Recipes

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This recipe looks hard, but it’s not. Promise. A very easy chocolate cake is transformed into a version of tres leches cake, the classic Latin American dessert, by drenching it with evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream and topping it with a lightly sweetened whipped cream. Each component of this recipe — the cake, the tres leches and the whipped cream — are all adapted from “Simple Cake: All You Need to Keep Your Friends and Family in Cake” by Odette Williams, a choose-your-own-adventure cookbook that provides you with several cake and toppings recipes that you can combine as you wish. Ms. Williams’s recipe doesn’t call for it, but adding a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the whipped cream is a lovely addition. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Maida Heatter, the legendary dessert-cookbook author, tested this recipe 20 times before deeming it good enough for publication in The Times in May 1972. Her toil was worth the trouble: Eight months later, it was named the paper’s most requested dessert recipe of the year. This is an adaptation of the version that appears in Ms. Heatter’s book “Happiness is Baking” (Little, Brown, 2019). It begins with a big batch of chocolate mousse, half of which is baked in a pie plate. As it cools, it sinks in the middle, creating a dense, fudgy cake with a bit of an elevated edge. The remaining mousse is piled in the center, then topped with snowy whipped cream and chocolate shavings. One note: Like most traditional mousses, this one contains raw eggs. Use the best pasteurized eggs you can find. If that worries you, try another Maida Heatter dessert instead.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

With generous layers of dulce de leche, bananas and whipped cream, this dazzling pie is not for the faint of heart. The banoffee or banoffi pie, a mash-up of banana and toffee, was created in 1971 by the chef Ian Dowding and Nigel MacKenzie, the owner of the Hungry Monk, a now-closed restaurant in Sussex, England. The original recipe called for a traditional pie crust, homemade dulce de leche and coffee-flavored whipped cream, but we’ve simplified it for the home cook by using a graham cracker crust, store-bought dulce de leche and plain whipped cream. If you like, you could add a teaspoon of instant coffee granules to the whipped cream. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

If you think you don’t need another Bundt cake recipe, this one exists to prove you wrong. Adapted from Nell Lewis of Platte City, Mo., who entered the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest in 1963, it is a favorite of food bloggers and Pinterest lovers alike. On the surface, it’s not that different from your typical pound cake, but what makes it special is a vanilla-scented, buttery sugar glaze that’s poured over the still-warm cake. Left to sit for several hours before unmolding, the glaze soaks into the cake, making it incredibly tender and rich while leaving behind a delightful sugary crust. There are a lot of variations out there — some with bourbon in place of the vanilla, others with sherry — so feel free to play around. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Depending on where you’re from, this simple dip is known as cowboy caviar or Texas caviar, and it’s a favorite at tailgates and potlucks all over the South. Its creator, Helen Corbitt, a dietitian from New York, had never heard of black-eyed peas when she moved to Texas in 1931. The exact details are fuzzy, but at some point in her 40 years working in restaurants there, she combined black-eyed peas with a simple vinaigrette, and it was a big hit. The recipe has evolved over the years, and you can find a number of variations online. Some contain corn and black beans (as this one does), and others avocado. Some call for bottled Italian salad dressing, others homemade. No matter how you tweak it, it’s always good with a pile of tortilla chips.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Adapted from Diana Henry’s “From the Oven to the Table: Simple Dishes That Look After Themselves,” this true one-pot wonder of chicken, black beans, rice, tomatoes and chiles will make everyone at the table happy. As the chicken thighs roast, the cumin-scented rice soaks up all of the delicious juices. When the timer chimes, the rice and chicken emerge from the oven perfectly cooked. Be sure to use a 12-inch skillet here; a smaller or larger pan might result in under- or overcooked chicken or rice. Leftovers, if you have any, are great in tacos or enchiladas. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

If you’ve spent any time on Pinterest or food blogs, you’ve likely come across a recipe for three-ingredient barbecue pulled pork that can be made in the slow cooker. Methods and ingredients vary, but the recipe almost always calls for boneless pork shoulder, some sort of dark cola (usually Dr Pepper or root beer) and barbecue sauce. Dubious? We were too, so we asked the members of our NYT Cooking Community Facebook page if anyone had ever made it and if they liked it. We received more than 150 very opinionated responses. Many readers have come up with their own clever twists, like using coffee or beer in place of cola, adding onions or chipotles, rubbing the meat with a spice blend and searing the meat before cooking. We tried cooking it a few different ways and found we liked this adaptation best. It calls for a few more ingredients and an extra step or two, but it’s got layers of flavor and it’s still mostly fuss-free. (You can find the pressure-cooker version of this recipe here.)

