Hello and welcome to Five Weeknight Dishes. This week we are doing something new: desserts. Last Friday I asked if this was something that would interest you, and I have never gotten so many emails. (If you’re feeling cheated and want your dinner recipes, take a look at these suggestions for some superb weeknight options from my boss, Sam Sifton.)
Selecting this week’s recipes was both very easy and very hard — easy because I know precisely what I want to bake when I need something sweet on demand (these recipes can be made within two hours or less), hard because of all the choices to agonize over, such is my love for the baking recipes on NYT Cooking. Like Dorie Greenspan’s Swedish almond cake. Samantha Seneviratne’s double chocolate cookies. Susan Spungen’s brown sugar anise cookies. I could go on, and will below.
Do you love this? Do you just want that weeknight chicken? I’m [email protected]. The lines are open.
Here are five desserts for the week:
3. New Classic Brownies
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I really debated whether to give you a cookie, cake or brownie to meet your chocolate needs. But I concluded that nothing beats a brownie, ideally served with a small, very cold glass of milk. I am unconflicted about whether that brownie should be fudgy or cakey: Obviously it should be fudgy. This recipe, from the cookbook author Alice Medrich, is my favorite. Other excellent brownies to consider: maximalist pecan pie brownies; vegan brownies with tahini and halvah; flourless beet brownies.
4. Nutella Banana Bread
Banana bread is one of my lifelong favorites, and I like it best studded heavily with chocolate chips. Yossy Arefi goes a step beyond that and adds swirls of Nutella. Picture yourself eating this on the couch while you watch “Call My Agent!” (OK, that’s me.) For a more classic and very delicious chocolate chip banana bread, try this recipe; and this banana bread is a spin on a more traditional spiced bread.
View this recipe.
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