Even if you’re the type to eat Thanksgiving dinner at 2 p.m., you still need snacks and apps to munch on, both for the guests and the host. You and your guests deserve more than cheese and crackers.

Two-Cheese Gougères

These two-cheese gougères are based on the biscuit-sized version Chris had in Normandy, France. (Most gougères are a bite-sized snack). Gougères are a cheesy, choux-based cheese pastry with a crisp exterior and an airy, open interior. We developed ours using a combination of Comté and Parmesan, but Gruyère works if you can’t find Comté. The richness of the cheeses and butter is balanced out with a little Dijon mustard. They’re perfect served before the big meal or as part of the dinner spread.

Garlic Toasts with Goat Cheese and Herb Salad

These little toasts feature soft and sweet confit garlic, creamy goat cheese and a fresh herb salad to top it off. Like a more refined version of garlic bread, these bites pack a huge garlic punch. We brush the bread with oil from the garlic confit before spreading the mashed cloves on top.

Upside-Down Cambozola Tarts with Hot Honey

Upside-down Cambozola onion tarts, with a hot honey flourish, are so much better than cheese and crackers. The sweet caramelized onion is perfectly complemented by Cambozola’s hint of blue and uniquely creamy melty-ness, with a drizzle of spicy-sweet hot honey to bring them to another level.

Pissaladière

Pissaladière is half crust, half a heaping layer of jammy, caramelized onions. Sort of like a thin-crust pizza, it’s a traditional savory French tart often seasoned with potent herbs (thyme and bay) and a punchy, briny ingredient like capers or olives.

Phyllo-Wrapped Feta with Honey (Feta me Meli)

These phyllo-cheese pockets are a dead-simple meze we learned on a recent trip to Greece. Though they sometimes are fried, we bake ours to keep things as simple as possible (without losing out on texture). Salty, savory feta is wrapped in layers of store-bought phyllo, which are brushed with olive oil and baked until shatteringly crisp. Top them with sesame seeds and a drizzle of honey for a touch of sweetness to complement the tang of the feta.

Tomato Tart with Olives and Gruyère

We layer puff pastry with sliced plum tomatoes and various pungent ingredients—gruyère, mustard, onions and olives. A drizzle of oil allows the tomatoes to retain their moisture as their savoriness concentrates in the oven. Top with fresh basil, capers, oregano or all three.

Colombian Cheese Buns (Almojábanas)

“When the buns emerged from the oven, the result was shocking,” editorial director J.M. Hirsch wrote of these cheese buns (almojábanas) he was served in the remote Colombian village of Villa de Leyva. “Sweet with corn and richly cheesy, yet light. The interior was airy, with the barest hint of molten cheese. The bottoms had a cheesy crisp crunch.”

The baker of said treats, Beatrice Franco Pinilla, is one of the few still making them in the region’s traditional way. We don’t use Pinilla’s hand-built, massive stone wood-fired oven, but we were able to approximate the heavenly moist, chewy crumb and savory, lightly sweet flavors.

Brazilian Cheese Puffs (Pão de Queijo)

These tasty puffs, Brazilian cheese bread (pão de queijo), are a popular snack for all occasions. Tapioca flour gives them a chewy, pull-apart texture—a perfect consistency for extra-savory cheesiness. The combination of richness and satisfying chew makes it hard to stop eating these.

Olive Oil Tortas (Tortas de Aceite)

These thin, Spanish breads are cracker-like and lightly sweet from a coating of sugar and orange zest (we also include instructions to make them with sesame and cinnamon instead). The breads themselves are subtly savory and peppery from olive oil. They’re equally as good on a dessert table as they are on a cheeseboard.

Spiced Fried Chickpeas

Crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside, these pan-fried chickpeas add satisfying crunch and spice to dips, soups and salads, and make a satisfying snack on their own. We love the earthy Mediterranean flavor profile of smoked paprika and warm cumin, but you can also change it up with Chinese five-spice, Ethiopian berbere or zesty za’atar.

Seeded Crackers with Smoked Paprika and Olive Oil

Homemade crackers are so much easier than you think, and they’re packed with more flavor than anything you’ll find at the grocery store. You can customize these however you like; we offer recommendations for a variety of seeds that work well. Smoked paprika gives the crackers some color and a light, smoky flavor, while the semolina flour gives them a satisfying crunch.

