Dessert Recipes

Apple sheet cake with pecans and a warm brown sugar icing poured straight over the pan. Three cups of fresh apple keep every slice deeply moist.

Festive lebkuchen cookies made with honey, brown sugar, allspice, and lemon. A traditional German Christmas cookie decorated with white icing.

Spicy apple crisp layers cinnamon-scented sliced apples under a buttery oat-and-brown-sugar streusel topping that bakes crunchy and golden. Fall comfort dessert served warm with vanilla ice cream or cold cream.

Upside-down pear gingerbread cake with caramelized pear slices under a spiced molasses cake loaded with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Served with vanilla whipped cream.

Chocolate nut upside-down Bundt cake with a buttery brown sugar walnut crown. Inverts onto a plate showing off a glossy caramel-pecan top layer.

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.

Hungarian tarts with a cream cheese pastry shell and five filling options: almond, pecan, walnut, coconut, and farmer's cheese. A traditional holiday baking project.

Molasses cookies with a surprising hit of mint extract, warm cinnamon, ginger, and clove. Crackly sugar-rolled tops and chewy spiced centers.

Loaded oatmeal cookies packed with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, raisins, and walnuts in a brown sugar and cinnamon dough. Chewy, chunky, and stuffed with mix-ins.

Chocolate cookie cheesecake: a chocolate chip cookie crumb crust, a creamy cheesecake studded with cookie pieces, a tangy sour cream layer, and a chocolate ganache glaze. A loaded, make-ahead cookie lover's dessert.

Italian almond-hazelnut biscotti twice-bake to crisp dipping cookies with lemon zest, almond extract, and toasted nuts. Lower-fat traditional Italian style, keeps a month in a tin.

Moist chocolate banana cake made without eggs, loaded with cocoa, chocolate chips, and crunchy pecans. Buttermilk and ripe bananas keep it fudgy while brown sugar adds deep caramel sweetness.

Low-calorie ginger apple crisp with a cornflake crumb topping and crystallized ginger. Six apples baked bubbly under a crunchy, spiced streusel in 30 minutes.

Mexican flag cookies bake a coconut-extract sheet cookie cut into 3x4 rectangles, then decorate with green, white, and red icing stripes plus a chocolate eagle. Cinco de Mayo party favorite.

Whole-wheat sourdough applesauce cake bakes up moist and tender in a tube pan, with cinnamon, allspice, and clove warming a tangy starter-and-applesauce batter. A bundt-shaped keeper for fall.

Soft drop cookies bursting with chopped cranberries, fresh apples, cinnamon, and orange zest. This big-batch recipe makes 4 dozen fruit-studded cookies with a cakey, tender crumb.