Dessert Recipes

Brown sugar apple pie thickened with tapioca and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Granny Smith apples and lemon juice give it a sharp, bright filling.

Cocoa meringue cake: two crisp cocoa-free meringue disks sandwiched with a mocha-chocolate filling and served in a pool of bright raspberry sauce. An elegant, low-fat dessert showpiece.

Lemon snow pudding with basil custard sauce: a cloud-light whipped gelatin dessert with bright lemon and a silky basil-infused crème anglaise poured over top. Elegant, old-school, and delicately refreshing.

Creamy rice pudding folded with vanilla whipped cream and served with a blended strawberry preserve sauce. A cold, light dessert with a mousse-like texture.

Lemon tea snow with strawberry sauce: a light, airy gelatin dessert flavored with lemon and instant tea, beaten with egg whites into a cloud. Served with a warm-set strawberry-currant sauce. Retro Southern tearoom fare.

Pennsylvania Dutch cake-and-custard pie: a soft cake batter and a spiced applesauce-molasses custard poured into one crust bake into two distinct layers, finished with a coffee glaze. A clever heritage dessert.

Red, white, and blue berry pie with layered blueberries, cream cheese mousse, and raspberries in a gelatin-set filling. A no-bake patriotic dessert for the Fourth of July.

Canned green tomato pie filling with Granny Smith apples, dark and white raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. A boiling-water canner recipe for preserving the fall harvest.

Lemon love notes are buttery shortbread bars studded with coconut and bright lemon zest, finished with a tart lemon glaze and a flurry of toasted coconut, then cut into triangles. Bake-sale cookies that look as pretty as they taste.

Apple Cinnamon Tart has a no-butter oat crust pressed with apple juice, topped with fresh apple slices and a honey-sweetened yogurt gelatin filling. A light dessert at under 185 calories.

Lemon buttermilk pie is a silky Southern custard pie, tangy with buttermilk and fresh lemon, baked low and slow in a blind-baked crust until just set. Chill it cold for a clean, creamy slice.

Basbousa bil loz (Egyptian almond basbousa) cooks toasted semolina and almonds with butter, then thickens with lemon-scented sugar syrup. A stovetop Middle Eastern dessert.

Fresh fruit ice is a light, low-fat frozen dessert made with orange juice, lemon, mashed banana, and strawberries or peaches. Gelatin and a rebeat give it a creamy, scoopable texture without a churn ice cream maker.

Summer no-cook blueberry pie made with three cups of fresh berries set under a microwave-thickened glaze. Sherry and lemon juice for depth, sour cream topping for cool tang. No oven needed once the shell is baked.

Pecan crunch apple pie with chopped apples, brown sugar, and toasted pecans baked into a single-crust pie. The separated egg trick gives the filling a light, almost cake-like lift.

Sweet potato pie with mashed yams, cream, vanilla, and a bright squeeze of lemon. The Southern Sunday-supper dessert that splits the difference between custard pie and pumpkin.