Dessert, Baked Good Recipes

Pumpkin pie cake is a fall dump-cake with creamy spiced pumpkin pie filling on the bottom, dry yellow cake mix on top, then melted butter and pecans. A no-crust pumpkin dessert hybrid.

Three-layer pumpkin bars built on a yellow cake mix base with spiced pumpkin custard center and a buttery cake-mix streusel top. Makes 24 bars in a 9x13 pan.

Ring-shaped orange juice cookies topped with candied cherries or almonds. Delicate bracelet cookies made with oil instead of butter. Dairy-free and freezer-friendly.

Cream cheese and cottage cheese cheesecake on a pecan graham cracker crust, topped with a homemade blueberry glaze. Slow-cooled in the oven for a crack-free finish.

Chocolate caramel nut bars with a German chocolate cake-mix crust, melted caramel middle, and chopped walnuts and chocolate chips. A potluck-ready bar cookie you can shortcut with a boxed mix.

Gooey butter cake layers a tender shortbread crust beneath a buttery, corn-syrup-rich filling that bakes into the iconic St. Louis dessert with crisp edges and a soft, almost custardy center. Dust with powdered sugar and slice into squares.

Sugarless applesauce cake sweetens with raisins, dried fruit, and unsweetened applesauce instead of granulated sugar. A diabetic-friendly bundt cake spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Swiss Leckerli cookies: honey-spiced almond bars with candied citrus peel and kirsch, finished with a hardening sugar glaze. Traditional Basel Christmas market sweet that improves with age.

Finnish fingers (sokerikakkusormet) are short, buttery shortbread sticks brushed with egg white and rolled in pearl sugar for a crunchy, sparkling exterior. Classic Scandinavian Christmas cookie.

Fresh raspberry pie where most of the berries stay uncooked, suspended in a glossy cooked raspberry glaze in a baked crust. Bright, fresh, and barely-cooked, finished with sweetened whipped cream.

Fruit compote pie with dried apricots, peaches and cranberries simmered in apricot liqueur, folded into a sour cream custard and finished with a buttery pecan crumb topping.

Old-fashioned fruit-filled cookies with a soft sour cream dough and a homemade date-raisin filling. Sandwich-style cookies with a tender crumb and sweet, jammy center.

Fruitcake biscotti studded with dried cranberries, tart cherries, candied orange rind, and almonds. Twice-baked for that signature crunch with lemon and almond extract.

Fudgy chocolate cookie bonbons wrapped around Hershey's kisses (or caramel, Reese's, peanut butter, or mint centers) and drizzled with white chocolate. A classic Pillsbury bake-off cookie with surprise centers.

Pennsylvania Dutch funny cake baked in a pie shell with chocolate sauce on the bottom and vanilla cake on top. Two layers swap places in the oven like magic.

German chocolate brownie cookies marry fudgy cocoa cookies with the classic coconut-pecan caramel topping. Brown-sugar dough loaded with chocolate chips, crowned candy-bar style.