If you want to cook more efficiently instead of using a gazillion pots and pans or you're a singleton who likes to cook but often makes too much food, this one's for you. The sheet pan is the workhorse of the kitchen, offering cooks an easy tool to make efficient and balanced meals. But it's easy to default to one or two good ideas and make them over and over. That's why it's so great to have Hot Sheet: Sweet and Savory Sheet Pan Recipes for Every Day and Celebrations, a cookbook from the talented duo of Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine. Their sheet pan recipes cover every meal — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — and they go way beyond utilitarian.
Evan Kleiman: What draws both of you to this very specific kind of cooking, enough to want to do an entire cookbook about it?
Olga Massov: The idea initially came to me after we did a sheet pan-focused Thanksgiving issue at the Washington Post. It was the first year of the pandemic. We were thinking in the summer about how to cover the holidays and the writing was on the wall. No one was going to be going anywhere, nobody was going to come over to anybody's house. I was personally very sad about it because Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I hosted and I have my family and friends around the table. It fills my heart with so much joy to see everybody eating, talking, and relaxing. I decided that even if I couldn't have a table full of people at my house, I was going to still have a nice meal with my family.
It's just me and my husband and my now nine-year-old. I said I'm just going to roast a duck on a sheet pan and maybe throw some potatoes and things on it to create a festive meal. It'll be Thanksgiving but it'll be scaled down. Then, sort of as a throwaway, I said to my boss, Joe Yonan, "What if we did a sheet pan-themed Thanksgiving?" My boss was really into that idea and that's exactly what we did. Afterward, I started thinking about what else can I make on a sheet pan? I made a sheet pan pancake, and that was great. The best part about it was that we all ate at the same time.
I started thinking about how I would personally benefit from a book like this but I couldn't find a cookbook that incorporated breakfasts, snacks, appetizers, mains, and desserts all in one book. I started jotting down ideas in an Excel spreadsheet and running them past Sanae and saying, "Do you think this is a good idea? Would you eat this?" Sanae started putting so many incredible ideas in the spreadsheet that I thought to myself, "It would be so incredible if we both went on this journey together." So I sheepishly asked her if she would like to become a co-author on this book and I'm very lucky that she said "yes."
After making a Thanksgiving meal using only sheet pans, Olga Massov (left) recruited Sanaë Lemoine to co-write a cookbook devoted to the kitchen workhorse. Photo by Johnny Miller.
When I think about sheet pan cooking, I think, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, put whatever I have on the pan, throw it in. Are most recipes cooked at the same temperature or is there a great deal of variation?
Sanae LeMoine: Yeah, there's a great deal of variation. For instance, the other day I made Olga's frittata, which cooks at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, so at a lower heat. And that gives you a really silky, delicate frittata. We have some recipes that call for using just the broiler, for instance. We have these salumi skewers with grapes that I think are just cooked under the broiler really quickly. So there's actually a great range where we try to account for the fact that all ovens are different. So there's going to be variation in temperature, even though we recommend that you use a thermometer or that you put a thermometer in your oven so you can have a better sense of what the exact temperature inside your oven is.
Let's try and get through an entire day of meals starting with breakfast. Can you really make a giant pancake on a sheet pan?
Olga Massov: You can, yes, and it's delicious. We do it all the time at home. One trick I learned from my colleague at the Post, Becky Crystal, is she would make hers and she put toppings in various sections. So one section of the pancake was blueberry because that's what her son liked. Another section was chocolate chips because that's what she liked. I think they left one plain just for the fun of it. You can definitely do it and instead of one person just standing there and flipping pancakes over and over, you have this pancake you cut up into whatever shapes you desire and then you eat all at the same time.
So much better for the cook.
Olga Massov: So much better for the cook, especially if you have people over.
Let's move on to some savory daytime food. I make nachos a lot, probably too much.
Olga Massov: No such thing.
I love the idea of your chaat masala nachos. Could you describe them?
