The Perfect Recipes for a Galentine's Day Celebration - MyRecipes (2024)

Credit: Aaron Kirk; Prop Styling: Sarah Elizabeth Cleveland; Food Styling: Robin Bashinsky

As the most lovey-dovey holiday of the year, Valentine's Day has garnered quite the reputation for being all about folks with significant others. Well, for some of us, those significant others are simply our best friends. Gather your girls (or guys!) together and celebrate Valentine's Day in style with some recipes that are dainty and special (hello, chocolate covered strawberries) and others that truly signify the art of friendship and sharing (pizza and fried chicken, anyone?) With these all-star recipes, yourGalentine's Day celebration will definitely be one to remember.

mr-Vegan Coconut Cream Tart with White Peaches and Blueberries image

Vegan Coconut Cream Tart with White Peaches and Blueberries Recipe

This nutrient-rich twist on coconut cream pie is lusciously smooth and decadent… it’s also vegan, paleo, gluten-fee, and raw. In other words, you’re looking at a tart with a stacked resume. Perfect for a special occasion, especially if you’re looking to clean up your diet a bit, this show-stopping vegan dessert offers rich, toasty flavor and sweet tooth satisfaction—without adding refined sugar. And since there’s no need to crank up the oven to make it, this treat especially ideal for summer. Keep in mind, whipping coconut cream can sometimes be tricky. If you forget to refrigerate your cans overnight or if too much of the liquid gets mixed in, it will most likely separate. But not to worry—mixing in a bit of tapioca flour (arrowroot would also work) can bring the mixture back together in a snap. To save yourself time, go ahead and place your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the fridge to chill as soon as you are ready to start prepping your tart.

Strawberries and Rosé Cake

Strawberries and Rosé Cake Recipe

This impressive blush-tone cake is inspired by two of our favorite summer treats: rosé wine and fresh strawberries. Perfect for a bridal shower, birthday party, or any number of other special gatherings, this cake is as spirited as it is elegant. If you are a big frosting fan, you may want to consider doubling the buttercream component of the recipe, as this was developed as a more delicately iced cake. Leave enough frosting after filling the layers to swipe a light crumb coat around the exterior of the cake, if you like that look--or you can simply keep the frosting in between the layers for a fully "naked" cake aethetic.

Easy Chocolate-Bourbon Fondue

Easy Chocolate-Bourbon Fondue Recipe

Make this a kid-friendly dessert by omitting the bourbon and increasing the vanilla to 1 1/2 teaspoons. You can also serve 10 thin pretzel sticks for dipping, but note that this will add about 21 calories and 96mg sodium.

The Ultimate Grilled Cheese

The Ultimate Grilled Cheese Recipe

With only 3 simple ingredients, this truly is the ultimate grilled cheese. Perfect for a tight budget or someone who's short on time, this uncomplicated comfort food sandwich is the perfect any-time meal. Use mayonnaise instead of butter for added flavor and to keep the bread from burning.

Oreo Truffles

Oreo Truffles Recipe

Oreo Truffles are an easy way to impress guests at your nextget-together. Guests will never have to know they only require four ingredients!

Family-Style Taco Night

Family-Style Taco Night Recipe

For family taco night, set out the filling, taco shells, and toppings, and let everyone craft their own unique creations. Rather than a store bought taco mix pack, we created a simple homemade blend of basic pantry spices. It takes no more than five minutes to measure it all out and blend it up, and provides excellent flavor to a comforting, uncomplicated meal.

Cherry Berry co*cktail

Cherry Berry co*cktail Recipe

This vodka co*cktail is berry bliss.Garnish with a handful of your favorite berries skewered on a co*cktail pick or straw.

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French Onion Soup Bites Recipe

Easy to assemble andperfectly portable, these French Onion Soup bites are the perfect addition to any holiday party spread. They’re like your favorite Trader Joe’s freezer aisle find, but tastier.

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Chocolate Tiramisu Poke Cake Recipe

The poke cake technique is incredibly easy, but that doesn't mean that poke cakes have a simple flavor.Enjoy the irresistible textures of pudding, cake, and crushed espresso beans in each bite of with this chocoatey take on Tiramisu.

Chocolate Pasta with Boozy Raspberry-White Chocolate Sauce

Chocolate Pasta with Boozy Raspberry-White Chocolate Sauce Recipe

Homemade chocolate pasta isn't as hard as you think, however you can substitute 12 ounces of storebought chocolate pasta (available online and in specialtystores). If you're not a fan of white chocolate liqueur and/or booze, just leave it out. When buying white chocolate, look for one that has a higher amount of cocoa butter (not mostly milk, oil, and sugar), as most of the lesser quality white chocolate on the market contains very little, if any, cocoa butter. This will likely make extra sauce, which you can use over ice cream—or for more chocolate pasta.

