresh and crunchy.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

These crunchy cookie sticks are inspired by Pocky, the machine-made Japanese treat. They don’t pretend to be the perfectly straight version from the box, but they're freshly baked and taste far better. They're also fun to make: The dough is forgiving and easy to work with, so shaping it is as simple as rolling a Play-Doh snake. Decorating presents an opportunity to go wild. Mix matcha powder or pulverized freeze-dried berries with white chocolate; pair milk chocolate with hazelnuts; or combine dark chocolate with almonds or pecans. Sprinkles, shredded coconut or sesame seeds add flair.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to stir risotto constantly, but achieving a creamy risotto with slightly toothsome grains does require some attention. During the cooking process, the rice should always be lightly coated in liquid and bubbling energetically, and the liquid needs to be added gradually: Add just before the rice threatens to stick to the bottom of the pan. For the creamiest results, stir more frequently and more vigorously during the second half of the cooking, when the grains begin to release their starch.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Inky black tahini gives these cookies their dark swirl, sandy texture and nutty taste, which is reminiscent of halvah. But, if you can’t get your hands on black tahini, simply omit it. Instead, add ½ cup plain tahini to all the dough in Step 4, and skip Step 5. The crunchy black sanding-sugar edge makes them truly modern, but you can also use black sesame seeds or turbinado sugar to adorn the cookies.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This savory matzo brei, loaded with caramelized onions and mushrooms, is made like a frittata that you cut into wedges. While commonly eaten for breakfast during Passover, this one serves as a substantial side dish. Leftovers make a nice brunch or lunch, especially with a green salad. The key to a good matzo brei is soaking the matzo just enough to retain a little bit of chew, but not so much that it becomes soggy. Here, the matzo is submerged in boiling water for one minute to soften. If keeping kosher and making this for a dairy meal, use a tablespoon of butter instead of oil for extra flavor.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Wonderful served as a brunch centerpiece or as a holiday side, this rich meatless casserole can be assembled in advance, refrigerated overnight, then baked just before serving. You could certainly prepare it day-of and let the bread soak for 15 minutes before baking, but allowing it to sit overnight will make it more tender. Delicate brioche is the ideal bread for this pudding, and it is available in most supermarkets, often in the form of hamburger rolls, which are a good size and shape for this dish. Challah is also a good option, but it’s a bit denser, so it may take more than 15 minutes for it to soak up the custard.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This easy dish relies on harissa for its flavorful broth. Different brands can vary wildly in flavor and heat, so incorporate the harissa slowly, especially if yours is very spicy, and add more at the end to taste. The final dish does have some sauciness to it: The starch from the couscous will thicken the sauce in the few minutes it takes to go from stovetop to table, but you may want to provide a spoon along with a fork. If you prefer a drier dish, you can reduce the amount of water by ¼ cup.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This version of the classic French soup simmers and bakes in a Dutch oven, while the toast broils right on top. Dried porcini mushrooms, fresh fennel and leeks provide deep umami flavor. Unless you have homemade beef stock on hand, go with a good chicken stock rather than boxed beef stock, which tastes mostly of salt. You could opt for vegetable stock for a vegetarian version, but skip the demi-glace, in that case. The preparation of this soup is time-consuming, but the flavor is well worth the effort. You can make the soup through Step 5 up to two days ahead of time. When ready to serve, reheat on the stove then continue with the final baking step for a hearty communal feast.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

