Dessert, Egg Recipes

Chocolate chip cookies with a secret in the technique: beat the margarine and sugars until fluffy and pale before anything else joins the bowl. Crisp edges, soft centers, walnut crunch.

Shaker honey almond cake bakes a spice-warmed honey-sour cream batter under a crown of almonds, then ripens 2 days for deeper flavor. Heritage New England keeping cake.

Old-fashioned apple cake loaded with sliced apples, walnuts, and cinnamon in a moist oil-based batter. No mixer needed for this rustic 9x13 sheet cake.

Texas-style sheath cake (sheet cake) baked on a cookie sheet with cocoa, buttermilk, and a full half pound of butter. Thin, fudgy, and frosted while still warm. A potluck legend.

Chocolate sheet cake (Texas sheet cake) with hot cocoa-buttermilk batter and a poured cocoa-buttermilk icing finished while the cake is still hot. The Southern church-supper crowd-feeder cut into 24 squares.

Easy sherry cake made with yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding, and real sherry wine baked in a bundt pan. Moist, boozy, and warmly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Shrewsbury cakes, a traditional English rolled cookie with ginger, citrus rind, and caraway seeds. Crisp, lightly spiced, and chilled overnight before baking.

Sky-high lemon meringue pie crowned with coconut chips. Tall lemon-extract-spiked meringue, glossy lemon curd filling, and a flaky stand-up edge make this a showstopping classic.

Slice and bake chocolate chip cookies with a make-ahead freezer dough. Shape four logs, freeze for up to 6 months, and bake fresh cookies anytime in 10 minutes.

Chocolate snickerdoodles rolled in a cocoa-cinnamon-sugar coating. Chewy oat cookies with a crackly crust and deep chocolate flavor that beats the classic version.

Old-fashioned gingersnap cookies with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, rolled in sugar and baked until crinkly. Oil-based for a chewy center with crisp edges.

Sour cream apple pie folds tart apples into a vanilla custard, then bakes under a buttery almond topping. Tangy, creamy, crunchy on top, and refreshingly free of heavy spices.

No-bake sour cream pumpkin pie layered with spiced pumpkin chiffon and sweet whipped cream, finished with toasted pecans. Gelatin-set filling means a stunning autumn pie with no oven time for the filling.

Vintage 1930s special cocoa cake: a tender chocolate layer cake made with bloomed cocoa, brown sugar, and cake flour. Old-fashioned recipe that beats most modern boxed mixes.

Soft, melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies made with both butter and oil for extra tenderness. Pressed flat with a sugar-dipped glass and baked golden. Makes 6 to 7 dozen.

Spiced banana cake loaded with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, topped with a crunchy cinnamon-walnut crumble. Baked in a springform pan for an impressive, warmly spiced dessert.