Latest news with #SamanthaSeneviratne
New York Times
07-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
Empty Nesting Is Hard. This Carrot Cake Is Anything But.
For years, Genevieve Ko would make this dessert for her kids. Now that they're grown, she's streamlined it for them — and you. The whole point of carrot cake is to enjoy layers of tangy cream cheese frosting. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. By Genevieve Ko Genevieve Ko has baked more than 60 birthday cakes for her kids, including one shaped like a pirate ship. Published May 7, 2025 Updated May 7, 2025 On my first day as a line cook in a pastry kitchen, I was tasked with turning lemons into little bowls for housemade sorbet. I angled a sharp paring knife from the edge of a lemon half toward its center, then circled the knife to slice out a cone of seedy yellow flesh. Cupping that emptied half, I scooped out what remained with a metal spoon. Once the glassy sheets of membranes were gone, I had to keep going, gently running the spoon against the pith to create the thinnest possible shell without tearing the peel. That continuous scraping, the gentle pressure to excavate everything inside: That's what empty nesting has felt like. Somewhere behind my rib cage, some core is being hollowed out, and the rasping feels especially close on occasions like Mother's Day. When they were young, my kids felt pressure from relatives, teachers and the America around them to uphold the breakfast-in-bed tradition that started in the 1930s, about 15 years after Mother's Day was declared a national holiday. Aside from the fact that I'm not a breakfast eater, I'm also uninterested in doing twice as many dishes and washing syrup stains out of the duvet cover. I'm not alone — according to a 2017 Zagat poll, only 4 percent of mothers actually want breakfast in bed. But I may be alone in wanting to spend the day cooking. When I was just a year out of college, I realized that I could turn a lifelong love of food into a career and began apprenticing with chefs and a food writer. But, shortly after, I found out I was pregnant with twins, a decade before I'd planned to have kids. For years, on the holiday honoring motherhood, I tried to reclaim the childless trajectory I lost, air-drying duck to roast, slow-simmering fruit into preserves, in a peaceful kitchen. It felt like a selfish act twisted with the perpetual selflessness of nurturing. For the twins' first birthday, I created my first original baking recipe, a layered cake crammed with grated carrot and sweetened more with applesauce than sugar since it was going to be their inaugural taste of the stuff. They shoved handfuls into their mouths, howled with happiness, and it was then that I understood the joy of motherhood. The simplest way to frost carrot cake is to leave the sides unadorned, but they can be slathered with icing as well. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Through the years of chasing toddlers with a newborn slung to my chest, playing their favorite yet impossibly boring board game (Life), driving to school, practices and play dates, I spent Mother's Day laboring alone over the long, hard dishes I loved but couldn't make for work or home. Now that they're all in college, all I want is to feed them again, to be crowded against the counter, hearing them laugh and bicker, wiping up mysterious sticky patches. But no one is clinging to my legs anymore, and, apparently, my long 'welcome home' hugs come off as pretty desperate. So I try to play it cool, not showing too much excitement when my youngest described craving carrot cake for the cream cheese frosting because, isn't that the best part? That's when I knew I'd taught them well and when I started plotting out a recipe that maximizes the frosting-to-cake ratio by baking the batter in a single half-sheet pan. Doing so eliminates the need for multiple cake pans and trying to slice tall rounds into flat layers. Instead, the big rectangle is easily cut into three smaller ones for easy stacking and an impressive tier with plenty of creamy frosting in every forkful. When my (taller-than-me) youngest tasted the frosting and suggested more lemon juice and salt to amplify its tanginess, I tried to not visibly tear up with pride. I was happy, really I was, when they couldn't stay to eat the cake but had just enough time to bring it to their classmates who 'destroyed it.' It's as it should be. And as the older two graduate from college, now only a few years younger than I was when they were born, I feed them by giving them starter recipes, like this cake, to prepare on their own. Texting recipe links and receiving photos of finished dishes in return don't fill the home's new hush, but learning to experience that as progress is its own celebration of motherhood. Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .
