Latest news with #KarstenMoran
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
US Open's Arthur Ashe Stadium set for $800 million renovation to enhance fan experience
File photo of Arthur Ashe Stadium during the 2023 US Open at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (Karsten Moran/The New York Times) The US Open 's Arthur Ashe Stadium will undergo a major transformation as part of an $800 million renovation project at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows , announced US tennis officials on Monday in New York. The extensive renovations will be completed by 2027 and are being funded entirely through private sources, without any public money. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! "This is an incredibly exciting moment for our sport and for the US Open," said United States Tennis Association chairman Brian Vahaly. "We're proud to unveil the largest single investment in the history of this event, a multi-year transformation that will elevate the experience for every fan, player and partner who enters the grounds at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The upgrades to Arthur Ashe stadium, alongside a new state of the art player Performance Center, will ensure that the world's premier tennis venue will excel for generations to come." The renovation plans include a reconfiguration of the 24,000-seat Arthur Ashe Stadium, increasing lower courtside seating from 3,000 to approximately 5,000 seats. The project will also feature a new player performance centre and various upgrades throughout the complex to enhance facilities for fans. Bombay Sport Exchange Ep4: India vs Pakistan relations, IPL's formation Preliminary construction work has already begun at the site. The renovation schedule will not impact any upcoming US Open tournaments. This year's US Open tournament, the final Grand Slam of the tennis calendar, is scheduled to take place from August 24 to September 7. Get IPL 2025 match schedules , squads , points table , and live scores for CSK , MI , RCB , KKR , SRH , LSG , DC , GT , PBKS , and RR . Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
New York Times
12-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Trump Administration Live Updates: Smartphones and Computers Get Reprieve From New U.S. Tariffs on China
Skip to contentSkip to site index The threat of higher iPhone prices caused some Americans to rush to Apple stores to buy new phones. Credit... Karsten Moran for The New York Times After more than a week of ratcheting up tariffs on products imported from China, the Trump administration issued a rule late Friday that spared smartphones, computers, semiconductors and other electronics from some of the fees, in a significant break for tech companies like Apple and Dell and the prices of iPhones and other consumer electronics. A message posted late Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection included a long list of products that would not face the reciprocal tariffs President Trump imposed in recent days on Chinese goods as part of a worsening trade war. The exclusions would also apply to modems, routers, flash drives and other technology goods, which are largely not made in the United States. The exemptions are not a full reprieve. Other tariffs will still apply to electronics and smartphones. The Trump administration had applied a tariff of 20 percent on Chinese goods earlier this year for what the administration said was the country's role in the fentanyl trade. And the administration could still end up increasing tariffs for semiconductors, a vital component of smartphones and other electronics. The moves were the first major exemptions for Chinese goods, which would have wide-ranging implications for the U.S. economy if they persist. Tech giants such as Apple and Nvidia would largely sidestep punitive taxes that could slash their profits. Consumers — some of whom rushed to buy iPhones this past week — would avoid major potential price increases on smartphones, computers and other gadgets. And the exemptions could dampen inflation and turmoil that many economists feared might lead to a recession. The tariff relief was also the latest flip-flop in Mr. Trump's effort to rewrite global trade in a bid to boost U.S. manufacturing. The factories that churn out iPhones, laptops and other electronics are deeply entrenched in Asia — especially in China — and are unlikely to move without a galvanizing force like the steep taxes that the Trump administration had proposed. 'It's difficult to know if there's a realization within the administration that reworking the American economy is a gargantuan effort,' said Matthew Slaughter, the dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Friday's exemptions may be short-lived. The Trump administration was preparing another national security-related trade investigation into semiconductors, which would probably also apply to some downstream products like electronics, a person familiar with the matter said. These investigations have previously resulted in additional tariffs. A senior administration official, speaking on background because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the exemptions were aimed at making sure the United States had a supply of semiconductors, a foundational technology used in smartphones, cars, toasters and dozens of other products. Many cutting-edge semiconductors are manufactured overseas, such as in Taiwan. Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman, said in a statement, 'President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies' and that at his direction, tech companies 'are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.' For now, the changes punctuated a wild week in which Mr. Trump backtracked from many tariffs he introduced on April 2, which he had called 'liberation day.' His so-called reciprocal tariffs had introduced taxes that would reach up to 40 percent on products imported from some nations. After the stock and bond markets plunged, Mr. Trump reversed course and said he would pause levies for 90 days. Because Beijing chose to retaliate against U.S. tariffs with levies of its own, China was the one exception to Mr. Trump's relief. Instead of pausing tariffs on Chinese imports, Mr. Trump increased them to 145 percent and showed no willingness to spare any companies from those fees. In return, China on Friday said it was raising its tariffs on American goods to 125 percent. That sent shares of many technology companies into free fall. Over four days of trading, the valuation of Apple, which makes about 80 percent of its iPhones in China, fell by $773 billion. Mr. Trump's moderation is a major relief for a tech industry that has spent months cozying up to the president. Meta, Amazon and several tech leaders donated millions to President Trump's inauguration, stood behind him as he was sworn into office in January and promised to invest billions of dollars in the United States to support him. Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, has been at the forefront of the industry's courtship of Mr. Trump. He donated $1 million to Mr. Trump's inauguration and later visited the White House to pledge that Apple would spend $500 billion in the United States over the next four years. The strategy repeated Mr. Cook's tactics during Mr. Trump's first term. To head off requests that Apple begin manufacturing its products in the United States rather than China, Mr. Cook cultivated a personal relationship with the president that helped Apple win exemptions on tariffs for its iPhones, smartwatches and laptops. It was unclear if Mr. Cook could obtain a similar break this time, and the tariffs Mr. Trump proposed were more severe. As the Trump administration increased its taxes on Chinese goods, Wall Street analysts said Apple might have to increase the price of its iPhones from $1,000 to more than $1,600. The threat of higher iPhone prices caused some Americans to rush to Apple stores to buy new phones. Others raced to buy computers and tablets that were made in China. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple's iPhone quickly became a symbol of the tit-for-tat over tariffs with China. On Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared on CBS's 'Face the Nation' and said the tariffs would result in an 'army of millions and millions of people screwing in little, little screws to make iPhones' in the United States. Ms. Leavitt said later in the week that Mr. Trump believed that the United States had the resources to make iPhones for Apple. 'Apple has invested $500 billion here in the United States,' she said. 'So if Apple didn't think the United States could do it, they probably wouldn't have put up that big chunk of change.' Apple has faced questions about moving some iPhone manufacturing to the United States for more than a decade. In 2011, President Obama asked Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, what it would take to make the company's best-selling product in the United States rather than China. In 2016, Mr. Trump also pressured Apple to change its position. Mr. Cook has remained steadfast in his commitment to China and has said the United States doesn't have enough skilled manufacturing workers to compete with China. 