Dessert Recipes

Entenmann's-style apple crumb cake with a yeasted braided dough filled with Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, mace, and currants, topped with a pecan crumb topping.

Spiced pumpkin cookies with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger. Soft drop cookies topped with cinnamon sugar baked in 15 minutes.

This is a rich, interesting cookie, made with nuts, raisins, cinnamon, and jam rolled into a tender cream-cheese pastry.

Soft, cake-like carrot cookies with pureed carrots, golden raisins, orange zest, and cinnamon. Tender drop cookies that taste like miniature carrot cake bites. Comes together in 30 minutes flat.

Maple-apple oatmeal cookies with real maple syrup, fresh apples, applesauce, currants, and a crunchy oat-brown sugar topping. Soft, cakey fall cookies baked low and slow.

Hawaiian macadamia coconut squares: a chewy coconut-macadamia topping over a buttery brown-sugar-coffee shortbread crust. Tropical bar cookie that travels well and freezes beautifully.

Thanksgiving apple butter pumpkin pie blends spiced apple butter with pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and warm spices for a deeper, more complex twist on the classic. The fall pie that surprises pumpkin pie traditionalists.

Flaky puff pastry twists filled with honey-sweetened pistachios, cinnamon, and a pinch of cloves. Buttery, nutty, and golden-baked, these make 2 dozen elegant pastries in just 45 minutes.

Chewy molasses ginger cookies spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves, then topped with a bright orange zest glaze. Buttermilk keeps them impossibly soft. Freezer-friendly!

Brown sugar drop cookies with a warm cinnamon kick, stuffed with a thick date-pecan filling. Each golden bite hides a sweet, nutty surprise inside.

Rio Grande-style biscocitos with butter, anise seed, and brandy, dusted in cinnamon sugar before baking. Crisp, fragrant, and easy to cut into festive shapes. Makes 3 dozen.

Ginger cake uses three forms of ginger (fresh grated, candied, and ground) plus honey, buttermilk, cardamom, and lemon zest for layered, complex spice. Lower in butter and sugar than typical spice cakes.

No-bake pumpkin layer pie with sweet cream cheese and whipped topping over a graham cracker crust, plus a thick spiced pumpkin pudding layer. A lighter holiday alternative.

Winter pie cooks raisins, finely chopped carrot, and apple with cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg in a spiced syrup, baked between two crusts. Thrifty old-fashioned mincemeat-style pie without the meat.

Three-layer carrot cake baked low and slow with grated carrots, chopped nuts, and cinnamon, topped with a thick cream cheese icing. A Southern-style classic that never goes out of style.

Jewish apple cake layered with cinnamon sugar and sliced apples in a tube pan. A dairy-free oil-based cake with orange juice, perfect for Rosh Hashanah or any fall gathering.