Dessert Recipes

Traditional plum dumplings made with potato dough, farina, and fresh plums stuffed with sugar. Boiled until tender and topped with buttered bread crumbs.

Low-cholesterol oatmeal cookies made with sunflower oil, egg whites, molasses, and whole wheat flour. Warmly spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

An old-fashioned steamed pudding studded with fresh blueberries, made with bread crumbs for a soft, cakey texture. Serve warm with your favorite sweet sauce for a nostalgic homestyle dessert.

Chocolate Halloween cupcakes with a hidden orange cream cheese center that oozes out when bitten. Spooky fun for the kids and a riff on the classic Black Bottom cupcake.

Apple molasses pecan pie marries two Thanksgiving classics into one. Sliced apples and toasted pecans bound in a brandy-spiked molasses filling, finished with a buttery lattice crust.

Lemon poppy seed biscotti twice-baked until crisp and golden with fresh lemon zest throughout. A crunchy Italian cookie perfect for dunking in tea or coffee.

Reese's peanut butter cake stacks two peanut-butter-and-brown-sugar layers with a cream cheese peanut butter filling and a warm pour-over chocolate glaze. The candy bar in cake form.

Sour cream spice cake with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, raisins, and chopped walnuts. A 13x9 sheet cake with tender, tangy crumb and warm fall flavors.

Brown sugar pound cake with a deep caramel note and a toasted-pecan frosting that drips down the sides. A dense, buttery tube cake from TV weatherman Willard Scott's kitchen.

Peppernuts cookies with ground raisins, coconut, and nuts in a brown sugar-buttermilk dough, rolled into ropes and cut into bite-sized pieces. A Mennonite holiday tradition.

Christmas shortbread with just five ingredients: butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt. Shape as bars or wedges, plus four built-in variations including chocolate chip and lemon.

German sour cherry chocolate cake: a dense, fudgy chocolate cake crowned with tart pitted cherries that sink into the batter as it bakes. The sharp cherries cut the rich dark chocolate beautifully.

Almond shortbread bars baked in a jelly-roll pan with chopped almonds pressed under an egg-white wash. Buttery shortbread base, glossy nutty top, and a single bake from start to finish.

Blackberry crumb pie with fresh berries under a tangy sour cream custard layer and a buttered bread crumb topping. A unique two-texture berry pie.

Applesauce cheesecake squares blend cream cheese, applesauce, and warm spice on a pecan-graham crust topped with the same crumb mixture. A fall-flavored bar that beats round cheesecake.

Rich mahogany chocolate pound cake with cocoa, sour cream, and both white and brown sugar, baked in a bundt pan. Dense, moist, and deeply chocolatey with an optional quick chocolate sauce.