'In the U.S., you could have a meeting of tooling engineers, and I'm not sure we could fill the room,' he said at a conference in late 2017. 'In China, you could fill multiple football fields.' Maggie Haberman contributed reporting. Supporters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rallying outside the agency in February. The appeals court left much of the injunction blocking the Trump administration from dismantling the agency intact. Credit... Craig Hudson/Reuters A federal appeals panel on Friday halted parts of a district court judge's injunction blocking the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, allowing officials to move ahead with firing some agency employees. Russell T. Vought, the White House budget office director, was named the consumer bureau's acting director in February and immediately began gutting the agency. He closed its headquarters and sought to terminate its lease, canceled contracts essential to the bureau's operations, terminated hundreds of employees and sought to lay off nearly all of the rest. In a lawsuit brought by the bureau's staff union and other parties, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the Federal District Court in Washington froze those actions last month with an injunction to stop what she described as the administration's 'hurried effort to dismantle and disable the agency entirely.' The Justice Department appealed her ruling. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously rejected the government's request to strike down Judge Jackson's injunction, but it stayed parts of her ruling while the government's appeal progresses. Specifically, the appeals court said the agency's leaders can send a 'reduction in force' notice — the process through which the government conducts layoffs — to employees they have determined are not necessary to carry out the agency's 'statutory duties.' When Congress created the consumer bureau in 2011, it assigned the watchdog agency dozens of tasks and ordered it to staff certain positions, including offices to aid student loan borrowers, military service members and older Americans. Those mandated obligations have been at the heart of the legal fight over the agency, because the bureau is required to fulfill those duties unless Congress acts. Mr. Vought's team fired more than 200 probationary and fixed-term employees, only to reinstate most of them, with back pay, on Judge Jackson's orders. The appeals court cleared the way for some to be fired again. Agency leaders may terminate employees after 'an individualized assessment' of their necessity for carrying out the agency's statutory tasks, the ruling said. But the court left much of Judge Jackson's order intact, including her mandates that agency leaders shall not delete or destroy most of the bureau's records and data, and that employees must be given access to either physical office space or the tools needed to work remotely. The consumer bureau's Washington headquarters has remained shuttered and off limits to workers since Mr. Vought's arrival. The appeals court expedited the government's appeal and scheduled oral arguments for May 16. The unveiling of former President Barack Obama's official portrait in the East Room of the White House in 2022. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times The Trump administration said on Friday that it had moved a portrait of former President Barack Obama in a White House hallway and replaced it with a pop-art painting of President Trump pumping his fist after the assassination attempt last year on the campaign trail in Butler, Pa. The shuffling of décor is not uncommon at the White House, where portraits are rotated often. But the new, striking artwork depicting Mr. Trump drew criticism from some presidential historians, who could not recall another president hanging a painting of himself during his term in the White House. Typically, paintings of presidents and first ladies are hung in the White House after they have left office, historians said. A spokesman for Mr. Obama declined to comment. The portrait of Mr. Obama, which was unveiled in the East Room during the administration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr., shows the former president in a dark suit and silver tie, standing with his hands in his pockets. The background is white; the portrait was based on photographs taken by the artist Robert McCurdy. The new painting shows Mr. Trump embraced by a team of Secret Service agents as an American flag billows in a cloudless blue sky behind him. Streaks of red run across his face. In a post on social media, the White House announced the new portrait of President Trump. Credit... The White House, via X The artwork depicts a scene similar to still images taken after a would-be assassin fired at Mr. Trump, hitting him in his ear, during a campaign speech in Pennsylvania in July. The words uttered by a defiant Mr. Trump after the shooting — 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' — became a rally cry for his supporters. The painting of Mr. Trump is on a wall opposite from Mr. Obama's, the White House said, adding that Mr. Trump's was placed in the spot for the newest presidential portrait. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that the 'executive mansion is the president's home, and he has the right to make changes as other presidents have in the past.' 'President Trump decided to temporarily display this painting, which represents a pivotal moment in history when he nearly lost his life,' she added. 'Only The New York Times would find a problem with this.' Ted Widmer, a presidential historian at the City University of New York and a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, said he was surprised to see the new artwork. 'It just seems tacky,' Mr. Widmer said. 'It feels different from our tradition of venerating the distinguished holders of the office from both parties — and going in a new direction of walking around looking at images of yourself all day long.' But Julian E. Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton, said the move fit into a pattern. 'In the second term, it's not just winning the White House,' Mr. Zelizer said of Mr. Trump. 'He's always had intense animosity for President Obama, all the way back to the early 2010s. And I think this time around, he really wants to show that he has — in his mind — supplanted him.' Barbara A. Perry, a presidential studies professor at the University of Virginia, said she found the style of the painting, with blood on Mr. Trump's face, particularly 'odd.' 'Can you imagine Gerald Ford having a portrait painted of himself ducking?' Ms. Perry said of an assassination attempt against Ford, the 38th president, in 1975. She added, 'This would be viewed as lacking in taste in days gone by.' President Trump speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday. Credit... Tom Brenner for The New York Times President Trump announced a plan on Friday to turn a narrow strip along the Mexican border in California, Arizona and New Mexico into a military installation as part of his effort to curtail illegal crossings. The plan, set out in a White House memorandum, calls for transferring authority over the 60-foot-wide strip of federal border land known as the Roosevelt Reservation from other cabinet agencies to the Defense Department. Military forces patrolling that area could then temporarily detain migrants passing through for trespassing on a military reservation, said a U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters. The directive expands a military presence that has increased steadily along the southern border, even as crossings have already dropped precipitously during the Trump administration. The ordering of troops to the border has already put the military in politically charged territory, and, depending on the details of the effort, the plan could run afoul of laws that limit the use of regular federal troops for domestic law enforcement. The directive says that the border strip will become a 'military installation under the jurisdiction of' the Pentagon. Military members would be able to stop anyone crossing into the 'military installation' but would not have the power to make immigration arrests, according to the military official. Border Patrol agents could then be summoned to arrest the migrants. The memorandum formalizes a plan that the administration had been considering for weeks. The Washington Post had reported on the plan earlier. A White House spokesman did not respond to questions seeking clarity as to what U.S. forces operating in the strip of border land would be able to do. A Defense Department spokesman also did not respond to questions seeking clarity. Military officials are still working out how to execute the plan, including how long troops could detain migrants before turning them over to Border Patrol agents, and what type of 'no trespassing' signs needed to be installed along the border, warning migrants they were about to enter a U.S. military reservation. Then there are other logistics that would have to be hammered out, such as the languages the signs are written in, and how far apart they are posted. There is also the question of where to position military patrols along hundreds of miles of rugged land along the border, and what additional training those troops might need. Adam Isacson, who focuses on border security and human rights at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the memorandum appeared to create a path for using quasi-military personnel to detain migrants. A section of the memorandum calls for the authorization of state National Guard members to work on the military-controlled strip. If those working at the installation hold migrants until Customs and Border Protection officials pick them up, their use 'comes very close to military personnel detaining migrants,' Mr. Isacson said. Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting. Mainers protest against Gov. Janet Mills in front of the State Capitol in Augusta in March. Credit... Ryan David Brown for The New York Times The Department of Education said on Friday that it was moving to cut off all federal funding for Maine's public schools because the state had ignored President Trump's executive order banning transgender athletes from girls' sports teams. The agency also said it had asked the Justice Department to pursue 'enforcement action' against Maine, which the Trump administration has been targeting since the president picked a fight with the state's Democratic governor, Janet Mills, over transgender athletes in February. The administration had set Friday as the deadline for Maine to comply; last month, after a brief investigation, it declared that the state's education system was violating Title IX, the federal law that prevents sex discrimination. Ms. Mills has maintained that the state's human rights law — which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity as well as religion, race and other protected characteristics — can be changed only by the Legislature, not by executive order. She has not expressed her own views on transgender athletes participating in girls' and women's sports publicly, though she has said it was an issue 'worthy of a debate.' Gov. Janet Mills of Maine in October. Credit... Michael Swensen for The New York Times The Education Department said in a statement that it would 'initiate an administrative proceeding to adjudicate termination' of the state's K-12 funding, which totaled $249 million in the 2024 fiscal year. 'The department has given Maine every opportunity to come into compliance with Title IX, but the state's leaders have stubbornly refused to do so, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda over their students' safety, privacy, and dignity,' Craig Trainor, the department's acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in the statement. In a letter to the Education Department on Friday, Sarah A. Forster, an assistant state attorney general, said that Maine would not agree to change its law and conceded that the two sides had reached an impasse. 'Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls' and women's sports teams,' she wrote. 'Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds. To the contrary, various federal courts have held that Title IX and/or the Equal Protection Clause require schools to allow such participation.' The Maine Principals' Association, which supervises interscholastic athletics, has said that among the 151 public and private high schools it oversees statewide, there are two transgender girls currently competing on girls' teams. Since February, the Trump administration has hammered the state with overlapping investigations of its education system. Last week, the Agriculture Department froze funding that Maine said could threaten its school meals programs. In response, the state sued the department. Not long after the Education Department's announcement on Friday, a federal judge in Maine issued a preliminary ruling in the state's favor, ordering that the U.S.D.A. funding be restored and issuing a warning to the Trump administration. 'The Federal Defendants are barred from freezing, terminating, or otherwise interfering with the State's future federal funding for alleged violations of Title IX without complying with the legally required procedure,' the ruling said. It was not immediately clear on Friday where the administrative proceeding on the state's education funding would be held, or when — or whether it would meet the specifications of the court's order. The Department of Justice is expected to sue the state to try to compel its compliance. The announcement highlighted some fundamental legal questions underlying many of Mr. Trump's recent moves on K-12 education, including: Will the courts uphold the administration's broad interpretation of civil rights law? And how much latitude does the executive branch have to stop the flow of federal funds that have been allocated by Congress? Next week, a Federal District Court in New Hampshire is scheduled to hold a hearing on whether the administration can follow through on its threat to cut off Title I funds to schools with certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Democratic-run states, teachers' unions and progressive interest groups, like the A.C.L.U., have said it cannot, filing several federal lawsuits in response. Some education experts have predicted that the question could reach the Supreme Court. Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, told senators that the agency would not engage in retribution under his command. Credit... Kenny Holston/The New York Times The F.B.I. has suspended an analyst on Kash Patel's so-called enemies list after Mr. Patel told lawmakers that the bureau under his leadership would stay out of the political fray and not punish employees for partisan reasons. Last week, the bureau placed the analyst, Brian Auten, on administrative leave, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation. The reasons for the suspension remain unclear. The F.B.I. declined to comment. A lawyer for Mr. Auten also declined to comment. The suspension is likely to raise questions about whether the move was retaliatory, and about how closely Mr. Patel would stick to his promise, made during his confirmation hearing in January, that the agency would rise above partisanship despite pressure from President Trump's allies to fire employees who took part in investigations that conservatives have condemned. The suspension of Mr. Auten, who had already been disciplined and questioned in a criminal inquiry, will also likely intensify distrust of Mr. Patel among employees who have watched senior leaders forced out in recent months with no explanation. Mr. Auten worked on two major investigations that angered Mr. Trump and Mr. Patel, including the F.B.I.'s investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election. He was also involved in analyzing the information found on Hunter Biden's laptop, a discovery that roiled the 2020 presidential campaign. Mr. Patel has called the Russia investigation a hoax, and singled out Mr. Auten in his book, 'Government Gangsters.' In the book, Mr. Patel claimed that the F.B.I. was trying to 'hide and spin' what he called 'the Biden family corruption' buried in the laptop, even as agents investigated the matter. 'Government Gangsters' also included a list of 60 names in an appendix called 'Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.' Mr. Auten was among the names listed in the appendix. At his confirmation hearing, Mr. Patel denied that it was an enemies list. 'It's a total mischaracterization,' he told senators. He later added: 'There will be no politicization at the F.B.I. There will be no retributive actions taken by any F.B.I., should I be confirmed as F.B.I. director.' The suspension of Mr. Auten came after he and others had been disciplined for serious mistakes found in the F.B.I.'s applications for a secret surveillance warrant involving a former Trump campaign adviser. Mr. Auten played an important role in unmasking the primary source behind a dossier of rumors and unproven assertions about Mr. Trump. The surveillance warrant applications relied in part on the dossier that Mr. Auten had examined extensively. In the wake of the Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, Mr. Auten had been suspended for 30 days, people said. After Mr. Patel became director, Mr. Auten was moved out of the counterintelligence division, one of the people said. In his book, Mr. Patel denounced Mr. Auten. 'Yet just like his superiors, Auten has faced no real accountability in light of these findings,' he wrote. 'The fact that Auten was not fired from the F.B.I. and prosecuted for his part in the Russia Gate conspiracy is a national embarrassment.' The Justice Department's inspector general found that F.B.I. officials had sufficient reason to open Crossfire Hurricane, and did not find evidence that the inquiry was politically motivated. 