Snack

This is a most excellent appetizer and it couldn’t be easier to make. You just put everything in the blender and it’s done in about 30 seconds. You can’t beat that.

Pot stickers are one of my family’s favorite appetizers. In fact, my cousins even eat them as the main course. My problem with ordering them from a restaurant is that they never have a vegetarian option, so I prefer to make them at home, where I can sauté chopped cabbage to substitute for the pork.

This dip is so easy it’s embarrassing, but we included it anyway because we love it. We usually make it in two smaller pans, one using chili with meat for me and one with vegetarian chili for Megan. This is the perfect after-school snack, taking less than ten minutes from walking in the door to munching away in front of the television.

Even the thought of making yeast breads can be intimidating, but this recipe is pretty simple and always works. Because of the oil in the dough and all of the toppings, the dough can take a lot of abuse without being a problem. I top the focaccia with whatever we happen to have on hand. It’s also great with sliced tomatoes, garlic, thyme, or mozzarella. This is one of those recipes for which the possibilities truly are endless.

Fried Apple Rings are a great substitute for donuts. I actually learned to make these in Germany when I was an exchange student. My host family made them for special occasions. Although they are sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, the tart apples keep them from being overly sweet. They are best eaten warm, because when they cool, the juice from the apples can make the batter soggy.

Roman Apple Coffee Cake is just about the yummiest food in the world. The inside is moist and loaded with apples and the topping is sweet and crunchy, a perfect combination in my book. This is my grandmother’s recipe. She serves it for dessert, but we figure that all the apples give us a great excuse to call it coffee cake and eat it for breakfast.

Cinnamon rolls are a family favorite. We used to make them with yeast and had to let them rise twice. But, while visiting Germany I found this faster method of making the dough. These are best eaten warm for optimal gooeyness (that’s the technical term). But don’t worry if they get cool, they reheat perfectly in the microwave. These are also really good with a cup of chopped pecans sprinkled in the bottom of the pan.

Kids, naturally, love this ice cream. And it’s easy enough that kids can put it together themselves with a minimum of help from Mom or Dad. To make it even more fun, layer in a swirl of their favorite jam.

We always have bananas in our house, and therefore, we always seem to have a few that are too ripe to eat. What better way to use them up than to turn them into banana bread? Don’t let the color throw you. You can use bananas that are still all yellow, but you’ll need to mash them with a fork first to break them up. I actually prefer to use the ones that have a lot of brown spots or that are even almost totally black because they are very soft and mix in easily.

There’s nothing like the pleasant crunch of crisp, freshly toasted nuts. And there’s nothing worse than biting into an acrid, rancid nut. Since nuts have a relatively high amount of oil, you should taste a couple before using them to make sure they’re still fresh. Hazelnuts, pecans, and walnuts are particularly susceptible to spoilage. Buy nuts from a store that sells in high volume and turns over its stock regularly and store them in a cool, dark place in a well-sealed container. Nuts can also be frozen in zip-top freezer bags. Most nuts taste much better if they’ve been toasted, which brings out their flavors and gives them a crunchy contrast in ice cream. The only nuts I don’t toast are pistachio nuts, since they’ll lose their delicate green color. Buy fresh pistachios from a good source so they’re crisp and vibrant green.

If you’ve never made crêpes before, you’ll find that it’s one of life’s most satisfying accomplishments. You spend a few minutes dipping, swirling, and flipping and end up with a neat stack of delicious crêpes. As with traditional pancakes, the first one is usually a dud, so don’t be discouraged. Once you’ve slid a few out of the frying pan, you’ll feel like a pro. This recipe can easily be doubled and they freeze beautifully, so there’s no reason not to keep an extra stack in the freezer for a last-minute crêpe fix.

Crispy nests of meringue—also known as vacherins—add a certain savoir faire and offer a very dramatic presentation for any ice cream or sorbet, especially when you add a ladleful of sauce as well. The combination of crackly meringue, luscious ice cream, and a complimentary sauce is justifiably known as one of the great French dessert classics. It is certain to become a well-loved part of your repertoire as well. Use a deft hand when folding in the confectioners’ sugar. Aggressive overmixing can cause the meringue to start deflating.

Many people come to Paris with dreams of falling in love, and I know more than one person who’s returned home starry-eyed after a steamy love affair—with profiteroles. Who can resist eggy, buttery pastry filled with vanilla ice cream, heaped on plates, served with a gleaming silver pitcher of warm chocolate sauce? It’s a table-side ritual that takes place nightly in romatic restaurants and cozy cafés across the city as dashing waiters douse profiteroles with warm sauce and the molten chocolate gushes over the golden puffs, filling every little nook and crevice possible. The profiteroles are served forth with a sly grin (and perhaps a bit of a wink), leaving you free to indulge. Profiteroles are seductively simple to make at home, and you can’t go wrong with any ice cream and sauce combination that sounds good to you. My personal favorite is profiteroles filled with Chartreuse Ice Cream (page 57), drizzled with Classic Hot Fudge (page 164), and scattered with lots and lots of crispy French Almonds (page 189). J’adore!

The unexpected crunch of poppy seeds in these very pretty, delicate cookie cups is the perfect foil for any homemade ice cream or a fruity sorbet.

These edible cups are easiest to bake on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, rather than thick silicone baking mats, since they’re whisper thin and somewhat fragile. Overturned teacups make the perfect molds, although you can use anything that’s relatively wide with a flat bottom, such as a custard cup. After baking, if any cookies cool before you’ve had a chance to mold them into cookie cups, simply pop the baking sheet back in the oven for about 30 seconds to make them supple and try again.

This recipe makes jumbo-sized, chewy oatmeal cookies, ideal for sandwiching ice cream. They stay nice and moist after they’re frozen and are especially good (in my humble opinion) filled with Plum Ice Cream (page 77). Let them cool completely before trying to lift them off the baking sheet. They’ll be somewhat soft, since they’re designed to be retain their tenderness even after they’re frozen. Since these cookies are larger than normal, I find that I can get 6 onto a standard baking sheet (11 by 17 inches, or 28 by 43 cm), so that even when they spread, they don’t touch. If you have several baking sheets, this is a great time to put them into service. If not, let your baking sheet cool completely before baking the next batch of cookies.

These resemble the classic ice cream sandwich cookies but taste much better, and are far fudgier, than those soggy dark rectangles you’ll soon forget about.

When I was looking for the perfect blondie, I went to the source on all things chocolate chipified: my good friend and fellow baker Dede Wilson, author of A Baker’s Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies. I knew she’d come through with a killer recipe, and boy, did she ever.

These oversized cookies are packed with nuts and chocolate chips, perfect for making the best ice cream sandwiches you’ve ever had, feel free to use as much ice cream as you like inside.

These are the best brownies for crumbling into ice cream, since they’ll stay nice and chewy even after they’re frozen.