New York Times
04-04-2025
- Health
- New York Times
The Flour Blend That Makes Gluten-Free Baking So Good
Gluten-free baked goods can come out even better than the classics with these tips. A blend of gluten-free flours gives this yellow cake a fine, tender crumb. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. By Brian Levy Brian tweaked his gluten-free flour blend over years of recipe testing. Unlike store-bought varieties, his doesn't contain tapioca or potato starch. Published April 4, 2025 Updated April 4, 2025 The immediate reaction to finding out you can no longer have gluten may be despair — especially if you love to bake. But gluten-free flours are increasingly easy to find in markets, offering a gustatory lifeline for those with gluten intolerance or celiac disease. Baking without gluten is not necessarily more difficult, but it requires different ingredients and, sometimes, slightly altered techniques. For delicious desserts, it helps to understand the role of gluten in baked goods, your available options and how to use alternative flours. Gluten, inherent in all varieties of wheat, rye and barley, is a mixture of proteins that, when moistened and mixed or kneaded, lend structure and elasticity to doughs and baked goods. The food scientist Harold McGee explains in his book 'On Food and Cooking' that the proteins in gluten 'form long chains that stick to each other,' which hold pastries together and make bread chewy. They let pie dough roll without cracking, keep cakes from crumbling and give bread dough the strength to trap air bubbles as it ferments and bakes. For tender baked goods, look for flours finely milled from nuts and grains. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. While a wide range of gluten-free flours made from grains, tubers, nuts and seeds exist, you can't simply pick any one of them to stand in for wheat flour. Instead, you'll need a blend of at least two or three, which can be bought prepackaged or mixed at home. For the novice gluten-free baker, the best approach is to start with a store-bought blend that can be swapped in one-to-one for regular flour. It is 'the easiest way to get familiarized with the textures and expectation of what it is to bake gluten-free,' said Aran Goyoaga, the author of 'Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple: A New Way to Bake Gluten-Free.' This all-purpose gluten-free flour blend made from millet, oat and white and brown rice flours has a mildly nutty, sweet aroma. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. These blends are formulated to closely mimic all-purpose wheat flour's characteristics and often contain a large proportion of starch, making them 'great for things like cakes, cookies, pastry, brownies — basically everything that's not gluten-free bread,' said Katarina Cermelj, the author of 'The Elements of Baking: Making Any Recipe Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free or Vegan.' For maximum versatility, she advised avoiding 'blends that contain intensely flavored flours like chickpea.' Blending individual flours yourself costs you less in the long run, and this simple all-purpose mix of millet, oat and white and brown rice flours has a mildly nutty, sweet aroma. In addition to flavor, each component contributes to this blend's effectiveness and versatility: White and brown rice deliver a hefty dose of starch; millet imparts a yellow hue and a rich, buttery flavor; oat adds protein and fiber to help with structure and moistness. Whether your blend is store-bought or homemade, it should feel finely milled and texturally resemble wheat flour (as opposed to, say, cornmeal). For basic desserts and other treats, Ms. Goyoaga advised starting with a recipe specifically developed for one-to-one gluten-free blends or one that calls for only cake flour or all-purpose wheat flour. According to Alice Medrich, a celebrated baker and the author of 'Gluten-Free Flavor Flours,' those recipes should come from experienced bakers who thoroughly test recipes. She also warned against straying from a recipe: 'Do it exactly as written that first time to see if you even like it, what it does and then play around a bit.' As for breads: Stick with recipes specifically written for gluten-free bread. Rice and millet flours replace the usual wheat in this gluten-free yellow sheet cake. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Because milling is inconsistent and flour densities vary across brands and varieties, use a scale to weigh your ingredients rather than measure with cups. If you still end up with dry or crumbly bakes when swapping in a blend, Ms. Cermelj and Ms. Medrich advise reducing the amount of flour by 10 percent for wet cake batters; reducing the butter or oil by 20 to 30 percent for buttery treats like cookies; and reducing the baking temperature by 25 degrees and increasing the baking time as needed. And the more you bake without gluten, the more you'll enjoy its benefits. Over-mixing doughs and batters with wheat flour can result in toughness. With gluten-free flour, that risk is eliminated and means that cookie and pie doughs can be rerolled and that cake batters can be beaten well and end up with better textures. Once you're comfortable with one-to-one blends, try other wheatless flours. Nut flours and coconut flour contribute bold flavor and textural interest, even mild sweetness. Teff and buckwheat complement chocolate, corn flour shines in buttery biscuits and tarts and oat flour highlights the brown sugar in chocolate chip cookies. Psyllium husk powder and xanthan gum, often listed in gluten-free baking recipes and flour blends, serve as binders. Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. When you buy gluten-free flour blends or consult gluten-free baking recipes, you'll notice xanthan gum or psyllium husk powder often listed among the ingredients. These are binders, which Ms. Cermelj, who also earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, described as 'hydrocolloids, which means they bind to a lot of water and make a sticky, elastic gel that kind of mimics the effects of gluten.' Xanthan gum can save cakes, cookies or brownies from turning out crumbly. Ms. Goyoaga said some amount of xanthan gum is especially helpful for doughs that require stretching, such as puff pastry, croissant, pasta and pie dough, to prevent them from falling apart when rolled or leaking butter when baked. As you gain experience with gluten-free recipes, you'll be able to guess how much, if any, xanthan gum or psyllium husk powder to add. But Ms. Medrich called gluten-free bread 'a whole other ballgame' — one where psyllium husk powder steps up to the plate. This fiber-rich, seed-derived ingredient encourages a chewy texture and, according to Ms. Goyoaga, is mandatory for holding together dough so it can be kneaded and shaped. Whatever you end up using, take heart: Going gluten-free isn't the end of enjoying baked goods, but the beginning to discovering how delicious new ones can be. Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .
New York Times
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Easy and Elegant Olive Oil Cake
Image Samantha Seneviratne's olive oil cake. Credit... Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui. I consider myself a pretty good cook. I can neatly break down a chicken, and make mayonnaise from scratch. I can pleat dumplings, roll futomaki, fry doughnuts and, on one occasion, have turned carrots into roses. But I cannot, for the life of me, take butter out of the fridge to soften. This is why, whenever I want cake or am asked to bring a cake to a thing, I make an olive oil cake. This olive oil cake from Sam Seneviratne is especially excellent and super simple, as evidenced by its five stars and glowing reviews. Sam's cake is a great use for that extra delicious olive oil you might have, the one that's really fruity and spicy. Her cake is also delightfully riffable; readers report swapping lemon zest for the vanilla extract, adding minced rosemary, sprinkling the top with chopped almonds. Most important, this olive oil cake will never ask you to have the foresight and planning required to take butter out of the fridge way in advance of baking. Olive oil cake: It gets you. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Spring is coming in fits and starts where I live, and my cooking is equally all over the place. Maybe your weekly menu is also a fun jumble of cold-weather comforts and light-jacket lightness? For a 'What, more snow?' Saturday: lush, fall from the bone seco de pollo (Ecuadorean chicken stew), a recipe from Kiera Wright-Ruiz's cookbook 'My (Half) Latinx Kitchen: Half Recipes, Half Stories, All Latin American,' adapted by Ligaya Mishan. 'Submerged in broken-down tomatoes, naranjilla and beer, the chicken lounges, loosens, relents,' Ligaya writes. I would like to be this chicken. (By the way, you can use orange juice for the naranjilla.) For an iced-latte Sunday: These honey-and-soy glazed chicken thighs from Kay Chun have strong 'outdoor eating' vibes, even though they're made on a sheet pan in the oven. Serve them with Ali Slagle's orange-ginger brussels sprouts or Sue Li's one-pot kabocha squash and coconut rice, both new and perfect for this shoulder season. I would also like a platter of Rick Martínez's salpicón de pescado — spicy citrus-marinated fish — to pile into tortillas for tacos. And for a Monday when it's beautiful outside, because of course it is: brownies. Like the olive oil cake, Lidey Heuck's brownies don't need softened butter, they simply need butter melted with sugar and chocolate chips. These crinkly-topped treats can't fix the fact that we had to spend a gorgeous spring day inside working, but they do make that indoor time a little nicer.