Olga Massov: Sure. So these are nachos that have cheese but instead of your typical bean, cheese, salsa, maybe meat situation, I took inspiration from Priya Krishna's recipe. I think it was in her cookbook or maybe it was in the New York Times. She basically added the flavors that she grew up with to the nachos and made them Indian-ish. I love, love, love chaat and I love popteejat and bhelpuri, so I kind of drew inspiration from those two chaats. So my nachos have a yogurt drizzle, they have a tamarind chutney, they have a cilantro chili chutney as well. And every bite is spicy, sweet, tart, salty. You get all these different flavors in each bite. I won't tell you if I've eaten an entire sheet pan of those nachos by myself but I think you can guess.
Chaat Masala “Nachos”
Serves 6 to 8
Two of my favorite things to eat are nachos and papri (or papdi) chaat, a family of savory Indian snacks. And while Mexico and India are, geographically, far apart, they share many similar flavors. Ingredients such as cumin, coriander, chile, tamarind, cilantro, and lime, to name a few, are abundant in both cuisines. But combining the nachos and chaat didn’t even occur to me until I made food writer Priya Krishna’s nachos from her excellent cookbook, Indian-ish, and suddenly, merging my two favorite predinner snacks (who among us hasn’t made a meal out of nachos or a favorite appetizer?) sounded like the best idea. I opt for a mild melting cheese such as queso Oaxaca (though you can easily sub in low-moisture mozzarella cheese) and top the nachos with tamarind and mint-cilantro chutneys, as well as dollops of yogurt.
Ingredients
For the mint cilantro chutney
- 1 big bunch fresh cilantro leaves (2 loosely packed cups)
- 1 cup (40 g) fresh mint leaves
- 1 serrano or jalapeño chile, seeded if you like less heat, coarsely chopped
- 1 garlic clove
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
- 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or more to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
For the spiced chickpeas
- One 15-ounce (425 g) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed, or 1 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon chaat masala, plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon red chile powder, such as Kashmiri, or more to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
For the nachos
- 6 ounces (half of a 12 oz/ 340 g bag) of good-quality tortilla chips, such as Xochitl brand
- 1 large tomato (12 oz/340 g), diced
- 1 small red onion (4 oz/113 g), halved and thinly sliced
- 12 ounces (340 g) queso Oaxaca or low-moisture mozzarella cheese, coarsely shredded
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) whole-milk yogurt (optional)
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) tamarind chutney, plus more for serving
Instructions
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MAKE THE MINT-CILANTRO CHUTNEY: In a blender or mini food processor, combine all but a few leaves of the cilantro, the mint, chile, garlic, oil, lime zest, lime juice, and salt and process until pourable and smooth, adding water 1 tablespoon at a time if needed, until the de- sired consistency is achieved. (If using a high-powered blender, such as a Vitamix, you may want to double the quantities of the chutney to get the blender to go. Any remaining chutney can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days and is great to liven up anything from grain bowls to rice to your morning scrambled eggs.)
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MAKE THE SPICED CHICKPEAS: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425°F (220°C). Line a half-sheet pan with parchment paper.
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Spread the chickpeas on a kitchen towel and thoroughly pat them dry with another kitchen towel. Discard any loose skins.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together the salt, chaat masala, cumin, coriander, chile powder, ginger, and turmeric. Add the chickpeas and oil and toss until coated. Transfer the spiced chickpeas to the prepared sheet pan and spread them out in an even layer (keep the bowl you used nearby).
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Roast for 15 minutes, shaking the pan once halfway through.
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Remove the hot sheet from the oven and spoon the chickpeas into the same bowl you used for seasoning them. Keep the oven on and hold onto the pan.
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ASSEMBLE THE NACHOS: Add the tortilla chips to the sheet pan and top with the chickpeas, mixing them until evenly distributed. Scatter the tomato and onion on top, then follow with the grated cheese. Return to the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.