'We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced' officials' decision to open the investigation, the report said. John H. Durham, the special counsel appointed by Mr. Trump to scrutinize the Russia investigation, said in his final report that 'as an initial matter, there is no question that the F.B.I. had an affirmative obligation to closely examine' the tip that prompted the investigation. But Mr. Durham accused the F.B.I. of 'confirmation bias.' In 2020, The New York Post reported on the laptop once used by Mr. Biden, writing that it contained damning evidence against him and his father, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was running for president. In his book, Mr. Patel criticized Mr. Auten's role in the episode, claiming that he tried to 'discredit any derogatory information about Hunter Biden by falsely claiming that none of it was true.' Kirkland & Ellis is one of the law firms that recently reached deals with the White House to provide free legal work to causes that President Trump supports. Credit... Jeenah Moon for The New York Times Five more prominent law firms facing potential punitive action by President Trump reached deals on Friday with the White House to provide a total of $600 million in free legal services to causes supported by the president. Four of the firms — Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett — each agreed to provide $125 million in pro bono or free legal work, according to Mr. Trump. A fifth firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, agreed to provide at least $100 million in pro bono work. With the latest round of deals, some of the biggest firms in the legal profession have agreed over the past month to provide a combined $940 million in free legal services to causes favored by the Trump administration, including ones with 'conservative ideals.' Mr. Trump announced the agreements between his administration and the law firms on Friday on Truth Social, the platform owned by his social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group. Top lawyers from each firm provided a statement to the White House, which was included in the social media posts. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported on negotiations with four of the firms. The deals were announced during a week in which Mr. Trump talked openly in the Oval Office about using the firms he has struck deals with to help negotiate trade agreements with other countries and even work on coal leasing deals. Mr. Trump did not specifically mention potential work on trade deals or coal leasing agreements in his social media posts. Rather, the posts said the firms would devote free legal work to things like fighting antisemitism, helping Gold Star families, assisting law enforcement and 'ensuring fairness in our justice system.' The terms are similar to ones Mr. Trump previously announced with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Willkie Farr & Gallagher; and Milbank. Law firms are settling with the Trump administration to head off executive orders that would make it difficult for them to represent clients with federal contracts or seek government regulatory a few firms are fighting Mr. Trump's executive orders in federal court, claiming the orders are unconstitutional and a form of retaliation for taking positions he doesn't like. Judges have temporarily stayed the orders against Perkins Coie, WilmerHale and Jenner & Block from going into effect. A fourth firm, Susman Godfrey, was hit with an executive order this week and became the latest firm to take on the Trump administration. Late Friday the firm filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington seeking to block the order from taking effect. Lawyers from Munger, Tolles & Olson are representing Susman in the litigation. Munger is the same firm that helped organize an amicus brief filed by more than 500 law firms in support of Perkins Coie. But only a few large law firms signed on that legal filing. Susman represented Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine manufacturer, in a major defamation case against Fox News. The conservative cable news channel agreed to pay $787.5 million to Dominion to resolve the lawsuit. Dominion filed the lawsuit over misinformation the cable network spread about its role in the 2020 election, which Mr. Trump has repeatedly said was stolen from him. 'If President Trump's Executive Orders are allowed to stand, future presidents will face no constraint when they seek to retaliate against a different set of perceived foes,' Susman's 66-page complaint begins. 'What for two centuries has been beyond the pale will become the new normal. Put simply, this could be any of us.' Mr. Trump is going after law firms that have hired attorneys he perceives as his political enemies, represented causes he has opposed or refused to represent people because of their conservative and right-wing political beliefs. Some firms are also being targeted for their hiring practices that advance the principle of having a diverse work force. The president has said repeatedly that diversity, equity and inclusion policies in hiring are illegal and discriminatory and that he intends to get rid of them. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in what has been seen as a related move, sent letters to 20 law firms last month requesting information about their D.E.I. practices. Four of the firms that reached deals with Mr. Trump — Kirkland, Latham, Shearman and Simpson Thacher — had each received one of those letters. In settling, Mr. Trump said the E.E.O.C. had agreed not to pursue claims against those four firms. Later in the day, the E.E.O.C. announced a separate settlement with the four firms. Law professors and others in the legal industry have praised the firms that are fighting the administration while criticizing those that have settled. The critics say the law firms that settle have succumbed to pressure tactics by the administration. And each new settlement only encourages Mr. Trump to become even more emboldened in his demands for free legal work. The Trump administration seems to believe it is 'developing a war chest of legal enlistees or conscripts' to do work for it, said Harold Hongju Koh, a professor of international law at Yale Law School, who was an author on a recently published paper that called the executive orders unconstitutional retaliatory measures. 'Every kid learns, on the schoolyard, if you cave to a bully they will come back to bully you some more,' said Mr. Koh. 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New York Times
31-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
How to Make a Sheet-Pan Dinner Out of Anything
Melissa Clark will teach you cook times and techniques so you can throw just about anything on a pan and have dinner. Chicken breasts are less likely to dry out on a sheet pan when they're bone-in and skin-on. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Published March 31, 2025 Updated March 31, 2025 [This article was originally published on Sept. 24, 2018.] A sheet pan takes the concept of a one-pot meal and flips it onto a pan. It saves time, makes cleanup easier, and doesn't require expensive equipment or fancy ingredients. Just start with your protein of choice, then add vegetables, fat and flavorings, and roast at high heat until everything is golden brown. Here's how. Nico Schinco for The New York Times A sheet pan is a wide, shallow baking pan made from aluminum or stainless steel whose low sides encourage airflow and browning. A kitchen workhorse, it's the go-to pan for roasting vegetables, meats and often entire meals. If you don't already have one (or several) in your cupboard, here are some considerations before you buy. Most sheet pans are 18-by-13 inches with a 1-inch rim. Sometimes called half-sheet pans, they are half the size of those found in commercial kitchens, which are too big for most home ovens. In this guide, we'll use the 18-by-13-inch pan as our standard, though the quarter sheet pan, measuring about 9-by-13 inches, is terrific for smaller ovens or kitchens as well as for cooking several ingredients in the oven at once without letting the flavors bleed into one another. You can choose a pan that's either aluminum or stainless steel, but whatever you choose look for a pan with a heavy-duty gauge — this refers to the thickness of the metal used. The higher the gauge, the thinner the pan: Anything from 13 to 18 gauges will work well. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has a guide to the best baking sheets . Correction : An earlier version of this article described incorrectly the correlation between a metal's thickness and its gauge. The higher the gauge, the thinner — not thicker — the metal is. Every satisfying sheet-pan meal, like the most well-rounded dinners, is built around a protein. Whether you decide on poultry, beef, pork, fish or tofu, you'll want to start with ¼ to ¾ pound per serving, to be supplemented with vegetables. When cooking poultry, bear in mind that dark meat takes longer to cook than white meat, and bone-in chicken longer than boneless. Timing can vary, from 5 minutes for chicken or turkey breast tenders run under the broiler, to 1½ hours for bone-in turkey legs. Whole chicken breast, bone-in: 30 to 40 minutes Whole chicken breast, boneless: 20 to 30 minutes Whole chicken thighs, bone-in: 30 to 45 minutes Whole chicken thighs, boneless: 25 to 40 minutes Protein in hand, it's time to pick the vegetables that'll round out your meal. How many, and how much, are up to you. But remember that vegetables cook down significantly under high temperatures, so always err on the side of more. Karsten Moran for The New York Times When working with vegetables, make sure they're cut consistently. Just as you did with your protein, you'll want to coat them with an oil or fat and any herbs or spices of your choosing, giving them plenty of space on the pan to encourage browning. Dense vegetables — potatoes, radishes, winter squashes — take the longest to cook, 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on oven temperature and chunk size. Vegetables with a higher moisture content can take less time, 10 to 45 minutes. However if you're looking to caramelize vegetables with a very high moisture content — zucchini and tomatoes in particular — it can take longer because the moisture needs to evaporate before browning can occur. Roasting at a high temperature, 425 to 450 degrees, can speed things up. Leafy vegetables — kale, broccoli rabe, bok choy, chard — will cook fastest, 3 to 10 minutes. If the leaves are thoroughly dry, they will turn crisp and brown. Kale and chard can turn to brittle and chiplike if you use enough oil. Asparagus, whole: 8 to 15 minutes, depending on thickness Beets: 25 to 40 minutes Bell peppers: 30 to 45 minutes Broccoli: 10 to 15 minutes Brussels sprouts, halved: 20 to 30 minutes Butternut, or winter, squash: 25 to 40 minutes Cauliflower: 25 to 45 minutes Carrots, cut into ½-inch chunks, left whole or halved lengthwise: 30 to 45 minutes Cherry tomatoes, whole: 25 to 50 minutes for caramelized Chickpeas, canned: 40 to 55 minutes for crisp Eggplant: 25 to 45 minutes Leeks: 20 to 35 minutes Potatoes: 25 to 35 minutes Sweet potatoes: 30 to 40 minutes Zucchini or summer squash: 40 to 55 minutes Once you've chosen your main ingredients, you could, of course, leave well enough alone, but you can also get creative with the seasonings. Fat, herbs, spices and garnishes all add to the character of the finished dish. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Fat encourages browning and helps evenly cook the ingredients on your sheet pan. Olive oil is the classic choice, but other oils and fats, like coconut oil, peanut oil, duck fat and leftover bacon grease, all add distinct flavors. For something more neutral, look to sunflower, grapeseed and canola. Simply toss ingredients with enough fat so they are lightly coated. Sprigs of sturdy, branchy fresh herbs can stand up to lengthy cooking without burning. Thyme, lemon thyme, oregano, marjoram, rosemary, bay leaves, tarragon and sage are all good choices; just throw them on the pan with the other ingredients. Dried herbs and herb mixes like Herbs de Provence are excellent added to a marinade, paste or rub. Avoid soft herbs like basil, chives, parsley, cilantro and mint, which can turn brown at high heat. They're better as garnishes. Whole spices can also be tossed directly onto the pan with the other ingredients, adding fragrance and depth. Some favorites include chile flakes, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds and cinnamon sticks. Use ground spices and spice blends in marinades, pastes and rubs. Whole smashed garlic cloves (peeled or unpeeled); slivered, blanched lemons; and whole or sliced fresh chiles can be added with the other ingredients, and will turn wonderfully brown while roasting. Make sure they are well coated with oil or fat to encourage caramelization. Note that peeled garlic will add a more intense flavor than unpeeled. Consider fresh soft herbs, squeezes of citrus or drizzles of vinegar, yogurt, vinaigrettes, grated or crumbled cheeses, salsas, sauces, chutneys, relishes, quick-pickled onions or shallots, chile pastes and hot sauces. All add vibrancy to a finished dish. You have your protein and vegetables, and you've considered your flavors. What remains should be as simple as coating your ingredients in fat and adding seasonings and roasting, but there are a few more things to bear in mind. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Your ingredients — and their cook times — matter. It should go without saying that different ingredients cook at different times. Start with the slowest-cooking ingredient, then add items in a progression, ending with whatever cooks fastest. So does cut. The smaller an ingredient is chopped, the faster it will cook. This applies only to like ingredients: Small chunks of carrots may still take longer to cook through than larger pieces of tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli or other less dense vegetables. Half an inch is a good starting point, cooking quickly while providing a satisfying bite. Pay attention to placement, both of your sheet pan and your ingredients. The closer the sheet pan is to the heat source, the crisper and browner everything will get. Similarly, ingredients at the pan's edges cook faster than those in the middle. (Take note, too, that the more spread out the ingredients are, the more air will flow between them, browning them further.) For even cooking, place larger pieces at the edges and smaller pieces in the center, and make sure to rotate your sheet pan halfway through cooking. Mind your temperature. The suggested cook times listed here are based on a 400-degree oven temperature, but choose a hotter temperature for deeper color and a juicy center, and a lower temperature for slower, more even cooking. You can also run quick-cooking ingredients under the broiler for a meal in minutes. It's also worth noting that a higher temperature browns food faster, so you'll want to keep a more careful watch. Setting the temperature a little lower gives you more wiggle room. If you still find yourself seeking inspiration, here are four meals that began with just the basics, and evolved into something impressive in a few simple steps. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Basic: Roast 1-inch-thick pork chops surrounded by sliced peaches at 450 degrees for 12 to 18 minutes. Upgraded: Sear pork chops on both sides under broiler before adding peaches and then roast at 450 degrees for 12 to 18 minutes. Elegant: Sear pork chops on both sides under broiler before adding peaches and then roasting at 450 degrees for 12 to 18 minutes. After chops and peaches have roasted for 10 minutes, add some thinly sliced scallions. Impressive: Sear pork chops on both sides under broiler before adding peaches and then roasting, roast at 450 degrees for 12 to 18 minutes. After chops and peaches have roasted for 10 minutes, add thinly sliced scallions to pan. Drizzle chops with a mix of pomegranate molasses and olive oil before serving. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Basic: Roast salmon filets surrounded by halved cherry tomatoes at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Upgraded: Roast halved cherry tomatoes at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, to caramelize them. Add salmon filets to pan. Cook salmon and tomatoes for another 10 minutes. Elegant: Roast halved cherry tomatoes at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, to caramelize them. Add salmon filets to pan, along with sliced olives and thyme branches. Cook everything for another 10 minutes. Impressive: Roast halved cherry tomatoes at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, to caramelize them. Brush salmon with tapenade, and add salmon to pan, along with sliced olives and thyme branches. Cook everything for another 10 minutes. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Basic: Roast 1½-inch lamb or beef meatballs with thinly sliced red chiles all over pan at 425 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. Upgraded: Ten minutes before putting the meatballs in the oven, place a second sheet pan of ¾-inch pieces of eggplant in the oven. Roast meatballs and chiles, as instructed, and pull both the meatballs and eggplant out at the same time. Elegant: Ten minutes before putting the meatballs in the oven, place a second sheet pan of ¾-inch pieces of eggplant, sprinkled with cumin and coriander seeds, in the oven. Roast meatballs and chiles, as instructed, and pull both the meatballs and eggplant out at the same time. Impressive: Ten minutes before putting the meatballs in the oven, place a second sheet pan of ¾-inch pieces of eggplant, sprinkled with cumin and coriander seeds, in the oven. Roast meatballs and chiles, as instructed, and pull both the meatballs and eggplant out at the same time. Serve with tahini-garlic sauce for dipping. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Basic: Roast bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts on a bed of thinly sliced bell peppers at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Upgraded: Roast bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts on a bed of thinly sliced bell peppers, thinly sliced red onion and fresh oregano sprigs at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Elegant: Marinate chicken breasts with some garlic, cumin, lemon zest and fresh oregano. Roast bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts on a bed of thinly sliced bell peppers, thinly sliced red onion and fresh oregano sprigs at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Impressive: Marinate chicken breasts with some garlic, cumin, lemon zest and fresh oregano. Roast bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts on a bed of thinly sliced bell peppers, thinly sliced red onion and fresh oregano sprigs at 425 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve with a dressing made from pesto thinned with lemon juice and olive oil.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
How to Make Your Own Yogurt at Home
All you really need is good-quality milk, a few spoonfuls of your favorite plain yogurt and time. With just minutes of work, you can have delicious homemade yogurt. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Published March 31, 2025 Updated March 31, 2025 [This article was originally published on July 18, 2018.] If you love yogurt, making your own should be a culinary rite of passage, along the lines of baking your own bread or roasting a chicken, though easier than either. Mere minutes of active time, and the payback is huge: a pot of tangy, silky yogurt, made with ingredients you can control and personalized to your tastes. Karsten Moran for The New York Times A good, heavy-bottomed saucepan , to heat the milk evenly. While people were making yogurt before they were invented, a good, digital instant-read thermometer takes out the guesswork. Whisk or wooden spoon, for stirring. Cheesecloth and fine sieve or colander , for straining and thickening. Containers with tightfitting lids , for storing. If you have a yogurt maker, a slow cooker or multipot with a yogurt button, you can make yogurt directly in that appliance. Check your manual for instructions since brands and models vary. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has guides for picking the best instant-read thermometers and slow cookers . Homemade yogurt can elevate any recipe that calls for the store-bought version, like this berry dessert from Yossy Arefi. Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Yossy Arefi. Yogurt is simply milk that has been mixed with specific types of good bacteria, then left to ferment. Good-quality, store-bought yogurt made without additives can be expensive — if you can even find it. Those who eat dairy may find some at farmers' markets or in gourmet stores, but fine alternative yogurts are much harder to come by. Making your own guarantees a supply, and, in time, you'll make yogurt that's even better than the fancy brands for a lot less money. To make your own, you'll need good-quality milk (dairy or non) and your favorite plain yogurt. The dairy milk is heated to between 180 and 200 degrees (just under boiling) to denature, or unravel, its protein structure, allowing it to thicken when it meets the bacteria. (Nondairy milk is simply simmered here to activate the starch.) Then, in both cases, the milk must be cooled to 110 to 120 degrees before the bacteria (also called the starter culture) is added. This step is important: Anything hotter than 130 degrees could hurt the bacteria; anything cooler won't encourage its growth. Then the milk is set aside to ferment in a warm(ish) place for 6 to 24 hours, during which the good bacteria multiply, and the milk gains body and texture. Finally, the yogurt is refrigerated, to stop the fermentation while the yogurt thickens. You can't make yogurt without a starter culture, that is, specific types of friendly bacteria to activate the fermentation process. The two bacteria most often used are Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus turns lactose into lactic acid, producing a sour or tangy flavor. Streptococcus thermophilus also breaks down lactose into an acid — digestible fatty acid. For dairy yogurt, the easiest starter culture is any plain live yogurt: Look for the words live, living or alive in the ingredient list. You'll also want to choose a starter yogurt without preservatives, but with a flavor you enjoy since you'll taste it in your batch. You can use homemade dairy yogurt in the subsequent batches, but bear in mind that it'll weaken over time. After a third or fourth use, it's best to use a new starter culture. (Note: Homemade nondairy yogurt cannot be used as a starter culture.) Yet another option is heirloom yogurt starter, available at some health-food stores and online. The yogurt you make from these strains can be used as a starter indefinitely. Think of it as analogous to a sourdough starter for bread: Just as you would in bread baking, you'll have to use it frequently (at least once a week) to keep it active. The first batch you make from an heirloom starter might turn out on the thin side, but should thicken in subsequent batches. To culture nondairy yogurt, you can use commercial yogurt, probiotic powder or probiotic capsules, found at health-food stores or online. (If using capsules, choose refrigerated ones over those stored on the shelf.) You can also use a vegan yogurt starter, or if it doesn't bother you, a dairy-based starter culture will work in a nondairy yogurt. Karsten Moran for The New York Times You can make yogurt from just about any kind of milk, whether it comes from cows, goats or camels, nuts, pulses or grains. But no matter what milk you use, the higher the quality, the better your yogurt will be. You have several options for dairy milk, the most common, of course, being cow's milk. You can start with creamline (non-homogenized) or homogenized milk. Creamline will create a yellow layer that sits atop the yogurt, while homogenized is smooth throughout and won't separate. For best results, choose pasteurized milk instead of sterilized or ultrapasteurized (UHT) milk. It tends to have a better flavor than ultrapasteurized, and ferments more willingly. If you'd prefer to use sterilized or ultrapasteurized milk, you don't need to heat it to 180 to 200 degrees. That was done before you bought it. Just heat it to 110 degrees, stir in the culture, and let it ferment. Another variable is fat content. Fat adds creaminess and body, so the less fat a milk has, the thinner the resulting yogurt will be. (Higher-fat milks yield thicker, richer yogurts.) First published with a 2016 column, our master recipe, which calls for whole milk, with the option of adding cream, yields a luscious yogurt, but you can substitute low-fat milk: 2 percent works much better than 1 percent, both in terms of flavor and texture. You can also make yogurt from goat's, sheep's or buffalo milk. Each has its own flavor. Goat's milk, for example, is tangier than cow's milk, and may need less time to ferment. For these yogurts, you can use a cow's milk starter, a starter of the same milk variety (if you can find it), or a store-bought starter culture powder. Simply substitute the milks 1-to-1 for cow's milk in our master recipe. Lactose-free milk often won't ferment and thicken properly. If you can't tolerate lactose, use an alternative dairy-free milk instead. Nondairy milks generally stay thin even after fermentation. They're tangy like yogurt, but tend to be more pourable than spoonable. Thickening them, however, isn't hard. Our master recipe uses arrowroot or cornstarch, but you can experiment with gelatin, pectin, cornstarch, agar powder or gums (locust bean or xanthan). Or enjoy them as they are in smoothies or poured over cereal. After much testing, we've found cashew milk yields the best results when used in nondairy yogurt. It's rich, gently flavored, and ferments willingly with either a yogurt starter culture or probiotic capsule. Almond milk also works, but unless it's homemade, it stays very thin. Soy milk thickens without having to add starches or agar powder, giving you a lushly textured yogurt. (For more, see our chapter on Other Nondairy Yogurts below.) Less successful, however, is oat milk, which takes on a cardboard-like flavor when fermented. This is a great opportunity to try things out: Feel free to make the yogurt with different milks until you find the one you like best. Karsten Moran for The New York Times You can substitute low-fat milk here if you'd rather; 2 percent works a lot better than 1 percent. Skim milk will give you a thinner yogurt, though if you add some dry milk powder to the milk as it heats (about ½ cup), that will help thicken it. Creamline (non-homogenized milk) will give you a cream top on your yogurt. Homogenized milk is smooth throughout. With just minutes of work, you can have delicious homemade yogurt. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Of all the nondairy milks you could use for yogurt, cashew milk works best, turning pleasantly sour with an underlying sweetness. If you wish to go beyond cashew milk, and use soy milk, coconut milk or your homemade nut milk, see below. There are about as many kinds of nondairy yogurt as there are nondairy milks, and, since it can be an inexact science, you can and should experiment. Here are three variations to get you started. Substitute soy milk and eliminate thickener. Heat milk to 180 degrees, let it cool to 110 degrees, then continue with recipe as directed for from Step 2, skipping the thickener. Substitute 2 (14-ounce) cans full-fat coconut milk for the nut milk, and use ½ cup yogurt or 2 probiotic capsules as the starter. Coconut milk can often take a bit longer to ferment than other milks, so you can leave it for up to 48 hours if necessary. In a large bowl, cover 1 cup cashews, almonds or other nuts with at least 2 inches water. Soak at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight. Drain and transfer the nuts to a blender, along with 4 cups filtered water. Blend until very smooth. Strain mixture through two layers of cheesecloth, squeezing on the solids, into a medium pot. Heat milk to 180 degrees, let it cool to 110 degrees, then continue with recipe as directed for from Step 2. The thickener is optional here. If using, follow directions in master recipe. Karsten Moran for The New York Times There are myriad ways to top yogurt, whether the usual granola and honey, flavored syrups or jams, compotes, fresh fruit, coconut, nuts, and even vegetables, hot sauces and pickles. Here are some ideas to get you started. Once you've made plain yogurt, you can think of it as a blank canvas. You can, of course, top your yogurt with nuts or any number of granolas — whether one made with olive oil and dotted with pistachios and apricots or flax and mixed grains. You could sweeten it with honey, brown sugar or maple syrup, or branch out with any number of jams and compotes, store-bought or homemade, experimenting with favorite flavors. Or try other, more savory toppings: poached eggs and mint, cucumbers and olive oil, crunchy chickpeas, and roasted root vegetables like beets, carrots, and even sweet potatoes. You can also use your yogurt as a topping itself, to bolster other dishes. A dollop is a welcome addition to a batch of oatmeal, offering a bit of tang to an otherwise mellow dish. And you can always use it to top soups in place of sour cream. Making yogurt is simple, but even the simplest things can go wrong on occasion. Take heart. It happens to the best of us. Here's a list of issues that may come up, and the best course of action if they do. Christopher Testani for The New York Times The longer you let it sit, the more sour it will be. Ferment your first batch during the day (instead of overnight), so you can taste it every few hours and make sure it's to your liking before you refrigerate it. If it seems too mild after 12 hours, you can let it sit out to increase the tanginess: It can be out at room temperature for up to 24 hours without spoiling. In a warm place. A turned-off oven with the oven light on; wrapped in a heating pad, towel or warm blanket, like a sheepskin or down quilt, and set on a countertop, a corner of your kitchen, or on top of the fridge. Some people like to put it in a cooler filled with a few inches of hot water. It doesn't matter where, as long as it's relatively warm. The warmer the spot, the more quickly the milk will ferment. The ideal temperature range is 90 to 105 degrees, but even warm room temperature will get the job done, albeit more slowly. And this should go without saying, but keep the setting yogurt away from a cold draft or air conditioner. Rub an ice cube over the inside bottom of the pot before adding the milk. Harold McGee, who writes about the chemistry of food and cooking, says: 'When you rinse the pot with water, you precoat the metal surface with water molecules, and that coat seems to protect the surface from direct contact with the milk proteins when you pour the milk in. When you turn on the heat, the protein molecules take longer to contact the hot metal and bond to it. So less protein sticks to the pan bottom and scorches.' Take it off the heat immediately, stirring it to cool it down, or transferring the pot to an ice bath. Boiled milk will make for a thicker yogurt, but perhaps one with a bit less bacteria. As long as you bring it down to 110 to 115 degrees before adding the starter culture, the yogurt should be fine. If the milk was boiling to the point that it's curdled, start over. At that point, both texture and flavor will have been compromised. It is easiest to let the heated milk cool to 110 to 115 degrees without the use of an ice bath, as long as you have the time. (It can take 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours, depending on your pot and how much milk you've heated.) Letting the milk cool by itself (uncovered) allows it to release steam, which results in a thick, custardy yogurt. With an ice bath, you run the risk of cooling the milk too much or unevenly: Make sure to keep a watchful eye and stir constantly. If you plan to ferment the yogurt in the same pot you set in an ice bath, you might want to warm the pot slightly before setting it aside to ferment. Otherwise, the milk's temperature could continue to drop: Simply put the pot back on the stove for a few seconds to warm it. It could be the starter culture, which loses its thickening power over time. As a precaution, buy a new yogurt starter after about every 3 to 5 batches. Adding starter to milk that is over 130 degrees can also kill the bacteria, so avoid any bacteria-decimating hot spots by stirring the milk well before taking its temperature. Milk with too many preservatives (nondairy milks, in particular) may not ferment. Those preservatives are doing their job, that is, inhibiting the bacteria. Start again with new milk. Here are more tips from readers. A dairy-based yogurt shouldn't need extra thickening unless you're starting with skim or low-fat milk. In those cases, ½ cup dry milk powder can be added to 2 quarts milk before heating. If you're starting with whole milk, consider adding cream, or strain the yogurt after it sets. To do so, set a colander or sieve over a bowl and line the colander with cheesecloth. Take the finished yogurt, before or after chilling, pour it into the colander, and let it sit in the refrigerator for 2 to 6 hours to drain the excess water, or whey. When it looks thick enough for your liking, transfer it to a storage container. If it becomes too thick, stir some of the whey back in. Reserve the remaining whey for smoothies, soups or lemonade, add it to bread and pizza dough or use it to marinate poultry.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Our Ultimate Guide to Making Sugar Cookies
From baking to decorating, win the holidays with these tips and tricks. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Published March 31, 2025 Updated March 31, 2025 [This article was originally published on Dec. 5, 2016.] Basic, but never boring, the tender, buttery sugar cookie has an invitation to almost any celebration. This classic rendition can be a blank canvas for festive shapes and designs, or a vessel for bold flavors. Master it, and almond-flecked linzers, spicy ginger-molasses rounds or sweet, salty chocolate-hazelnut sablés are all at hand. We'll teach you how to make these treats, and how to prepare beautifully smooth royal icing for decorating with sprinkles, paint or anything your heart desires. An electric mixer. Or better yet, a stand mixer. Some recipes say you can make sugar cookie dough by hand, but those recipes are wrong (or, at the very least, not as good). You need a mixer's force to properly cream together the butter and sugar, creating a light and fluffy dough. Parchment paper and a rolling pin. Parchment is indispensable in preventing sticking when rolling out dough. Don't own a rolling pin? You can always use an unopened wine bottle. Standard rimmed half-sheet pans (13 by 18 inches). Plural. If you have only one, pick up another. You'll want to bake as many cookies as possible at once, and the rim helps prevent cookies from sliding when pulling them from the oven. Any sort of cookie cutters you fancy. Circles, squares, snowflakes, gingerbread people, stars, dreidels, reindeer: You name it. A jar or glass works in a pinch. Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has tips on the best tools for holiday cookie baking . How to make classic sugar cookies. By Shaw Lash For the best cookies, getting the proper thickness is key. Too thin, and the cookies will turn into crackers. Too thick, and they'll be doughy. Here are tips to help you roll the dough to just the right depth, and to cut cookies that will give you a world of decorating options. Karsten Moran for The New York Times First, make some space. Rolling out dough takes up a bit of space, so clear off those countertops before you begin. Use parchment paper for rolling for best results (though a well-floured work surface will also work). To roll out the dough, you'll want to lightly dust a large piece of parchment paper with flour. Roll out the dough until it starts to stick a bit to the parchment, then lightly dust the top of the dough with a bit more flour and cover it with another piece of parchment. Flip the whole thing over, peeling off the bottom piece (and saving it so you can repeat this process). Keep an eye on the thickness of the dough. You want it to be about the thickness of a graham cracker, or, if you have a ruler handy, no thinner than an eighth of an inch. Don't worry about making it a perfect circle or rectangle. Cold is best. Regardless of the shape you're cutting out, or the method you're using (by hand, with a cutter, glass jar), you'll want the dough to be chilled. If it gets too warm and flimsy, it'll be challenging to cut out clean shapes and move. Put the dough