Dessert recipe collection

Moist chocolate zucchini bundt cake with cream cheese frosting hides two cups of shredded zucchini in every tender, cocoa-rich slice.

Louisiana banana cake with mashed bananas in a buttermilk batter, topped with sliced fresh bananas and a broiled coconut-brown sugar topping. A Southern sheet cake served warm.

Low-cholesterol oatmeal cookies made with sunflower oil, egg whites, molasses, and whole wheat flour. Warmly spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Buttery shortbread-style biscotti loaded with whole macadamia nuts, flavored with vanilla and almond extract. Twice-baked to a golden, crisp snap.

Macedoine of fresh fruit marinated in rum and orange juice with oranges, apples, pears, bananas, raspberries, and walnuts. An elegant French fruit dessert.

Market mystery cookies with just five ingredients: butter, dark brown sugar, oats, egg, and vanilla. Cooked in a double boiler, then baked into tiny, crisp, toffee-like wafers.

No-bake cereal bars with peanut butter, chocolate, and butterscotch chip topping. Church potluck favorite ready in 35 minutes, feeds a crowd sweetly.

Capirotada, a traditional Mexican bread pudding layered with bananas, raisins, peanuts, almonds, and Monterey Jack cheese, soaked in a cinnamon-clove brown sugar syrup.

Mexican Yuletide cookies (polvorones) with butter, oatmeal, and pecans rolled in powdered sugar while warm. A crumbly, nutty holiday cookie that makes 6.5 dozen from one batch.

Pumpkin cookies sweeten with honey instead of refined sugar, fold in raisins, dates, and chopped nuts, and spice with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Soft, cake-like, and made with whole wheat pastry flour. Healthy enough for breakfast.

Mint chocolate brownie pie layers mint chocolate chips and fudgy brownie batter in a flaky pie crust, baked until set and served warm with vanilla ice cream. A rich after-dinner dessert with a built-in shortcut.

Mo Cookies are a big-batch chocolate chip and nut cookie that yields 60 generous, chewy rounds from a pound of butter and 6 cups of flour. Bake-sale and bake-along ready.

Mocha nut butter balls: tender, snowball-style shortbread cookies flavored with cocoa and instant coffee, packed with toasted walnuts or pecans, rolled in sugar.

Moist Jewish apple cake layers cinnamon-sugared Granny Smith slices into a tube-pan batter made with applesauce and orange juice for an oil-free, dairy-free dessert that stays tender for days.

Mom's pumpkin cookies loaded with chocolate chips, chopped maraschino cherries, and cinnamon. Soft, cakey drop cookies with 3 cups of pumpkin for a moist fall treat.

Montmorency cake, a French flourless-style chocolate cake stuffed with kirsch-soaked sour cherries and glazed in dark chocolate. A Black Forest-inspired showpiece for special occasions.