New York Times
05-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
15 Easy Baking Recipes for When You Really, Really Need a Treat
15 Easy Baking Recipes for When You Really, Really Need a Treat Be ready when the craving strikes. This banana bread is made even better with the simple addition of espresso powder and cardamom. Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Sometimes baking is about the journey: It's fun to whisk warm sugar into egg whites for an Italian meringue, then fold it carefully into a batter. And sometimes, it's about the destination. You want a baked good — as soon as possible. That's when the recipes below come in handy. Rest assured that they're just as satisfying as those bigger baking projects, but, this time, you can linger over the eating, and not the whisking or kneading. Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. You don't have to cut butter into flour in this simple recipe, which is easier, even, than a classic cream scone recipe. Here, Genevieve Ko instead drops the batter onto a sheet pan, ensuring there's no chance of overworking the dough (and practically guaranteeing success). The recipe calls for blueberries, but you can fold in any seasonal fruit — dried or fresh. Recipe: Easy Blueberry Cream Scones Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. These cookies come together in one bowl, but what's even better is how Samantha Seneviratne, who created the recipe, lets you skip scooping and shaping individual balls of dough. Just bake all the dough in one skillet. It's easier, and who doesn't love a giant cookie? Simply slice it into triangles, and serve it warm with vanilla ice cream on top. Recipe: Skillet Chocolate-Chip Cookie Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. This quick, easy banana bread recipe from Sheela Prakash levels up the complexity of the original by adding cardamom and coffee, a well-loved combination in the Middle East. A coffee glaze on top drives home its flavor, but it is an extra step, so if you want to keep it easy, just sprinkle the bread with Demerara sugar for added texture. Recipe: Cardamom Coffee Banana Bread Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. Setting aside any lengthy discourse about what makes for a buckle versus a cobbler versus a crumble, this easy dessert from Vallery Lomas really lets the fruit shine. An ultra buttery batter strings together apple slices, which become jammy and caramelized when they bake, for a dessert that isn't a pie but is still all about apples. Recipe: Easy Apple Buckle Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. We're in a golden age of microwave desserts: This Ali Slagle recipe is big enough for two, providing double the comforting flavors of sticky toffee pudding. A cool scoop of vanilla ice cream on top is absolutely advised. Recipe: Microwave Sticky Toffee Pudding Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Yossy Arefi. This classic cake from Yossy Arefi is a must if you're looking for an easy, satisfying bake. The batter is sturdy, so it will unmold from even the most elaborate Bundt pan, which, in turn, gives the illusion that you went to more effort than you actually did. Recipe: Vanilla Bundt Cake Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. This chocolate cake from Amanda Hesser tastes so much more complicated than it actually is. Simply mix all of the ingredients over medium heat in a pot, and then you 'dump it,' or pour it, all into a cake pan. The icing is just melted chocolate chips stirred together with sour cream. Some commenters suggest choosing high-quality dark chocolate instead, but it's also perfect as is. Recipe: Chocolate Dump-It Cake Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Sohla El-Waylly uses store-bought puff pastry for this delightful large-format almond croissant. Simply thaw frozen all-butter puff pastry in the refrigerator and bake crisp. Then, make the almond filling, which goes between and on top of the pastry, and bake it once more, for a showstopping brunch centerpiece. Recipe: Giant Almond Croissant Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Pie is difficult, but crisps? Crisps are easy — especially in this Ali Slagle recipe, which doesn't even require turning on the oven. You'll make a topping in the microwave, and then simmer frozen berries on the stovetop until they form a compote, adding a few closer to the end for pops of fresh fruit flavor. Since you add the crisp at the end, you ensure that it stays just that way — crisp. Recipe: Stovetop Berry Crisp Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Spencer Richards. Lemon bars are a go-to easy dessert, but this Melissa Clark recipe adds sophistication with olive oil and sea salt. An oil with lots of herbaceous, peppery flavor will lend adult complexity to the dessert you made with your mom as a kid. Recipe: Lemon Bars With Olive Oil and Sea Salt Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Carrie Purcell. Strawberries aren't in season (for now), but the beauty of this simple cake from Jerrelle Guy is how defrosted frozen berries work just as well. The warm, jammy and caky scoops are excellent on their own, or garnished with ice cream or ribbons