Dessert, Baked Good Recipes

Orange oatmeal cookies sweetened with banana, honey, and orange juice concentrate. A low-fat cookie with no butter, no oil, raisins, walnuts, and fresh orange zest.

Rum-glazed apple cheesecake with cinnamon-spiced McIntosh apples, toasted pecans, and an apple jelly-rum glaze over a graham cracker crust. A fall showstopper.

Frozen pumpkin ice cream pie marbled with homemade rum-caramel sauce on a graham cracker crust. A no-bake autumn dessert that serves at least 8 and lives in the freezer until needed.

Lighter cheesecake made with blended cottage cheese and low-fat sour cream on a graham cracker crust. A slimmed-down dessert topped with cherry pie filling or fresh fruit.

German chocolate pretzel cookies (Schokoladenpretzel) hand-shaped from cocoa dough and topped with cocoa frosting. A fun baking project that makes about 2 dozen pretzel-shaped cookies.

Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte is the authentic German Black Forest cake: three genoise layers soaked in kirsch syrup, filled with kirsch buttercream and sour cherries, and draped in whipped cream with chocolate curls.

Scotcheroos: classic no-bake peanut butter rice crispy bars topped with melted chocolate and butterscotch chips. The chewy Midwest church-basement bar that disappears in minutes.

Classic short pastry crust with cold butter and shortening cut into flour. The flaky, buttery, all-purpose pie shell that works for sweet pies, quiches, and tarts alike.

Ultra-tender shortbread cookies with a full pound of unsalted butter, sweetened condensed milk, and cornstarch for a melt-on-your-tongue crumble. Baked low and slow until barely golden.

Traditional Norwegian anise syrup cookies made with honey, dark corn syrup, and star anise, finished with a warm powdered sugar glaze. Soft, fragrant, and sweetly spiced. Makes 4 dozen.

Oatmeal coconut cake with a soft cinnamon-spiced crumb and a broiled brown-sugar coconut-nut topping that bubbles into a chewy caramel crown. Lazy Daisy-style, the way grandma made it.

Soft chocolate chunk cookies with a hidden boost of peanut butter for tenderness, plus chunks of dark chocolate and chopped walnuts in every bite. Baked low and slow for chewy centers.

Soft molasses cookies use sour cream and a generous pour of molasses for the pillow-soft texture grandmas swore by. Spiced with ginger and nutmeg, rolled and cut from a chilled dough.

Soft sour cream drop cookies with a pillowy, cakey crumb, topped with a thick chocolate frosting made from melted unsweetened chocolate. Chill the dough, bake, and frost. Makes 24.

Old-fashioned Southern cream cookies made with sour cream, walnuts, and pressed flat with a cinnamon-sugar glass. Soft, cakey drop cookies that yield six dozen from one batch.

Lacy Florentine cookies made with ground pecans and coconut, sandwiched together with melted dark chocolate. Thin, crispy, and freezer-friendly for up to a month.