Baked Ricotta with Sautéed Leek, Walnuts and Dill

We wanted a melty cheese that’s the opposite of fondue: light in texture, flavorful, but mild enough to allow layers of seasonings and herbs to shine. So we turned to inspiration from a few outstanding baked cheeses from Athens and Sicily. In Greece, it was slabs of broiled feta eaten with bread; in Sicily, chewy rounds of firm ricotta doused with spicy-peppery seasonings, then baked until tender and lightly browned. ⁠
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We got the perfect result from a trio of cheeses: ricotta for a fluffy, mild base, mozzarella for gooeyness, and Parmesan for sharp, nutty notes. We layer it with a base of sautéed leeks, red pepper flakes, walnuts and fresh dill.

Charred Zucchini and Tahini Dip

“I’m never making hummus again,” a Milk Street staffer said after making this zucchini dip. Charred, pureed zucchini creates a creamy base for layers of spicy, nutty, lemony flavors. It’s roasty, yet fresh.

We throw the zucchini under the broiler, then puree it with spices (paprika, cayenne), garlic, tahini for nutty backbone, and lemon for brightness. It’s smooth, with some texture, and best served with a brush of paprika and cayenne, plus a drizzle of olive oil, with warmed flatbread.

Beer Cheese

Melted cheddar that's as creamy as Velveeta—seems like a far-off dream, but it's easily achieved with a little sodium citrate. Our digital editor Claire Lower nerded out over this ingredient. Don't be put off by the chemistry nomenclature—sodium citrate is a natural byproduct of mixing baking soda and lemon juice.

Tomato–Green Olive Yogurt Dip with Fresh Dill

This dip is inspired by the Turkish dish menemen, a soft scrambled egg with tomatoes, peppers and cheese. It gets big flavor from powerhouse ingredients like green olives, fresh dill, scallions and green chilies. Greek yogurt provides the perfect tangy base.

Muhammara

This simple, spicy-tart puree of roasted red pepper and walnuts is all about is about good ingredients, used to their full potential. In this muhammara (from the Arabic word for “reddened”), roasted red peppers make the punchy base, which is heightened with fragrant toasted cumin, and thickened simply with rich, fatty walnuts and bread. (We often use bread as a thickener; it doesn’t mask the flavors, while the starch adds silky smoothness to soups and dips.) Drizzle with pomegranate molasses and scoop up with pita.

Whipped Feta Dip

This savory feta spread is whipped with cream cheese to a light, almost fluffy consistency. Brightened with citrus, garnished with mint, and rounded out with olive oil, it’s perfect for carrots and celery, crusty bread or seeded crackers.

Spicy Feta Dip (Tirokafteri)

Once upon a time in Greece, we encountered a feta dip that was inexplicably creamy. This came not just from feta, but from goat cheese and red peppers. Tangy yet briny, spicy yet vegetal, creamy and savory, this dip is perfect with holiday crudités.

Bagna Cauda with Steamed Broccoli

Bagna Cauda is a great example of a high-impact recipe; minimal ingredients, simple technique and stunning results. This Piedmontese sauce-like dip is made with umami-packed anchovies, garlic, butter and olive oil. It’s cooked low and slow to really draw out all of those rich, savory flavors. We love it paired with a simple green veg like steamed broccoli, but you can serve it with pretty much anything you’d like. Our creative director, Matt Card has several recommendations in this blog, where he makes his case for inviting anchovies to Thanksgiving.

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Willow Montana

Willow Montana is the Production Manager of Digital Media at Milk Street. Willow spends their days coordinating and planning video shoots, managing schedules and overseeing the execution of digital projects. They studied Baking and Pastry Arts at Johnson and Wales University and worked in restaurants while putting themself through six more years of college. They hold a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in English Literature and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Publishing and Writing. Willow is a firm believer in living a slow, quiet life and making things by hand. When they aren’t following the developers around with a camera at the Milk Street office, they may be found at home shaping loaves of sourdough, caring for dozens of houseplants and, occasionally, out in the wild at a punk rock show.