of fresh basil. Recipe: Strawberry Spoon Cake Mark Weinberg for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. When you want an easy dessert, brownies are an obvious choice (and we certainly have a recipe for them), but get a little more creative by making Vaughn Vreeland's cross between brownies and cookies. They scratch that itch for a chewy, fudgy dessert — and, great news — they bake in way less time. Recipe: Chewy Brownie Cookies Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Laurie Ellen Pellicano. If you've never tried a cake that uses a whole orange — yes, including the peel — let this be your sign. The orange is bright and sweet in Samantha Seneviratne's recipe, but including the rind adds an intriguing and pleasant bitterness, like candied peel or marmalade. An orange juice glaze ensures that you'll want to slice off a little piece to have with coffee for breakfast. Recipe: Whole-Orange Snack Cake Lisa Nicklin for The New York Times These cookies, adapted from 'The King Arthur Flour Cooking Companion' have all the jammy, buttery appeal of a linzer cookie, but they're far less complicated. There's no rolling or stamping out dough. There is, however, rice flour, but if you don't have any, feel free to use all-purpose. Recipe: Shortbread Jammers Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Judy Kim. Genevieve Ko's one-bowl version of a classic is the perfect snacking cake to keep around for guests who might drop in (or for yourself, when little treat o'clock strikes). In another twist, instead of cream cheese frosting, the cake gets a sour cream and cream cheese topping baked on top of it for a result that's a cross between cheesecake and carrot cake and easier to make than either. Recipe: One-Bowl Carrot Cake Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice.
New York Times
13-02-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
It's Little Treat O'Clock
These homemade sweets are ready in 25 minutes or less. Make yourself a sticky toffee pudding in no time at all with this easy microwave recipe. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. By Ali Slagle Ali Slagle is a recipe developer and regular contributor to NYT Cooking who specializes in low-effort, high-reward recipes. She is also the author of the cookbook 'I Dream of Dinner (so You Don't Have To).' Published Feb. 13, 2025 Updated Feb. 13, 2025 That familiar feeling hits: the craving for a little something sweet. But it's late, or the emergency chocolate stash went poof, or you're really 'not a baker.' It's going to be OK because you probably already have the ingredients you need to rustle together one of these homemade treats. You can make yourself a warm cake faster than it takes an oven to heat, a joyful bite of Funfetti (sort of) when there seems little reason to blow out candles, a jammy fruit crisp when summer is far, far away, and a chewy chocolate-chip cookie without creaming butter or sifting flour — and without butter or flour, period. The four recipes below are far from projects; they serve just one or two people, take five minutes to half an hour, and skip the mixer in favor of a bowl and spoon. They're gentle, lazy, and, much like petting dogs, doing the crossword and saying thank you, small ways to sweeten any day. Beloved in Australia and New Zealand, fairy bread can be a Funfetti-like sweet treat. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Triangles of untoasted white bread covered with margarine or butter and 'hundreds and thousands' (those are sprinkles stateside), fairy bread is a much-loved treat often served at children's birthday parties in Australia or New Zealand. Even if you didn't grow up with it, fairy bread might still taste familiar because the sugary-waxy sprinkles, tender crumb, butter and vanilla are reminiscent of Funfetti cake. These simple cookies are rich with nut butter and miso paste for a perfect salty-sweet balance. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Forget what you thought you knew about making a great chocolate-chip cookie. This two-step recipe delivers crisp edges, gooey middles and rich salted-caramel flavor with any nut or seed butter, brown sugar, miso paste and an egg. These may be dairy- and gluten-free, but they're not lacking in any way. Microwaving the topping while the filling simmers on the stovetop balances this crisp's texture. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Sink into this berry crisp any night of the week, no matter the season. The topping clumps and crisps in the microwave, and fresh or frozen berries simmer on the stovetop until jammy. Because the two elements are cooked separately, the topping won't get soggy, delivering a brown sugary crunch to every bite. Ice cream, sour cream or whipped cream are all great on top of this gooey cake. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Feel the warmth of this ready-in-10-minutes take on sticky toffee pudding cake as soon as you spoon out a bite. You don't have to top the soft, date-flecked cake with vanilla ice cream, sour cream or whipped cream, but the cold dairy swirling with the warm, glistening toffee sauce is something special. Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .
