Dessert, Baked Good Recipes

Eye-catching pinwheel cookies made from cocoa-rich chocolate dough, shaped with corner-cut slits and filled with a sweet cream cheese and coconut center topped with chopped nuts. A stunning cookie tray showpiece.

Orange shortbread hearts dipped in bittersweet chocolate. Buttery, citrus-scented cut-out cookies with a glossy chocolate half-dip for Valentine's Day or any occasion.

Brandy snaps are a popular delightful British Christmas cookie. Crispy golden tubes filled with a brandied whipped cream. What's not to love.

Chocolate domino cookies made with cocoa powder, cut into rectangles, and decorated with vanilla buttercream dots and lines. A fun baking project for kids.

Easy chocolate angel food cake combines boxed angel food mix with cocoa powder and water for a fat-free, low-calorie loaf with a tender, cloud-like crumb. Three ingredients and one bowl, no whipping required.

Giant apple cookie bakes a 12-inch pizza-style cookie loaded with reduced dried apples, walnuts, golden raisins, and cinnamon, drizzled with a tangy lemon icing. Sliceable shareable dessert.

Soft maple raisin cookies with applesauce, pumpkin pie spice, walnuts, and a fluffy maple buttercream frosting. A spiced drop cookie that tastes like autumn in every bite.

Creamy New York-style cheesecake with sieved cottage cheese and cream cheese, sour cream, and a slow oven-cool method that prevents cracking.

Kolachky cream cheese dough, the rich, flaky pastry base for these Eastern European cookies. Just flour, butter, cream cheese and egg, chilled overnight, rolled on sugar and filled with prune, apricot, walnut or poppy seed.

Edible cake-decorating roses and leaves shaped from a marshmallow-and-powdered-sugar fondant. A budget-friendly alternative to professional gum paste for birthday and wedding cakes.

Diabetic-friendly cookies sweetened with raisins, dates, and apples instead of sugar. Drop cookies built around boiled fruit base with sugar substitute. Makes 3 dozen lower-glycemic cookies.

Soft spiced raisin drop cookies made with cookie mix, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, topped with a smooth vanilla butter frosting. A semi-homemade shortcut for holiday cookie trays.

Chocolate and nut crumb cake built on a yellow cake base with a buttery cinnamon-chocolate-chip-nut crumble baked into the top. Semi-homemade dessert with bakery-style results.

Passover cheesecake with a chocolate macaroon and almond crust, filled with a silky cream cheese custard. A flour-free holiday dessert best made a day ahead.

Pumpkin walnut cream cheesecake with a toasted walnut crust, spiced pumpkin filling, and a brown sugar walnut praline topping. A holiday-worthy dessert that splits the difference between cheesecake and pumpkin pie.

Heavenly cream cake built from a store-bought angel food cake split into three layers, filled with vanilla pudding, and draped in a quick homemade chocolate sauce that pools on the plate.