Recipes with butter

Prep 5min Cook 20min 2 servings

Dutch Baby Pancake

Thin batter poured into a blazing cast-iron pan puffs up the sides into a tall, browned bowl while the middle stays soft and custardy. Lemon juice and powdered sugar are the classic finish for this German-American pancake; berries or cream turn it into a brunch main. A pan that is not hot enough is the usual reason the edges stay low.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 4 servings

Mushroom Stroganoff

Thick slices of button mushroom take the place of beef, seared over high heat until browned, then finished in a sour cream sauce over very low heat. The two stages pull in opposite directions: mushrooms left to stew in their own water turn gray and soft, and sour cream boiled at the end curdles. Paprika tints the sauce and adds gentle warmth.

Prep 15min Cook 50min 4 servings

Earl Grey Banana Bread

The Earl Grey leaves are ground until no coarse bits remain and stirred through the batter, so every slice is flecked with tea. Ripe bananas are mashed only until small pieces of fruit are left, and the top splits open as it bakes.

Prep 5min Cook 15min 8 servings

Fluffy Pancakes

Small lumps left in the batter make for a fluffier stack. Mixing stops before the batter turns smooth and the cakes turn tough, and the batter then rests a few minutes to hold on to the bubbles from the baking powder. A pan kept at medium-low lets the centers cook before the outsides scorch. Wait for the surface bubbles to burst and the edges to look dry, then flip only once, since an early or second turn spoils the shape.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Baking Medium

Earl Grey Milk Tea Cheesecake

Two Earl Grey tea bags steep in warm cream that then goes into the cream cheese filling, so the cheesecake tastes like milk tea under the richness of the cheese. The cream is only warmed at the edges, never boiled, and the bags come out without squeezing. Baked in a water bath over a pressed digestive-biscuit base, the filling sets smooth and even.

Prep 25min Cook 40min 4 servings

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Patty Melt

Somewhere between a burger and a grilled cheese, a patty melt puts a thin beef patty, deeply caramelized onion and cheddar between slices of sandwich bread griddled until crisp. Three heat levels do three jobs: low heat for at least 20 minutes sweetens the onion, medium-high heat browns the thin patty, and medium-low heat crisps the bread while the cheese melts.

Baking Hard

Chocolate Eclairs

French pastry shops usually fill eclairs with vanilla custard; this version uses whipped cream and tops the long choux shells with melted dark chocolate. With a plain cream filling, the bitter chocolate and the crisp shell come through more clearly. The eggs are beaten in one at a time, stopping once the paste looks glossy and drops slowly from the spatula.

Prep 40min Cook 35min 12 servings

Prep 10min Cook 35min 2 servings

Polenta con Funghi (Italian Creamy Cornmeal with Sauteed Mushrooms)

Loose, creamy cornmeal makes a soft bed for mixed mushrooms seared until their edges brown. The polenta is sprinkled into the boiling water little by little while whisking, since dumping it in all at once leaves lumps, and it is spooned into bowls while it still flows, before standing firms it up.

Baking Medium

English Muffin

Cooked on a covered pan over low heat instead of in the oven, these flat yeast rounds develop a cornmeal crust on both faces and an open, irregular crumb inside. Toasting crisps the edges of those holes, and butter, jam, or a runny poached yolk sinks into the gaps. They are the usual base for Eggs Benedict and just as good split and buttered at breakfast.

Prep 25min Cook 20min 8 servings

Prep 15min Cook 25min 4 servings

Pork Chops with Apple Cider Pan Sauce

Pork loin chops cut thick sear to a deep golden crust, and the browned bits they leave in the skillet become the base of the sauce once apple cider loosens them. Dijon mustard sharpens the cider's sweetness, and a knob of cold butter swirled in off the heat makes the sauce glossy. A sprig of thyme simmers in the reduction to tie the apple and pork together.

Baking Hard

Ensaymada Cheese Bread (Filipino Sweet Cheese Brioche)

Ensaymada traces back to the Spanish ensaimada of Mallorca, but the Filipino version turned into a soft, buttery brioche finished with butter and salty cheese. Each bun rises tall with visible spiral layers because the dough is rolled into ropes, coiled loosely, and baked in muffin tins. Powdered Parmesan stands in for the grated cheddar or Edam common in the Philippines, giving a lighter salty edge against the sweet crumb. The butter and cheese wait until the buns have cooled completely, or the cheese turns soggy. It shows up at Christmas, and the rest of the year as a breakfast bun with coffee or hot chocolate.

