21 Condiments, Sauces, and Snacks You Can Make Better at Home
Each of these grocery store faves is made with fewer ingredients than anything you'd buy in a store.
Forget packaged foods; these from-scratch recipes are the real deal. Whip up homemade Alfredo sauce and homemade spaghetti sauce for pasta night, or master homemade BBQ sauce, homemade nut butter, and an A+ homemade ketchup recipe for all your condiment needs. Or try our DIY snacks and desserts. Each of these grocery store faves is made with fewer (and more pronounceable) ingredients than anything you'd buy in a store. It's nothing but the good stuff.
Air Fryer Strawberry Breakfast Tarts
Fruit-filled interior: check. Icing-drizzled pastry: check. It's official: These golden brown homemade breakfast tarts are everything you love about the store-bought version, and guess who gets to control the ingredients? That's right—you do. Plus they're baked to perfection in your air fryer to keep your kitchen cool or your oven free for other recipes.
Mozzarella Cheese Sticks
Bypass the frozen aisle the next time you're craving molten cheese snack sticks. Homemade cheese sticks are a cinch! If you have mozzarella cheese sticks, dry bread crumbs, flour, and eggs, you're halfway to marinara sauce-dipped bliss.
Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
Because two cookies are always better than one, we tapped our Test Kitchen pros to re-create this classic brown bag lunch treat. Our homemade cookie cream pies feature ingredients you can actually pronounce—and probably already have in your pantry. Peanut butter, oats, and other baking staples star in the cookies, and fluffy marshmallow creme is the key ingredient in the luscious cookie sandwich filling.
Soft Pretzels
Frozen? Puh-leeze. These yeasty, salt-sprinkled soft pretzels trump anything you can find in a box in the freezer aisle. Our full how-to, from kneading and twisting to baking, will show you how easy it is to make homemade pretzels from scratch.
:How to Make Yeast Bread for That Bakery-Fresh Taste at Home
Cream-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes
If you get nostalgic at the sight of these chocolaty snack cakes, chances are you had an awesome childhood. And because we made them with honest-to-goodness ingredients, including milk chocolate, butter, and powdered sugar, you can have your cupcakes without all the processed ingredients of the purchased version. These homemade cream-filled cupcakes look just like the store-bought version—and taste even better if you ask us.
Pita Flatbread
The bags of flatbreads in the bread aisle can't compare to these tender, chewy, yeasty homemade pita pockets. Best part? You need only five ingredients to make them! Your hummus snack platters, falafel, and sandwich wraps are about to get a major upgrade.
Fresh Marinara Sauce
Step away from the jar. We'll show you how to stir together rich, tasty homemade marinara sauce in less than an hour and with a few simple ingredients. Think roma tomatoes, garlic, and fresh basil.
DIY Cookie Butter
The original cookie butter that flew off supermarket shelves (we're looking at you, Trader Joe's!) was designed to taste like speculoos cookies. But our take on this luscious homemade cookie butter, which is dangerously easy to make from scratch, is intended to deliver the flavor of vanilla Oreos. It's irresistible on apples and toast … or straight from the spoon.
Kombucha
Raise a glass to a healthy gut. Fermented tea has gained quite the following in the last decade or so for its reported health benefits. Make a bottle of our five-ingredient basic homemade kombucha recipe, then try the ginger and orange variations to mix things up.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Granola Bar
In need of some grab-and-go snacks to keep you well-fueled (without the energy roller coaster an hour later)? These chocolate-peanut butter granola bars have oats, crisp rice cereal, pretzels, and chia seeds. One bite will convince you that homemade snack bars are far superior to what you'd buy at the store.
Bloody Mary Mix
Leave the gigantic jug of red stuff on the liquor store shelf. This bold, citrusy concoction, flavored with horseradish and lemon juice, will turn brunch on its head. For a BYOB (build-your-own-beverage) bar, stir together a batch of this homemade Bloody Mary mix, then set it out with vodka, tequila, and garnish options like cooked bacon strips, olives, pickles, or even shrimp.
Homemade Noodles
Try these tender, lightly eggy noodles once, and you may never go back to boxed dried pasta again. And if you're hoping to dry and freeze the noodles, we include instructions for that, too. Ideal for soups or coated in sauce (we're partial to a homemade Alfredo sauce or homemade spaghetti sauce), we suggest making a double batch of these marvelous meal-starters to use all week long.
Homemade Coarse-Ground Mustard
A homemade ketchup recipe isn't the only condiment we suggest you stir together from scratch. You might slap your forehead after making this three-step homemade condiment recipe and wonder, "Why did I never make my own mustard before?" With enough punch to hold its own on hot dogs, sandwiches, cheese boards, and meat rubs, we BH&G food editors pretty much always have a jar of this in our fridges.
Single-Crust Pie Pastry
If you have 10 minutes, you have all the time you need to assemble a homemade piecrust. That's probably quicker than it would take for you to get to your grocery store to buy one. Bring the pastry together in a bowl or food processor, then pile it high with any filling you crave to create your best pie recipe ever.
No-Bake Peanut Butter Oat Bites
Energy bites and granola bars might seem like a lengthy project for home cooks to tackle, but these easy no-bake goodies prove otherwise. The oat-based poppers are ready to chill after just 20 minutes of prep and are naturally sweetened with honey and dried fruit. No cane sugar here.
Sriracha-Honey Beef Jerky
Bet you never thought you'd be known for your artisan-quality beef jerky. But with a little steaming and marinating in a sweet hot sauce, this bold and tasty homemade jerky recipe will become one of your favorite high-protein snacks and win you acclaim. A dehydrator does most of the work for you.
Buy It: NutriChef Dehydrator ($65, Target)
Beef Bone Broth
Protein-packed and full of flavor, bone broth is more than a hot trend. Veggies, basil, garlic, and bay leaves give this homemade bone broth its rich taste. Drink it as-is or use this broth as a base for a savory soup or stew.
Vanilla Coffee Creamer
Bottle running dry of your favorite flavor of creamer to add to your morning cup of joe? Don't worry; it's simple to make it yourself. Each flavor of this homemade coffee creamer recipe has the same two base ingredients, allowing for easy customization.
All-Purpose Baking Mix
Five ingredients and one simple step (stir), and you're well on your way to tender biscuits, muffins, waffles, or any other baked good your heart desires. Nonfat dry milk powder in the mix means most of the goodies you make require zero refrigerated milk. For a dose of whole grains, try our whole wheat flour variation.
Easy Half-Sour Pickles
Jazz up your next sandwich or charcuterie platter with homemade pickles. Simply soak cucumbers in a saltwater solution along with mustard seeds, dill seeds, fresh dill, peppercorns, and garlic. After about a week of pickling time, the tangy, sour, and crunchy pickles are a total treat.
Slow Cooker Vanilla Yogurt
Did you know you can make thick, luscious homemade yogurt in your slow cooker? (You know now.) Grab some milk, vanilla bean paste, and plain unsweetened yogurt, and we'll show you how it's done.
:Surprising Recipes You'd Never Guess You Could Make in a Slow Cooker