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To serve, dollop with the yogurt (if using). Drizzle half each of the mint-cilantro and tamarind chutneys over the nachos. Garnish with the reserved cilantro leaves and serve with the remaining chutneys and yogurt on the side. This dish tastes best when served right away, so don’t delay!
There's a recipe for spiced yogurt chicken with chickpeas and eggplant. Could you describe the technique of using almond flour in the marinade? It's so interesting.
Sanae LeMoine: It's a technique that I learned from Meera Sodha and what I love about it is that it creates a slight crust around the chicken. I think she uses it in a recipe where it's a whole chicken but she'll sometimes thicken her stews and curries with almond meal as well. It adds a little richness. It gives you a little texture in that crust as it cooks in the oven. It's also gluten-free, which is helpful. This is a dish that I would make for one of my friends who's celiac so instead of using flour or breadcrumbs, you're still getting some of that texture.
There's this wonderful take on fajitas you have that is marinated with gochujang and served with kimchi, onions, and peppers. Yeah,
Olga Massov: The first cookbook that I wrote as a co-author was The Kimchi Cookbook with the wonderful Lauren Chan who has the Mother In Law kimchi company. She introduced me to the wonder that is gochujang and how it makes everything richer and gives it a spice and a hit of umami. I don't eat red meat very often but when I do, I like to pair the flavors of beef with something that will deepen its flavors even more. I think gochujang does it so well and I love kimchi. I wrote a book with Lauren about it. I always felt like pairing steak with gochujang and kimchi and sticking it into a vaheda was really fun and delicious, so I decided to use it for the book.
We are pie people on the show, so we have to talk about slab pie, which according to me is the ultimate cheap pan dessert. You have one with sour cherries. What is your method for slab pies?
Olga Massov: I am also a pie person and I'm delighted to know that you are a pie person as well. I start with an all-butter crust. I've experimented with many different recipes over the years and to me, nothing really beats an all-butter crust and it's easy to throw together with just my hands. But I like to par-bake the crust especially because sour cherries tend to be juicy, they tend to have a lot of water. You want to ensure that the bottom crust stays nice and crispy and provides a textural contrast with the cherries. When I make my filling, I like to use pulverized tapioca filling. Then, I either do a plain crust on top or, as we did in the book, cute little circles all over which can be fun if you're making a pie with a kid who is eager to get their hands dirty and wants to decorate.
Olga Massov uses an all-butter crust for this seasonal cherry slab pie. Photo by Johnny Miller.
Sour Cherry Slab Pie
Makes One 13 × 9-Inch (33 × 23 Cm) Slab Pie
Serves 10 to 12
The world is divided into pie people and cake people, and they will argue over this until the end of times. For the record, I’m a pie person, and if you ask me for the best pie flavor, I will tell you without missing a beat that it’s sour cherry, and yes, please and thank you, I will die on that hill. (I won’t tell you your favorite pie isn’t as good; I just won’t eat as much of it.) Sour cherries, not to be confused with sweet, are smaller, juicier, and have a jewel-like translucence. They’re available for exactly three days each year—kidding, but really, their season is fleeting. Of course, it’s a cruel twist of fate that this brief season coincides with a time when you might not want to turn on your oven—so every summer, I buy as many sour cherries as I can handle, cook what I can before they spoil, and then pit and freeze the rest to use throughout the year. Which is why you may often see a sour cherry pie at my Thanksgiving table. And while round pies are what we normally expect when we think of pies, slab pies are what feed more people (hey, math is math, and you can’t argue with it). So, this is a pie to feed a crowd or a few pie fanatics (me!). Lots of folks like almond extract with cherries, but I far prefer a hint of brandy to contrast the stone fruit, so I’ve provided both options here. You can easily double the recipe, but for more pieces with crust, I recommend baking in two quarter-sheet pans, rather than one half-sheet pan.