The Red Velvet Cake

The Red Velvet Cake Recipe

The origin ofred velvet cakes came about fromthe result of baking soda interacting with natural cocoaand other acids in the batter. Through the years, the red velvet craze has only continued, fueled in part by the red velvet cakes that have graced the Southern Living Christmas cover three times.

Peanut Butter and Pretzel Brownies

Peanut Butter and Pretzel Brownies Recipe

Irresistibly nutty and salty, these peanut butter pretzel brownies are for the die-hard chocolate lover in everyone's lives. Incorporating Reese's candies, crushed pretzel bits, and a heaping spoonful of creamy peanut butter, these rich, decadent squares are perfect for you next potluck dessert party, special occasion, or late night craving. For an added bonus, go ahead and eat them warm out of the oven with a scoop of ice cream.

Layered Buffalo Chicken Dip

Layered Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe

This buffalo chicken dip is a completely homemade labor of love, and your guests will fall head over heels for this incredible appetizer. This dip offers the complete buffalo chicken experience all in one dish and combines layers of different ingredients and flavors along with a uniquescratch-made carrot ranch dressing. There is a crunch, a richness, and a level of spice all mixed together in this wow-worthydip that make it the perfect contributiion to any party or tailgate. This dish delivers intense flavor and an all-inclusive and truly delicious buffalo chicken experience.

Fudge Cakes with Jasmine Tea Whipped Cream

Fudge Cakes with Jasmine Tea Whipped Cream Recipe

This sensual dessert--adapted from Nicole Krasinski, chef-owner of State Bird Provisions in San Francisco--offers intriguing flavor combinations and textures that range from cloudlike to crunchy. Krasinski tops her cakes with a tasty fennel-hazelnut granola; for simplicity, we've used toasted hazelnuts. For her recipe, see sunset.com/granolarecipe.

Tricolored Beet Tart

Tricolored Beet Tart Recipe

If you or your guests are not beet fans, substitute sweet potatoes: Wrap 4 (4-ounce) sweet potatoes in parchment paper, and microwave at HIGH 3 minutes. Then cool, peel, and slice. You can also sub feta for goat cheese and pecans or walnuts for hazelnuts.

Mocha Truffle Cake

Mocha Truffle Cake Recipe

A quick spin in the food processor makes this cake's prep easy enough for a weeknight dessert for your family. Its bold chocolate flavor is so satisfying that it's unlikely you'll be able to think about seconds.

Dark Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Dark Chocolate-Covered Strawberries Recipe

Chocolate-covered strawberries are always a crowd pleaser and are loaded with antioxidants and vitamins.We use dark chocolate and pistachios here, which may help boost the health benefits even more.

Pizza Supreme

Pizza Supreme Recipe

Brighten a homemade version of a take-out favorite with two different colors of bell peppers. Use your own color combo, or any bell peppers you have on hand.

How to Make Strawberry Margarita Jell-O Shots

Strawberry Margarita Jell-O Shots Recipe

Get your next party started with a round of boozy Jell-O shots. As our most popular shot to date, you not only get the fun of a jelly shot, but also the spiked strawberry that holds the shot is edible making cleanup a breeze. Cheers to that!

Sweet Tea-Brined Fried Chicken

Sweet Tea-Brined Fried Chicken Recipe

A marriage of Southern favorites: Our salty-sweet brine of brown sugar and freshly brewed tea infuses this picnic-perfect chicken with juicy flavor before frying. Bonus: The tannins in tea act as a natural tenderizer.

Chocolate Panini

Chocolate Panini Recipe

This quick and easy dessert recipe only calls for two ingredients - bread and chocolate!

Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

For an even chewier texture, substitute 1/2 cup hazelnut or almond flour for 1/2 cup all-purpose flour.

Chocolate Chip Cream Puffs

Chocolate Chip Cream Puffs Recipe

Deb likes to stir the chocolate chips into the warm dough by hand because the power of the mixer would forcefully combine the melting chips into the dough, making it brown chocolate dough instead of dough studded with chocolate chips.

Pink Lemonade co*cktail

Pink Lemonade co*cktail Recipe

Nothing quenches your thirst like a glass of cold, tangy lemonade. With a splash of vodka and some light beer, this pink drink is strictly for the grown-ups.

