839 desert recipes

To Do Tarts: small pecan cookies bound with ground stale bread, orange zest, and stiffly beaten egg white. Five-ingredient nut cookies with no flour and no butter, ready in 30 minutes.

Easy coffee cake builds a quick monkey bread-style bundt from refrigerated biscuits dipped in melted butter and pecan-brown sugar, then baked into a sticky pull-apart loaf. A four-ingredient brunch shortcut for sleepy mornings.

No-bake cafe au lait blender cheesecake whips cottage cheese, instant coffee, and whipped topping into a light gelatin-set dessert. Cinnamon zwieback crumbs top each slice.

Peachy cinnamon coffee cake uses a cinnamon muffin mix, canned peaches, and the included swirl packet for a fast-from-scratch-tasting cake baked in about 30 minutes. A weekend brunch shortcut.

Apricots in brandy, an 1831 American recipe: fresh apricots blanched in light syrup, bottled, and covered with equal parts syrup and French brandy. A heritage spirit-preserved fruit.

Instant cheesecake fakes the real thing in five minutes with a chocolate digestive biscuit, a swipe of cream cheese, and half a fresh strawberry. Snack-sized, no-bake, ready before the kettle boils.

Buttery spiced fig thumbprint cookies, tender brown-sugar dough rolled in a crunchy flax-sugar coating and filled with jammy fig preserves. Warm cinnamon and nutmeg make them a standout on the holiday cookie tray.

Chewy oat bran raisin cookies made with egg whites instead of whole eggs and vegetable oil instead of butter. A lighter oatmeal cookie with nuts and fiber.

No-bake lemon cheesecake with a coconut cookie crust, tangy lemon gelatin filling, cream cheese, and condensed milk. Bright, creamy, and completely oven-free.

Amaretto cheesecake cookies with a brown sugar shortbread crust, cream cheese filling spiked with amaretto, and an almond crumble topping. Cut into squares.

Cherry and almond Christmas cake: maraschino cherries, apricots, ginger, and almonds macerated in amaretto and brandy, baked into a lighter apple-puree batter, then soaked in more amaretto. A boozy, fruit-packed festive cake that keeps for a month.

Melt in your mouth Russian tea cookies with walnuts. Perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea.

Pineapple-walnut dip: creamed cottage cheese and sour cream blended with crushed pineapple, toasted walnuts, and lemon. A versatile sweet-savory dip for fruit, cookies, or chicken.

Chocolate pecan cookie slices shaped into logs, baked, then cut on the diagonal and drizzled with white chocolate. A slice-and-bake method that yields 40 elegant cookies.

Simple 3-ingredient breakfast parfait with cottage cheese or yogurt, fresh fruit, and wheat germ. A 5-minute high-protein breakfast or snack for busy mornings.

Apricot and cardamom bars with dried apricot, apricot nectar, and unsweetened applesauce in the batter, finished with a sweet apricot glaze drizzle. Low-fat and done in 45 minutes.