back into the fridge to firm up if it starts to soften. A cute cutter does not always make a cute cookie. No matter how appealing the wide range of cutters may be, there are some that don't actually make great cookies. In particular, avoid shapes with small, delicate features. Those smaller parts of dough are doomed to tragedy: getting stuck in the cutters, burning before the rest of the cookie is baked through, or just breaking off. And they're challenging to decorate. Broad cookies make better canvases. Shapes with a lot of surface area (circles, triangles, diamonds, stars) yield the greatest success. They bake more evenly and offer multiple decorating options. Karsten Moran for The New York Times No cookie cutters? A wide-mouth glass jar or cup will do the trick. Or use a knife to cut diamonds (as seen above), squares or rectangles. Cut as many cookies as you can. When it's time to cut, dip the cutters in flour to prevent sticking, and cut the shapes as close to one another as possible to maximize your dough. But don't go too far. Gather any scraps and reroll the dough, but no more than twice. After that, the dough will become overworked and tough. How to make royal icing. By Shaw Lash The pristine white finish of royal icing is particularly elegant, and striking in its simplicity. But everything is a little more fun in color. Tint it with food coloring, use it like glue for sprinkles and dragées, or paint it directly onto hardened icing. Karsten Moran for The New York Times For colored icing, make a batch of white royal icing, and divide it into smaller bowls. (One batch can yield up to three different colors.) Using a spoon or fork, mix in food coloring until you reach your desired shade. Cover with plastic wrap, with the cling film pressed directly on the surface, until you're ready to use it. For deep hues, you'll need more food coloring than you think. Depending on the intensity, it's possible to use half a bottle. Keep in mind that traditional food coloring contains a lot of liquid, so adding enough for that vibrant red can alter the viscosity of the icing. To preserve the consistency, add little to no water when making the icing, using the food coloring as the thinning liquid. Gel food coloring can be a game changer here. (Betty Crocker makes some, but they are also widely available on and at professional baking stores.) The color is more concentrated, and it contains virtually no liquid. So a little will go a long way, and adding a lot won't affect the viscosity. Karsten Moran for The New York Times To apply icing, you can use any large reusable or disposable pastry bag (at least 10 inches long), with a small metal tip for precision. A tip with a round 1/16-inch opening is best for more detailed designs, but for most purposes, one with a standard ⅛ inch opening will serve you well. If you're a once-a-year baker, a resealable plastic bag with a small (1/16-inch) hole cut out of the corner will do the trick. To ensure all the icing gets in (and not on) the bag, insert the bag, tip facing down, into a tall glass, and fold the top down over the glass. Alternatively, hold the bag with your less-dominant hand, and fold the top over your fingers. Spoon the icing into the bag, filling it about halfway. Be careful not to overfill the pastry bag, or the icing will spill out of the top. Pull up the top of the bag, and twist it where the icing meets the bag to close it off. Here are the techniques that elevate a simple sugar cookie to the spectacular. Piping and flooding can take a little practice, so take your time and consider making double batch of icing. And remember: extra sprinkles and dragées conceal all flaws. how to pipe a cookie By Alexandra Eaton You can use the icing bag like a pen to draw lines, swirls or any other designs that are as simple or complex as you like. To pipe, hold the tip of the bag ¼ inch above the cookie and about ⅛-inch away from the edge. The icing should be runny enough that you should not need to apply too much pressure, but it may be useful to practice on a plate or piece of parchment paper beforehand. If there are air bubbles in the pastry bag, a few gaps in the line could appear when you are piping. You can always quickly fill them in — just make sure to do so before the icing sets. How to flood a cookie. By Alexandra Eaton To create a smooth, evenly frosted appearance, you'll want to 'flood,' or fill, the surface of the cookie with icing. While a pristine white coating can be striking in its simplicity, fresh icing can serve as a glue for sprinkles, edible glitter or colorful sugars. Alternatively, it can be left to dry until hardened and used as a canvas for painting. To begin flooding, trace the outline of the cookie you're decorating. This will serve as a sort of barrier: Think of this as a line you're going to color inside of. With the pastry bag, start on the outside and work inward, filling in the space as you go. The icing should spread a bit to fill in any gaps. If you spill a little over the side of the cookie, use a paper towel to clean the edges before the icing sets, which can happen rather quickly. For a more rustic (and kid-friendly) appearance, you can always forego the pastry bag and spoon icing directly onto the cookie. Dollop some in the center, and using the back of spoon, spread the icing out to the edges, almost as if you're saucing a small pizza. How to paint a cookie By Alexandra Eaton For a more modern, slightly neater approach to colorful decorations, try painting directly onto the surface of an iced cookie. No fancy skills required: If you've ever painted anything, you can paint a cookie. Pick up some edible glitter or luster dust from a professional baking store. Mix a small amount of the glitter or luster dust with a neutral spirit like vodka until it reaches the consistency of watercolor paint. Dip a small paintbrush into the mixture and paint directly onto a flooded cookie using swift, one-stroke motions. Start with something simple like stripes or dots, then graduate to more complex designs. If piping an intricate design falls outside your wheelhouse, there are other options that are equally festive. Sprinkles and dragées provide all the holiday cheer you can imagine, while a simple dusting of sugar or cocoa is a lovely, low-maintenance possibility. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Once cookies are decorated, they can be kept in an airtight container between layers of parchment (as padding and protection) for up to three days. Sprinkles and Dragées Sprinkles can be applied to raw dough before baking or used on just-iced cookies. Dragées, or oversize sprinkles that look like beads, can be applied only onto fresh icing. Decorative Sugars Sprinkling cookie dough with sanding sugar before baking is a great way to add color and crunch. It's coarser than regular granulated sugar, and won't melt once baked. Pearl sugar (which resembles pretzel salt) or Demerara sugar (similar in flavor to brown sugar, but with larger crystals) can also be used before baking, or sprinkled onto fresh icing. Chocolate Dip baked cookies in melted chocolate (no need to temper it), then sprinkle them with flaky salt, sprinkles or chopped toasted nuts before storing them in the fridge. Cocoa and Powdered Sugar Dusting baked cookies with powdered sugar or cocoa powder (or both) can be a less-is-more approach, and great for any last-minute decorating needs. These recipes are all basic variations on the master sugar cookie dough. With a few adjustments, you can get wildly different (and delicious) results. How to make linzer cookies. By Shaw Lash Lightly spiced, jam-filled linzer cookies (a smaller version of the classic linzer torte) are a traditional sandwich cookie with a tender texture and subtle nutty flavor that comes from finely ground almonds in the dough. As with sugar cookies, which benefit from the addition of frosting, the dough for a linzer does not need to be too sweet: It's filled with a tangy raspberry jam and finished with plenty of powdered sugar. A hole in the top of the cookie gives the signature stained-glass-window effect, making it one of the most effortless and impressive treats you could make this holiday season. How to make salted cocoa-hazelnut cookies. By Shaw Lash The salted cocoa-hazelnut cookies are a classic slice-and-bake cookie, ripe for improvisation. Not into hazelnuts? Pistachios, almonds, even chocolate chunks are great here. Don't worry too much about getting the perfect cylindrical log; the dough should even out most imperfections as it bakes. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Our basic dough recipe makes for an excellent spritz cookie. Load a cookie press (think of a caulking machine, but with cookie dough) with dough straight after mixing (no need to chill) and push out a desired shape onto parchment paper. How to make ginger-molasses cookies. By Shaw Lash Think of these ginger-molasses cookies as a cross between a gingerbread man and a chewy molasses cookie. The molasses gives them a softer texture with a decidedly adult, almost caramel flavor. Instead of rolling or slicing these cookies, this rich, soft dough is perfect for rolling into balls and coating in coarse sugar before baking.
