Dessert, Chocolate Recipes

Santa cookie wreath, a festive gingerbread ring shaped from boxed mix, ringed with holly-leaf cookies and finished in melted candy coating. A fun edible centerpiece for the holiday table.

Hidden Kisses cookies with chocolate kisses wrapped in buttery pecan shortbread and rolled in powdered sugar. A snowball cookie with a melted chocolate surprise inside.

Chocolate sour cream cake built on melted unsweetened chocolate, brown sugar, and a finishing splash of boiling water that blooms the cocoa into deep, fudgy darkness. Tender, moist, old-school layer cake at its honest best.

Double chocolate chip cookies with melted semisweet chocolate in the dough plus chocolate morsels and walnuts folded in. Rich, fudgy, and intensely chocolatey drop cookies.

Surprise the kids after dinner with this scrumptious chocolate cake that doesn't take much to make.

Mystery cake is a self-saucing chocolate pudding cake: pour batter into a pan, sprinkle cocoa sugar on top, then douse with cold coffee. As it bakes, the topping sinks into pudding under a tender cake layer.

Rich chocolate cheesecake with a chocolate wafer crust, melted semi-sweet chocolate folded into the filling, and a tangy sour cream topping. A dense, slice-with-a-warm-knife dessert.

Pecan fudge pie with eight ounces of melted semisweet chocolate, three cups of pecans, and dark corn syrup in a from-scratch shortening crust. A rich, fudgy twist on classic pecan pie.

Banana split sundae for one with homemade microwave hot fudge, ice cream, peanuts, and a quartered banana. Single-serving solo dessert ready in five minutes.

Old-fashioned chocolate cake with crushed peppermint stick candy folded right into the batter. A tender cocoa layer cake with a cool, pepperminty crunch. Straight out of a mid-century church cookbook.

Turtle pie layers a pecan-chocolate cookie crust with melted caramel, silky chocolate ganache mousse, and clouds of whipped cream. No-bake-ish dessert that pulls all the candy-bar flavors into one chilled pie.

Ischler cookies are an Austrian classic from Bad Ischl: ground-almond shortbread rounds sandwiched with raspberry jam and crowned with espresso-spiked chocolate icing. Spa-town pastry royalty.

Peanut butter blossom cookies rolled in sugar and topped with a chocolate kiss while still warm. Soft, chewy centers with a crackly sugar coating and melty chocolate on top.

Twice-baked citrus walnut biscotti, crisp with anise and bright lemon and orange zest, then half-dipped in glossy tempered chocolate. Crunchy Italian cookies built for dunking in coffee.

Frozen fig and chocolate ice cream mousse with vanilla wafers, toasted walnuts, instant coffee, and whipped cream. A retro molded dessert garnished with whole figs.

Quick mix cookie bars use refrigerated cookie dough as the crust and topping with a creamy tofu-egg filling in between. Five ingredients, one pan, and minimal effort.