Dessert Recipes

Green pepper jelly made with fresh bell peppers, vinegar, cayenne, and Certo pectin. A sweet-hot condiment that pairs with cream cheese and crackers, grilled meats, or barbecue.

Alice's chess pie blends butter, sugar, eggs, half-and-half, cornmeal, and a splash of vinegar into a glossy custard pie with a crackly sugar top. A Southern pantry classic baked in a single crust.

Texan fried pies stuffed with spiced dried apricot filling in a flaky, vinegar-laced pastry. Hand-held, golden-fried, and dusted with sugar. A classic Southern dessert from scratch.

Classic vinegar pie with a smooth egg-rich custard filling, Depression-era pantry baking that mimics lemon pie using kitchen vinegar. Six ingredients, sweet-tart, satisfying.

Waldorf red velvet cake with buttermilk, cocoa, and a cooked flour frosting that tastes like whipped cream. The original Waldorf-Astoria recipe from scratch.

Saure Kartoffel, a traditional Swabian sour potato dish with a tangy butter-onion sauce flavored with bay leaf, lemon zest, clove, and caraway. German comfort food.

Molasses ginger snaps with the classic crackled tops that form as the dough balls melt and spread. Warmly spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, these crisp-edged cookies are a holiday baking staple.

Rhubarb and nut streusel cake with thickened tart rhubarb filling sandwiched between buttery cake layers and topped with crumbly streusel. A spring coffee cake that turns rhubarb season into dessert.

Canadian butter tart squares with a buttery shortbread base and gooey brown sugar-raisin filling. All the flavor of butter tarts without rolling pastry. Cut into bars for easy sharing.

A layered cherry pie with amaretto-spiked cherry filling, silky almond cream custard, and stabilized whipped cream topped with white chocolate. A true Oregon gem.

Whacky cakes are the Depression-era chocolate classic reworked for a pizzelle iron: no eggs, no butter, no milk. Vinegar and baking soda do the lift. Vegan, fast, kid-friendly.

Crazy cake (also called wacky cake or depression cake) needs no eggs, no milk, no butter. Mixed straight in the pan with vinegar for chemistry-class lift. A Depression-era favorite.

Classic Waldorf red velvet cake with signature cooked flour frosting. Vibrant crimson layers with subtle cocoa flavor topped with fluffy, not-too-sweet buttercream.

Arizona pecan chocolate rum pie with an all-lard pastry crust and a filling of unsweetened chocolate, dark corn syrup, brown sugar, chopped pecans, and a splash of rum.

Rich chocolate cupcakes hiding a cream cheese and chocolate chip center that stays molten and gooey. The cocoa batter gets its lift from vinegar and baking soda, yielding a tender, fudgy crumb. Makes 3 dozen crowd-pleasers.

Vegan Black Forest cake with whole wheat pastry flour, applesauce, and a kirsch syrup. Cashew-tofu icing replaces dairy whipped cream. Three layers of chocolate cake, cherries, and creamy frosting.