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This simple, refreshing and not-too-sweet frozen dessert is the perfect blank canvas to show off that fancy Italian balsamic vinegar in your cabinet. Natasha Pickowicz, the pastry chef at Café Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar in New York, developed this easy yet sophisticated recipe for the 2019 NYT Food Festival. Ms. Pickowicz also likes this semifreddo with a spoonful of jam, or a drizzle of maple syrup, chocolate syrup or honey. (The photo shows a tart-sweet combination of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup.) Everything seems to shine against the backdrop of this parfait. If you’d like, you can substitute mascarpone for the cream cheese, although the final result might be a bit softer. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Gently spiced poached pears, vanilla pastry cream and flaky puff pastry are the stars of this sophisticated dessert that was created for the 2019 NYT Food Festival by Rachel Gaylord, the pastry chef at La Mercerie in New York. Ideally, this delicate tart should be eaten the day it’s made, so if you’re planning to serve this at a dinner party, make all of the components in advance and assemble the tart just before your guests arrive. Leftovers, if you have any, should be stored in the refrigerator and brought to room temperature before serving. The pastry will have lost some of its flakiness, but it will still be delicious. (This adaptation mercifully calls for store-bought puff pastry, but if you’re feeling ambitious, you can make your own.) Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

No one really knows who invented chicken Vesuvio, a roast chicken and potato dish in white wine sauce named after Mount Vesuvius, the volcano in Campania, Italy. Some believe the dish first appeared on the menu at Vesuvio, a well-known Chicago restaurant in the 1930s; others believe it’s a riff on the roast chicken dishes that grandmothers in Southern Italy have been making for hundreds of years. (The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.) Whatever its origins, Chicagoans claim it as their own, and you can find it at almost every Italian-American restaurant in the Windy City. The dish always includes plenty of oregano and lemon juice, and usually a scattering of fresh or frozen peas for color. We reached out to La Scarola, one of the most popular Italian-American restaurants in Chicago, for their recipe, and then we adapted it for home cooks. Serve it with plenty of crusty bread, for sopping up the mouthwatering sauce. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These classic no-bake peanut butter and chocolate treats are also known as cow patties or preacher cookies. The story goes like this: If a housewife looked out the window and saw the preacher coming up the mountain on his horse, she could whip up a batch of these cookies in the amount of time it would take him to reach the front door. True or not, it’s a good story — and a great cookie that’s a cinch to put together. Combine all the ingredients in a pot over medium heat, then drop spoonfuls on a sheet pan and chill until set. Be sure to use quick-cooking oats, not instant, when making these cookies. The less-processed oats provide delightful texture and chewiness.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These sugar cookie bars, which are adapted from “American Girl Cookies,” are happiness in a 9-by-13 pan. The addition of cream cheese in the batter makes them very tender and slightly tangy, a perfect counterpoint to the sweet buttercream frosting. You can, and should, experiment with frosting colors and use sprinkles with abandon. Whatever you do, do not overbake these beauties. When testing for doneness, you want a few moist crumbs to cling to the toothpick. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

In 1955, Ernest Morgado, a Honolulu businessman, served a group of farmers grilled chicken that had been marinated in his mother’s teriyaki-style sauce. It was such a hit that he decided to market it with the name “huli huli.” Huli means “turn” in Hawaiian and refers to how it’s prepared: grilled between two racks and turned halfway through cooking. This simplified version calls for chicken pieces and a standard grill. The original recipe is a trade secret, but you can find many slightly different variations on the internet, typically including ginger, garlic, soy sauce, something sweet (honey, brown sugar or maple syrup) and something acidic (vinegar, white wine, lime juice or pineapple juice). This recipe is adapted from “Aloha Kitchen: Recipes from Hawai‘i” by Alana Kysar (Ten Speed, March 2019). It also works beautifully with boneless chicken thighs, but adjust your cooking time accordingly. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

No one really knows the origins of fried coconut shrimp, the crunchy, breaded kind that’s served in chain steakhouses and beachfront restaurants, but its roots are likely found in the tiki bar culture, which was all the rage in the United States after World War II, when access to tropical produce like coconuts and pineapples became an everyday thing. Using egg whites instead of whole eggs and cornstarch instead of flour yields shrimp that are simultaneously crunchy yet light, and go just as well with piña coladas as they do with Champagne. We paired ours with a simple spicy-sweet dip made with marmalade, Dijon mustard and Sriracha, but you can also serve them with store-bought sweet chile sauce.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This vibrant dish is adapted from “Keeping It Simple” (Hardie Grant, 2020), a book of weeknight recipes by the food writer Yasmin Fahr. Miso and ghee are tossed with radishes and rubbed underneath the skin of chicken thighs before both are roasted on the same sheet pan. Fresh scallions, sesame seeds and lime juice provide a bright finish. If you don’t have ghee, regular unsalted butter will do just fine. And if you’ve never had roasted radishes, you’re in for a treat: High heat eliminates the vegetable’s bitterness, coaxes out its sweetness and leaves the lovely pink color behind. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This recipe, adapted from “Chicano Eats: Recipes From My Mexican-American Kitchen” (Harper Design, 2020) by Esteban Castillo, is less dip than it is pasta — a smoky, spicy version of the best boxed macaroni and cheese you’ve ever had. Make a very simple roux, to which you add smoked paprika and three types of grated cheese (mozzarella, Mexican cheese blend and Parmesan). Stir in the noodles until they are glossy and coated. You could stop there or take it over the top by finishing the dish with crumbled, cooked chorizo and sautéed mushrooms. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Just when you thought the world couldn’t improve upon cinnamon rolls, this dreamy mashup comes along. Adapted from “Procrastibaking: 100 Recipes for Getting Nothing Done in the Most Delicious Way Possible” (Atria, 2020) by Erin Gardner, they are actually quite easy to put together: Toss together a basic scone dough, then roll it out, spread it with a sweet cinnamon-butter filling, cut it into strips, roll it up, score and bake. Once cooled, drizzle the roll with a simple vanilla sugar icing, gently break into wedges and serve to the delight of your loved ones. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

