Dessert Recipes

Lemon chiffon pie with a lemon-zest shortbread crust, cloud-light gelatin-set citrus filling, and a topping of fresh whipped cream. Bright, fluffy, refreshing.

Cinnamon-apple cheesecake with a shortbread crust, creamy filling, overlapping apple slices on top, and a warm orange marmalade glaze. A fall cheesecake that's more fruit tart than dense New York style.

Easy pound cake creams sugar with margarine, beats in eggs and vanilla, then bakes in a tube pan starting from a cold oven for a tender, tall crumb. Six ingredients, no leavening, no fuss.

Blueberry crumb cake squares from a jelly roll pan with a rich butter batter, a full quart of blueberries, and a cinnamon-nutmeg brown sugar crumb topping. Makes 24 generous squares.

Oatmeal raisin sheet cake spiked with cinnamon, cloves, and plumped raisins, baked thin on a sheet pan and finished with a quick poured icing. The bake-sale and potluck cake that feeds a crowd of 24.

Fudgy brownies made with Hershey's chocolate syrup and chocolate chips. A one-bowl brownie recipe with an intensely chocolatey, moist crumb that yields 36 bars.

Italian chocolate cookies with cocoa, cinnamon, cold coffee, and grape jelly in the dough. An old-world recipe with no eggs that makes a huge batch of soft, cakey cookies.

Midnight muncher bars with a marbled chocolate and vanilla base, caramel pecan frosting filling, and a glossy chocolate ganache topping. Three decadent layers in one rich bar cookie.

Soft banana cookies with brown butter penuche frosting: mashed ripe bananas in a cake-like dough, topped with a boiled brown sugar icing that hardens into a shiny, fudgy shell.

Lemon sugar cookies with fresh lemon juice, rolled thin and cut into shapes for Christmas or any occasion. A buttery cutout cookie with bright citrus flavor.

Pecan chess pie crosses Southern chess pie with classic pecan pie: a custardy cornmeal-laced filling studded with toasted pecans baked into a flaky crust. Less sticky than corn syrup-style pecan pies.

Rosettes are delicate Scandinavian fried cookies shaped on a decorative iron, crisp like a wafer and dusted with powdered sugar. A Christmas tradition in Nordic and Midwestern kitchens.

Praline pound cake with cream cheese, sour cream, praline liqueur, and chopped pecans baked in a Bundt pan. Finished with a boiled brown sugar-praline glaze that soaks into every ridge.

Low-fat carrot fig cake that replaces oil and butter with pureed dried figs for moisture. Loaded with grated carrots, crushed pineapple, and raisins, drizzled with a simple pineapple juice glaze.

Anise almond biscotti are twice-baked Italian cookies with toasted almonds and warm anise seeds. Crisp, dunkable holiday treats that keep up to 4 weeks. Makes about 2 dozen.

Custard-style rhubarb pie with a vanilla yogurt filling, warm nutmeg, and a brown sugar pecan crumble topping. Tart rhubarb meets sweet, creamy filling in every slice.