Dessert Recipes

Single-crust pastry pie shell with margarine, blind-baked at high heat until golden in 10 minutes. A basic flaky pastry that works as a base for cream pies, custards, and fruit fillings.

Spiced spritz cookies with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice pressed into festive shapes. Egg-white based for a crisp, light texture with warm holiday spice flavor.

Apple crumble pie with cooked apples and allspice under a chunky streusel topping of flour, sugar, and margarine. No pie crust needed, just a crumble on top.

Easy one-bowl bundt pound cake: butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla beaten together for 10 minutes into a tender, golden, sliceable cake. Six eggs, no creaming step required. Truly fool-proof.

Moist apple quickbread studded with tender fruit chunks, walnuts, and orange zest. Buttermilk keeps these loaves incredibly soft, while an overnight rest lets the flavors meld into breakfast heaven.

Light-as-air banana chiffon cake with tangy cream cheese frosting. Ripe bananas meet fluffy egg whites for a moist, tender crumb that melts on your tongue.

Turn stale bread into chewy, cinnamon-spiced cookies packed with plump raisins and crunchy nuts. Breadcrumb cookies are a clever zero-waste baking trick your grandma probably knew.

Budapest tea bread bundt cake with a swirled cinnamon, cocoa, raisin, and walnut filling. A Hungarian-inspired sour cream coffee cake for tea time or brunch.

Soft chocolate drop cookies packed with maraschino cherries and topped with a glossy chocolate frosting. Buttermilk keeps them tender. Makes 4 to 5 dozen in about 30 minutes, so they're built for holiday cookie trays and bake sales.

A simple 4-ingredient cookie pie crust made with flour, melted margarine, and powdered sugar. Bakes up crisp and buttery in just 10 minutes. No rolling pin needed.

Use light or low-fat cream cheese to reduce the fat and calories even further than this tasty rich buttercream frosting alternative.

Cream cheese cookie bars with a buttery brown sugar walnut crumble crust and tangy cheesecake filling. Easy to bake, cut into squares, and best served chilled.

Croatian poppy seed povitica with a yeasted sweet dough stretched paper-thin and rolled around a honey-sweetened poppy seed filling. Traditional Eastern European holiday bread.

Dr. Pepper cake is a Texas-born sheet cake using the soda for moisture and faint cherry-cola notes. Topped with warm Dr. Pepper cocoa frosting poured over the hot cake.

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.

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.