When a recipe for a seasoned snack mix first appeared on the back of the Chex cereal box in the 1950s, people went crazy for it. Years later, a Google search for the recipe yields more than two million results for various riffs, from savory to spicy to sweet. Many call for tossing the dry ingredients with the wet, then letting the mix dry on paper towels, but baking it at a low temperature yields crisper, more flavorful results. Hot sauce gives this version a bit of a kick, but if you don’t like heat, you can leave it out. View this recipe as a template to tweak as you see fit: Use crunchy, roasted edamame or green peas in place of the nuts, substitute Thai red curry paste or Sriracha for the hot sauce, or double up on whatever ingredients you like best. Keep the dry-to-wet ratios the same and you can’t go wrong.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

These one-bowl cookies, sometimes known as crispies, are buttery like the Danish cookies in blue tins, tender in the middle like snickerdoodles and snappy like Scottish shortbread. But there’s nothing else quite like them, and they go with everything. No one knows the exact provenance of the recipe, but Nabisco sold a similar cookie called brown-edge wafers until they discontinued production in 1996. This all-butter version is adapted from Millie Shea of Traverse City, Mich., who learned it from her mother in the 1930s. For best results, be sure to cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, and don’t overbake. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Also known as Venetians, Neapolitans or tricolore cookies, these classic Italian-American treats are not really cookies at all, but thin, dense layers of brightly hued almond cake stacked with apricot jam, and coated with glossy chocolate. The layers are traditionally red, white and green to resemble the Italian flag, but, of course, you can play around with the colors depending on the holiday and what you have on hand. This version is adapted from Mary Carpino, from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., who made them every Christmas for years. One of her granddaughters, Nicole Carpino Frasco, passed along the recipe to us. We increased the chocolate and salt slightly, but the festive spirit of the recipe remains. Mrs. Carpino stored them in her chilly winter attic, but if you don’t have one of those, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 5 months. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Cinnamon rolls are always a good idea, but traditional yeast-risen versions aren't exactly a treat you can make on a whim. This recipe, however, comes together in under an hour. Adapted from “At Home With Magnolia: Classic American Recipes From the Owner of Magnolia Bakery” by Allysa Torey, this formula uses baking powder and baking soda to make the dough rise quickly. Toasted pecans add crunch to the cinnamon-sugar filling, and a tangy cream cheese glaze blankets the top of the rolls. The end result is tender, chewy and cakey rolls that taste best when unspooled bit by bit and eaten with your fingers. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

Many people may not think of cumin as a traditional seasoning for Chinese food, but the earthy spice is found regularly in the cuisine of Xi’an, a city in northwest China that is the eastern origin of the ancient trade route known as the Silk Road. Cumin, chile and Sichuan peppercorns are used generously, resulting in bold, not-for-the-faint-of-heart dishes that combine Chinese and Middle Eastern flavors. This recipe, which is adapted from “To Asia, With Love” by Hetty McKinnon, is a vegan riff on the signature lamb dish at Xi’an Famous Foods, a restaurant chain in New York, that is made with chunks of meat dry-fried in a heavy cumin spice mix. This version features tofu and cauliflower. To get vegetarian recipes like this one delivered to your inbox, sign up for The Veggie newsletter. Margaux Laskey

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

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 ¾ 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.

Margaux Laskey · NYT Cooking

This happy little loaf was adapted from “Sun Bread” by Elisa Kleven (Puffin Books, 2001), a beautifully illustrated children’s book about a lonely canine baker who finds herself in the midst of a cold, long winter. Missing the warmth and light of the sun, she bakes a yeast-risen one in her oven, which (surprise!) awakens the real sun, hastening the arrival of spring. You could bake it to celebrate the Winter Solstice and the start of longer days, or just to brighten an otherwise dreary day. It’s a delightfully simple recipe that yields a squishy, buttery loaf best served straight from the oven slathered in more — you guessed it — butter. But it’s also great sliced and toasted with jam. Ms. Kleven’s original recipe calls for shaping a face out of bits of dough, which you can certainly do in Step 4 before the second rise if you’re making this with children, or if you’re a child at heart. Margaux Laskey