Dessert, Baked Good Recipes

Lemon Lassie cookies, a Christmas classic with cinnamon-molasses dough wrapped around a tangy lemon-coconut curd filling, then sliced into bars before baking.

Southern lemon fruitcake with pecans, raisins, candied pineapple, and maraschino cherries. Light, golden, and lemon-forward, the alternative to traditional dark fruitcake.

Mexican polvorones, crumbly cinnamon shortbread cookies coated in a chocolate-cinnamon sugar. Baked low and slow for a melt-in-your-mouth traditional Mexican cookie.

Southern lemon pecan fruitcake with candied pineapple and cherries. A lighter, brighter alternative to dark rum fruitcake, loaded with nuts and citrus.

Silky no-bake cheesecake flavored with puréed apricots and set with gelatin in a chocolate crumb crust for an easy make-ahead dessert.

Blue goo pie is a no-bake cream cheese and whipped topping pie with sliced bananas and blueberry pie filling. Makes 2 pies in 15 minutes with zero oven time. A crowd-pleasing potluck legend.

A frozen no-bake chocolate orange pie with cream cheese, condensed milk, and orange juice concentrate in a chocolate crust. Swap in Grand Marnier or Cointreau for a boozy twist.

Add some country style to your baking with this decadent cake that is sure to wow your relatives at the next Thanksgiving dinner.

Apple brownies loaded with chopped Granny Smith apples, walnuts, and cinnamon, baked in a sheet pan and cut into squares. A spiced apple bar dessert that tastes like a cross between a cake brownie and an apple cake.

Chocolate amaretto bundt cake soaked with a buttery amaretto glaze. Tender chocolate crumb meets almond liqueur in a poke-cake style finish that keeps it moist for days.

Grand slam cheesecake is a no-bake lemon Jello cheesecake folded with whipped evaporated milk and pressed into a graham cracker crust. Light, fluffy, and a vintage potluck favorite from the 1960s.

Baked peanut butter pie with a gooey corn syrup and egg custard filling in a flaky crust. Just six ingredients for a rich, Southern-style dessert that sets as it cools.

Speedy pat-in pastry: oil-based pie crust mixed and pressed right in the pie plate. No rolling pin, no cold butter, no chilling. A reliable crust for bakers who fear pastry.

Melt-away butter cookies with vanilla and almond extract, pressed with a cookie gun and optionally dipped in chocolate with chopped pecans. Yields 7 dozen.

Peanut butter snap cookies with brown sugar, butter, and vanilla, shaped into balls and baked until crisp. A big-batch recipe that yields 7 dozen crunchy peanut butter cookies.

Old-fashioned pound cake with a full pound of real butter, eight eggs, and no leavening. Baked low and slow for a dense, velvety crumb with deep buttery flavor.