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Can't-Be-Beet Tart with Goat Cheese Recipe

This is the dessert you cook when you want to make a big impression. Everything about it--from the ginger kick in the crust to the sweet earthiness of the beets in the filling to the rich goat cheese in the topping--comes together in beautiful harmony. Be sure to use an 11-inch tart pan to accommodate the filling; a 10-inch pie plate will work in a pinch. Look for buttermilk powder on the baking aisle or with the powdered milk.

Mississippi Mudslides

Mississippi Mudslides Recipe

Pink Grapefruit Cupcakes

Pink Grapefruit Cupcakes Recipe

Bake cupcakes in advance so they have time to cool before you frost them.

Spiked Strawberry Milk

Spiked Strawberry Milk Recipe

A favorite childhood beverage gets an adult twist thanks to strawberry liqueur in tasty Spiked Strawberry Milk.

Champagne Truffles

Champagne Truffles Recipe

These rich, fudgy, tender Champagne Truffles are a small treat that are mind-blowingly good. Savor every bite of these goodies.

Roast Beef and Cheddar Sandwich with Horseradish Sauce image

Roast Beef and Cheddar Sandwich with Horseradish Sauce Recipe

We are not thinkin' Arbys--not after a roast beef sandich like this one. A classic creamy cheese sauce makes this sandwich super rich, while a horseradish sauce adds a kick. We love the onion bun, preferably bakery-made, but you could also use a pretzel bun instead. Make this sandwich the centerpiece of your Super Bowl Spread or serve along with beer and friesfor a crowd-pleasing meal.

Creamy Stove-Top Macaroni and Cheese

Creamy Stove-Top Macaroni and Cheese Recipe

Our healthy mac and cheese is quick and light yet just as creamy as traditional versions.

Blood Orange and Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet

Blood Orange and Bittersweet Chocolate Sorbet Recipe

The marvelous merger of orange and chocolate gets even better when you pair blood oranges' raspberry nuances with dark chocolate and a little Campari for complexity. The herbal, slightly bitter liqueur also helps keep the sorbet from getting icy.

Loaded Totchos

Loaded Totchos Recipe

This sensationalspud riff on nachos is an hommage to party food lovers everywhere. Loaded with toppings and drizzled with a hotcheese dip, these totchos are ready to rock and roll right onto your plate.This dish has all of the goodness of trashy, delicious bar nachos but are made with potatotots for a warm comfort food addition. Fresh jalapeno slices and cool avocado roundout this dish, leaving the endimpression and flavor as simply drool-inducing.

Hot Chicken and Doffles image

Hot Chicken and Doffles Recipe

Winner, winner, hot chicken doffle. If these glorious waffle-doughnut hybrid chicken sandwiches don’t peel you out of bed in the morning, we probably can’t help you. Chicken cutlets are dunked in hotsauce-laced buttermilk, doused in an oil bath to master the coveted crisp-crunchy skin, and then glossed with spicy melted butter. The heat of the chicken is quelled by the glazed doughnuts, which helps master the crave-worthy sweet-salty-spicy breakfast alchemy we all aspire to. Warning: A fork and knife (or a bib, at the very least) are required to tackle this monster of a sandwich.

Brie with Strawberries and Honey

Brie with Strawberries and Honey Recipe

Grilled Apple and Cheddar Sandwiches

Grilled Apple and Cheddar Sandwiches Recipe

Upgrade your grilled cheese sandwich by adding a mustard spread and sliced apples.

Chocolate Buckwheat Waffle with Juicy Berries

Chocolate Buckwheat Waffles with Juicy Berries Recipe

I've remade the typical syrup-doused waffle breakfast into a lower-sugar, fruit-forward, gluten-free, whole-grain plate with 273 fewer calories. In place of refined all-purpose flour, I go with gluten-free buckwheat flour, which adds 2.4g filling fiber per serving; strawberries add another 2.4g. Barely sweetened berries and yogurt replace maple syrup, slashing 18g added sugar per serving.

Twix Pie image

Twix Pie Recipe

This decadent, candy bar inspired pie was created with Twix lovers in mind. You can find Twix spread at World Market or on Amazon.

Cookie Butter Cheese Ball image

Chocolate Cookie Butter Cheese Ball Recipe

For an easy, no-bake treat that everyone will love, look no further than this decadent and chocolatey dessert cheese ball. Serve with dippers like strawberries, apple slices, and pretzels. It’s like an easy-to-make (and easy-to-share) “deconstructed” take on chocolate cheesecake.