Prep 45min Cook 20min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 50min 4 servings

Potato Au Gratin

Thin potato slices bake in cream and milk until the liquid thickens between the layers, with Gruyere melted through the middle and browned on top. Garlic never touches the potatoes themselves, only the buttered dish, where it leaves a faint scent at the base. Baking happens in two phases, covered with foil until the potatoes cook through and then uncovered to color the cheese, which keeps the top from scorching before the center softens. There is no bechamel, just cream poured straight over the slices.

Prep 15min Cook 30min 4 servings

Bibingka (Filipino Coconut Rice Cake)

In the Philippines, bibingka is sold outside churches after the dawn Masses of the Christmas season, baked in clay pots lined with banana leaves over charcoal. Coals above and below cook both surfaces at once and keep the inside moist, while the leaves leave a green fragrance and faint dark marks on the underside. This version swaps all that for a round pan in a regular oven, and it leaves out the salted duck egg and coconut slices that vendors press on top midway. Rice flour and coconut milk give a texture somewhere between a rice cake and a sponge cake: a little chewy, but still soft and springy.

Prep 10min Cook 10min 2 servings

Reuben Sandwich

Salty corned beef, tangy sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese are stacked on rye, then griddled in a pan with butter on the outside of the bread. A thin layer of mayonnaise spread to the edges of the inner slices helps keep the filling in place, and setting some cheese directly against the bread lets it melt first and glue the layers together. Medium-low heat gives the cheese in the middle time to melt before the rye darkens.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 15min Cook 15min 12 servings

Financier (Brown Butter Almond Mini Cake)

Browned butter does most of the work: cooked until the foam settles and the solids turn hazelnut brown, it gives these little almond cakes a toasted, nutty smell that plain melted butter lacks. Only egg whites go into the batter, along with almond flour and a spoon of honey. The inside bakes up dense and moist while the edges turn dark and crisp.

Prep 20min Cook 80min 4 servings

Herb Roasted Whole Chicken

Butter mixed with rosemary, thyme, and garlic is pushed under the breast skin, where it melts during roasting and coats the leanest part of the bird. A lemon and the remaining herbs go into the cavity. The oven starts hot to color the skin, then drops lower to cook the meat through, and the drippings left in the pan become the base for a gravy. Letting the bird rest before carving keeps the juices in the meat rather than on the board.

Prep 20min Cook 18min 4 servings

Florentine Cookies (Caramel Almond Lace with Chocolate)

Sliced almonds go into a caramel cooked from cream, sugar, honey and butter, and small spoonfuls of it bubble up again in the oven and spread into thin amber rounds studded with nuts. Once cool they set hard as glass, snapping cleanly before the caramel turns a little chewy. The backs get a thin coat of melted dark chocolate.

Prep 20min Cook 20min 3 servings

Rote Bete Knödel (Austrian Beet Bread Dumplings)

Beets blended with milk turn these Austrian bread dumplings a vivid red. Stale bread cubes soak up the beet milk, eggs, and Parmesan for 15 minutes so the mixture binds; flour then firms it enough to hold a round shape. Served warm, they take well to melted butter and more grated Parmesan.

Baking Hard

French Macarons

A smooth, glossy top and a ruffled foot around the base are the signs of a well-baked shell. The almond-meringue shells give way from a thin crisp skin to a chewy center, and pairs of them sandwich a buttercream made with melted dark chocolate.

Prep 40min Cook 18min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Salisbury Steak

Beef patties bound with milk-soaked breadcrumbs finish cooking in a mushroom and onion gravy, which separates Salisbury steak from a plain hamburger steak. The gravy starts in the same pan the patties were seared in, on top of the browned bits they leave behind. Breadcrumbs soaked in milk hold moisture, and the patties stay tender even after simmering in the sauce.

Prep 15min Cook 35min 6 servings

Fruit Clafoutis

Cherries or plums are laid in a single layer, and a thin batter of eggs, milk, sugar and a little flour is poured over just until the tops of the fruit peek through. Straight from the oven the edges are puffed and golden; after a few minutes they sink and the custard settles. Spooned out warm, each serving gets soft fruit, a moist middle and some of the browned edge.

Prep 12min Cook 18min 2 servings

Salmon Piccata

Lemon juice and capers give a sharp, salty edge to a butter pan sauce that cuts through the richness of salmon. A light dusting of flour gives the fillet a thin crust, and the browned bits left in the pan dissolve into chicken stock to start the sauce. The fish is only partly cooked in the first sear and goes back into the sauce for the last couple of minutes, so it stays moist instead of drying out.