A giant crumbly peanut cookie topped with airy honeycomb and lashed with dark chocolate, this recipe is especially good if you love salty-sweet flavors, and fun to eat too, since you break off shards to serve. Honeycomb candy is one of the easiest confections to make, but, like any candy, it requires careful attention to timing and safety. It’s helpful to have a clip-on candy thermometer to tell you when the sugar is at the right temperature, and you’ll want to transfer the hot sugar mixture to a large bowl. Doing so not only ensures that there is plenty of room for the dramatic billowing that occurs when the baking soda is added, but it also slows the cooking, to avoid burning. This recipe yields quite a lot of pieces, making its perfect for packing into tins for gifts.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Inspired by a series of brushstroke paintings by Ellsworth Kelly, these sugar cookies are meant to be lined up in a tight grid, painted with bold red stripes and arranged randomly. To paint on cookies, they must be first coated with royal icing and allowed to dry, preferably overnight. Luster dust and petal dust, colored powders used in cake decorating, are mixed with peppermint extract (or lemon extract, if you prefer) as a medium. (The dusts are available from cake-decorating stores, craft stores or online.) Make sure the peppermint extract you use is primarily alcohol, which evaporates immediately, leaving the pigment behind, and not primarily peppermint oil, which might stain the cookies. Flat, soft art brushes work best to apply the color, and a plastic paint tray with wells is best for mixing them.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This festive dish is a fairly easy main course for the Seder meal — or anytime. Marinating overnight leaves very little work on the day of serving, but two hours is enough to infuse the chicken with tangy citrus and the sumac. Dried apricots, already more tart than sweet, are marinated along with the chicken and become almost savory in the oven. Using pitted Castelvetrano olives will save you a lot of elbow grease, and their meaty texture and mild flavor are perfect here. After roasting together, everything goes under the broiler to deeply brown and thicken the cooking juices into a tasty sauce.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This plump and juicy roast chicken benefits from tenderizing in a yogurt-lemon-garlic marinade for as long as 24 hours, but if you don’t have a lot of time, slathering it with the mixture before sliding it into the oven will still add flavor, and give the spices something to stick to. Za’atar, a Middle Eastern herb-and-spice blend, can still be hard to find in the supermarket, so make your own by combining sumac, sesame seeds, thyme, coriander, oregano and cumin. You can buy sumac, a garnet-colored lemony spice, in Middle Eastern markets or online, but the rest of the ingredients are most likely already on your spice rack, and leaving out one or two of them is perfectly O.K. If you have a premade za’atar blend on hand, you’ll need about ½ cup to coat the chicken.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

If you like a good kale salad, or any type of crunchy salad, then you will love this one, which combines shredded raw brussels sprouts with roasted brussels sprouts leaves. As with any sturdy greens, the raw sprouts benefit from marinating in the dressing, which uses fresh lemon juice and salt as tenderizers. While the uncooked greens can be prepared in advance, you’ll want to add the warm ingredients just before serving, so you can enjoy the contrast of the crisp leaves and toasted almonds with the tangy shredded sprouts.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

It’s always a clever idea to cook extra rice so that you can make fried rice the next night, or the one after that, using various bits and bobs in your fridge. Allowing the rice a day or two to dry out makes it doubly flavorful: Since the grains have less moisture, they’ll absorb even more flavor from whatever liquid you add to them. Plus, the dry grains remain separate, which means more surface area to soak up any seasoning. When it comes to fried rice, anything goes — leftover meat or fish, or whatever stray vegetables are lurking in your produce drawer or freezer will do. Just make sure you don’t crowd the pan, or your rice will steam instead of crisp.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Finding a brunch dish that feeds a crowd can be a challenge, but this large-scale frittata does just that by layering sausage, kale and fontina with cream-thickened eggs. Use any fresh sausage you like (chorizo, merguez, or hot pork sausage work well), and swap in mild Swiss chard or peppery mustard greens in place of the kale. You can prepare this dish the night before serving by cooking through Step 5 and layering the sausage, vegetables and cheese in the baking dish. Let it warm up slightly at room temperature before adding the eggs, then bake as directed. Baking times will vary depending on how cold or warm the dish is, as well as its depth and ingredients, so keep an eye on the eggs; they should be just set in the center.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This sunny dinner cooks entirely in the oven on two sheet pans, so both the vegetables and gnocchi are cooked properly with minimal effort. Asparagus, shallots, leeks and peas balance out the rich, caramelized gnocchi, but you could experiment with your vegetable choices: Cut delicate vegetables in larger pieces and firmer vegetables in smaller pieces so they cook at similar rates. Refrigerated gnocchi (often labeled “skillet gnocchi”) work best here, but shelf-stable gnocchi are also fine. Simply boil them first.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