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Grapefruit-Pistachio Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

These gooey and gorgeous homemade cinnamon rolls are a vibrant uptake on those classic canned orange rolls Mom would break out for special occasion breakfasts. Never made sweet rolls from scratch before? Trust us, the dough is far easier to make and work with than you might think. And with a soft pink colored grapefruit-cream cheese glaze and a decadent filling featuring pistachios, dark brown sugar, fresh ginger, cardamon, and cinnamon, these morning glories are sure to steal the show at any brunch gathering. If you want to prep them ahead, simply follow the recipe through step 6 the night before and pop your rolls into the fridge; just be sure to bring them to room temperature the following day before baking and glazing.

Cookie Butter Cheesecake image

Cookie Butter Cheesecake Recipe

This decadent cheesecake harnesses the addictively toasty power of speculoos cookies in the crust, in a layer of the filling, and in an over-the-top delicious caramel sauce you’re gonna want to pour over everything (we highly suggest you do). Perfect for a holiday gathering or other special occasion, this cookie butter cheesecake recipe is guaranteed to please. We tested using Biscoff cookie butter, but feel free to use your favorite brand of speculoos spread.

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Lobster Roll Pizza Recipe

If you’re looking for a pie to impress, this lobster pizza is a must-make. The buttery, crisp crust topped with a rich cheese blend and brightened with a vibrant mix of fresh herbs, lemon zest, garlic, and celery serves as the perfect bed for decadent Maine lobster. Not a seasoned pro when it comes to buying and cooking lobster? Be sure to check out our complete guide to cooking with this incredible shellfish for all of the information and inspiration you need.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bugle Bars image

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bugle Bars Recipe

Creamy, crunchy, rich, salty, and sweet all at the same time—these no-bake, chocolate-peanut butter bars are everything. Crisp crushed Bugles (one of our staffs’ junk food favorites) make for an fun and amazingly delicious twist on a typical crumb crust. They lend the perfect hit of salty, crispy, buttery goodness in the base of this cookie bar, and topping the assembled bars with a another handful of the the whole chips is a playful touch that lets folks know what’s in store when they bite into this salty-sweet situation. These decadent cookie bars were a huge hit in the test kitchen, and recipe developer Ivy Odom notes that they would be “perfect for tailgates, school parties, or for eating in front of the TV, with wine and the rest of the bag of Bugles, after a long day at work.”

Rainbow Dessert Bowls image

Rainbow Dessert Bowls Recipe

These edible dessert bowls are as delicious as they are adorable. Try the single-serve, ice cream-filled treats as an alternative to cupcakes for birthdays or class parties.

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Boozy Lavender Lemonade Recipe

Refreshing lemonade gets a delightful floral twist with lavender-infused vodka. Use your Magical Butter Machine to create this simple flavored booze in just an hour, making this recipe perfect for last-minute parties. It serves a crowd, so be prepared to share. Outside of the context of the big-batch, fizzy lemonade co*cktail we've made here, the lavender-infused vodka also makes for an excellent homemadegift.

Banana Split Waffle Cake image

Banana Split Waffle Cake Recipe

Talk about a birthday breakfast—inspired by the flavors of a classic ice cream treat, this impressive waffle stack makes for such a fun way to kick off an extra-special day. Using store-bought waffle mix keeps this decadent breakfast-for-dessert recipe easy to execute, while sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry on top make it feel like a total party on a plate.

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Raspberry Rosé Bellini Recipe

This simple and elegant spring co*cktail is the perfect accompaniment to a special brunch spread, such as our Ultimate Eggs Benedict. Though the recipe was developed with Mother’s Day in mind, the rosé simple syrup used to create this co*cktail offers a multitude of delicious possibilities any day of the week. The boozy syrup is incredibly simple to make and can be used to enhance the simplest of co*cktails, as well as add an extra special touch when poured over desserts.

Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Scones image

Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Scones Recipe

Skip the drive-thru line and enjoy your favorite seasonal Starbucks baked good right in the comfort of your own kitchen. These copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Scones are the perfect companion to a hot cup of coffee and a brisk fall morning.

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Best Baked Oatmeal Recipe

A hearty dish of baked oatmeal is a wonderful (and low-key, easy) brunch dish to make ahead for company, but it can also serve as a brilliant meal prep move that will set you up with practically instant breakfasts for the week. We call this our our “best” baked oatmeal recipe because it offers warming spiced flavor without overwhelming the palate, and achieves a delightful level of creaminess, while maintaining just the right amount of toothy integrity from the oats. Crowned with toasty almonds and bright, juicy berries, it’s this whole-grain breakfast bake is eye-catching as it is delicious. Serve with cream and maple syrup to sweet to taste.