Ingredients
For the crust
- 2 1/2 cups (313 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 1/2 sticks (10 oz/283 g) cold unsalted butter, preferably cultured, cut into 1/2-inch (1.3 cm) pieces
- 5 to 8 tablespoons ice water, or more as needed
For the filling
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons instant tapioca
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 to 2 1/4 pounds (907 g to 1.1 kg) sour cherries, rinsed and pitted (about 4 1/2 cups)
- 1 tablespoon brandy or 11/2 teaspoons almond extract
For assembly
- Heavy cream, for brushing Demerara sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
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MAKE THE DOUGH.
*BY HAND: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt until combined. Add the butter and toss the pieces in the flour mixture. Start rubbing the butter into the flour, breaking up the pieces as necessary, until they are the size of kidney or lima beans. This could take a little time, especially if your butter is from the freezer or not the softer, high-fat kind. Don’t get discouraged, the butter will eventually yield. Once the butter pieces are the desired size, add 4 tablespoons of the ice water at once, toss the mixture to combine and distribute, then continue to add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is moist enough to hold together (to test, pinch it together and if it holds, it’s ready). Transfer the dough to a piece of plastic wrap—it should look messy and you should see flecks of the butter. Use a bench scraper or the sides of the wrap—not your hands, which are too warm—to form the dough into a ball, then pat it down into a disk. Wrap the dough disk tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. (You can also freeze the dough, tightly wrapped in another layer of plastic wrap, for up to 2 months.)
*IN A FOOD PROCESSOR: In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar, and salt just to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter pieces are the size of kidney or lima beans. Once the butter pieces are the desired size, add 4 tablespoons of the ice water at once, and pulse the mixture to combine and distribute. Continue to add the water, 1 tablespoon at a time, and pulsing in short bursts, until the dough is moist enough to hold together (to test, pinch it together, and if it holds, it’s ready). Transfer the dough to a piece of plastic wrap—it should look messy and you should see flecks of the butter. Use a bench scraper or the sides of the wrap—not your hands, which are too warm—to form the dough into a ball, then pat it down into a disk. Wrap the dough disk tightly and refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. (You can also freeze the dough, tightly wrapped in another layer of plastic wrap, for up to 2 months.)
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ROLL OUT THE CRUST: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it warm up slightly, for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Divide the dough into two pieces, one about two-thirds (about 460 g) and the other about one-third (about 230 g). Roll out the larger piece to about 11 × 15 inches (28 × 38 cm) and transfer it to a quarter-sheet pan, pressing it into the corners and crimping it as desired (or not). Transfer to the refrigerator, then roll out the smaller piece of dough to about 9 × 14 inches (23 × 36 cm), transfer to a lightly floured piece of parchment, and refrigerate.
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BLIND-BAKE THE BOTTOM CRUST: Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 425°F (220°C). Line the dough on the quarter-sheet pan with foil and weigh it down with pie weights (I like to use pennies, but rice, beans, or actual pie weights work well, too). Transfer to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is light golden brown.
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MAKE THE FILLING. While the bottom crust is baking, in a mini food processor, combine the sugar, tapioca, cardamom, and salt and process until the tapioca is ground to a fine powder. Place the cherries in a large bowl, add the sugar mixture and brandy, and gently mix to combine.
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ASSEMBLE AND BAKE THE PIE. When the bottom crust is ready, transfer it to a wire rack and let cool slightly. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C). Remove the foil with the weights.
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Transfer the cherry filling to the pie crust and gently spread it around so it’s evenly distributed. Remove the smaller piece of pie dough from the refrigerator and set it on your counter (on the parchment). Using cookie cutters of various sizes (rounds, leaves, what have you), punch out pieces of dough, arranging them over the cherry filling in a pattern of your choosing. Brush the top crust with some cream and generously sprinkle with demerara sugar.
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Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until the crust is dark golden brown and the filling gently bubbles.
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Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, at least 3 hours, before serving.
Breakfasts, snacks, appetizers, mains, and desserts all get equal love in Hot Sheets: Sweet and Savory Sheet Pan Recipes for Every Day and Celebrations. Photo courtesy of Harvest.