You might be tempted to call this a focaccia, not pizza, and you might be right, but it probably falls somewhere in between. Store-bought pizza dough can be a real time-saver, but if you can’t find it refrigerated, you’ll need to plan ahead to defrost frozen dough. Defrosting is best done for 24 hours or so in the fridge — or longer, as the dough will continue to ferment and improve in flavor after a day or two. The dough is easier to stretch if it’s not ice cold, so let it come to room temperature. The pancetta can be omitted for vegetarians, but the lemony herb and arugula salad on top is not to be missed.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

With its assertive coffee and spice rub, this brisket cooks long enough to become very tender. A final sear under the broiler thickens the sauce into a glaze for the top. This recipe calls for the lean first cut, also known as the flat cut, and works with the much fattier second cut, sometimes labeled the point cut or deckle. This dish is delicious the day it’s made, but tastes even better prepared ahead of time. After chilling, the meat is easier to slice and the fat a snap to remove.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

This crunchy, tasty, not-really-fried rice gets a big umami punch from gochujang, the fermented Korean red-pepper paste that’s worth keeping in your fridge to perk up all sorts of dishes. As with any fried rice, you can add raw or cooked vegetables according to what you have on hand (though you’ll want to add cooked vegetables a little later in the cooking process). If you don’t have brussels sprouts, you could use any type of cabbage. Broccoli or cauliflower would be great substitutes for broccolini, and butternut squash can replace the carrots. The fried egg on top makes it feel like a more substantial meal, but you can leave it out for a lighter dinner. If you are a vegetarian, leave out the sausage, or add some smoked tofu. The dish is endlessly customizable.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Use cast-iron cookie stamps to leave imprints on this beautifully textured shortbread, which is flavored with tangy orange and lemon zests. The stamps, which are available online, are a fun way to shape and decorate cookies without much effort. (Don’t be afraid to be generous with the flour, on the cookie balls and on the stamps themselves, shaking off excess so you still get a clean imprint.) But if you don’t have stamps, you can roll and cut the dough using a simply shaped cutter, or roll the dough into a log for slice-and-bake cookies.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Traditional tsimmes is a stew of sorts that includes sweet potatoes, carrots, one or two kinds of dried fruits, and spices. It’s usually served as a side dish at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, but it also makes frequent appearances on the Passover Seder table. The word “tsimmes” sometimes means a fuss or commotion, or even a muddle. This version is anything but fussy and definitely not muddled. Here, halved sweet potatoes are simply roasted and served with a scrumptious glaze that includes prunes, orange juice, fresh ginger and a hit of lemon.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Thumbprints are the simplest of cookies, but these are packed with flavor from freshly toasted nuts, each paired with its own filling: pecans with dulce de leche (or homemade caramel sauce, if you have some on hand), hazelnuts with Nutella, or pistachios with a festive pool of red currant jelly in the center. Choose a single combination, or make a batch of each. These cookies benefit from forming the thumbprint halfway through baking, but if you can't take the heat, let the dough soften a bit and then press the thumbprints into the dough before baking.

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Susan Spungen · NYT Cooking

Whole roasted cauliflower is a sight to behold and never fails to delight, especially when it’s topped with a verdant blend of herbs and pistachios. This version delivers a browned cauliflower that ends up soft enough — custardy almost — to serve with a spoon. And it all comes together in one pan, with water added right to the skillet to steam and soften the cauliflower while it roasts over caramelized onions. Sprinkling some Parmesan on top is a nice way to finish this dish.