Dessert Recipes

Italian country spice cake (torta speziata): cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves with raisins plumped in warm water and a hit of brewed espresso in the batter.

Brown sugar apple pie with a spiced crumb topping of cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace. Five cups of sliced apples heaped into a flaky shell and baked golden.

Sweet potato pecan pie with a buttery brown sugar streusel topping. Two Southern holiday classics in one pan, with a silky custard filling and a crunchy crown.

Old-fashioned sour cream raisin pie with a spiced custard filling of cinnamon and cloves tucked inside a flaky double crust. A Midwestern classic that bakes up golden and bubbly in under an hour.

Rich, fudgy brownie baked right in a pie plate with no crust to fuss over. Loaded with cocoa, butter, and chopped pecans, it's the easiest chocolate dessert you'll ever make.

Honey ginger snap cookies with cinnamon and cloves, rolled into balls and baked until crackled. Chewy centers with crisp, crinkled edges from the honey.

Buttery slice-and-bake pinwheel cookies swirled with cherry preserves and scented with vanilla and almond extract. Roll, freeze, slice, and bake to golden perfection.

Layered Austrian bar cookies with a buttery shortcrust, apricot preserves, a fluffy pecan meringue filling, and a lattice top. Old-world baking at its finest.

Self-saucing chocolate pudding cake that creates its own hot fudge layer as it bakes. Pour boiling water over cocoa-sugar topped batter and the oven does the rest. Flip it for a gooey, saucy revelation.

Mexican wedding cookies (polvorones) made with butter, finely chopped pecans, vanilla, and a hint of cinnamon, rolled in powdered sugar while still warm. Tender, crumbly, and melt-in-your-mouth.

European-style apple cake presses a rum-spiked shortbread base into a sheet pan, then tops it with grated tart apples, raisins, nuts, and cinnamon sugar. A sliceable, freezable bar-style cake.

Soft, golden drop cookies loaded with flaked coconut and brightened with fruit juice and fresh orange zest. Sweetened with sugar substitute, these diabetic-friendly cookies come together in 40 minutes with no mixer needed.

Old-fashioned double-crust lemon pie filled with thin lemon slices in a buttery sugar-egg filling, topped with a cinnamon-sugar crust. Tart, sweet, and meant to be served warm.

Chocolate mocha buttermilk cake, an ultra-moist chocolate layer cake deepened with buttermilk and hot coffee, split thin and stacked with mousse and toasted hazelnuts. Rich, tender, and bakery-worthy.

Reese's cookies loaded with peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips in a soft, chewy drop cookie. That classic peanut butter-chocolate combo in every bite.

Four-layer sour cream orange cake with citrus zest, a Grand Marnier glaze, cream cheese coconut frosting, and toasted coconut on the sides. A make-ahead showstopper for celebrations.