Dessert Recipes

Traditional German Christmas butter cookies (Weihnachtsplätzchen) with vanilla and almond extract, rolled and cut into festive shapes. Decorated with colored sugar, nuts, and candied cherries.

New York-style persimmon cheesecake with a buttery shortcrust pastry, dense cream cheese filling swirled with persimmon puree, and an overnight chill. A seasonal showstopper for fall.

Chocolate mousse is a great dessert for entertaining because 1) it looks pretty, 2) everyone gets their own serving, and 3) you can make it a day ahead of time.

Authentic Italian cinnamon walnut biscotti: twice-baked cookies with toasted walnuts, orange zest, and a cinnamon-sugar crust. Crisp enough to dip into coffee, sturdy enough to ship.

Light, airy maple chiffon cake with brown sugar, walnuts, and a browned butter frosting. Eight whipped egg whites create the cloud-like texture in this classic tube pan cake.

This old-school chocolate jimmy cake is studded with chocolate sprinkles and lifted with beaten egg whites for a tender crumb. Topped with creamy vanilla frosting, it's a Northeast classic worth reviving.

These mini lemon meringue tarts are so cute and handy, and they taste amazingly delicious, buttery shell with lemony filling, topped with fluffy meringue. They are perfect sweet treats at any occasion.

I made mine in mini pie pans and used a cream cheese/sour cream topping slightly sweetened with confectioner's sugar. The filling is excellent.

Italian nut ball cookies coated in chopped pistachios with a jelly-filled center. Almond extract and vanilla give these thumbprint cookies classic Italian bakery flavor.

Eggnog layer cake is a tender, nutmeg-scented two-layer cake made with dairy eggnog and topped with cooked-custard eggnog buttercream spiked with rum. A Christmas showpiece cake.

A tropical coconut cheesecake with cream of coconut in the filling, a coconut-graham cracker crust, and fresh mango slices on top with mango puree. Rich, creamy, and vacation-worthy.

Fresh apple chiffon cake, light and airy with shredded McIntosh apples, warm cinnamon and nutmeg, and a caramel drizzle. Whipped egg whites give this oil-based tube cake its tall, tender, moist crumb.

Nut horns are Eastern European cream cheese pastries filled with a sweet walnut meringue filling. The dough chills overnight for a flaky, tender bite that melts in your mouth.

Flaky cream cheese pastry rolls filled with cocoa, semisweet chocolate chips, and walnuts. No yeast, no proofing, no laminating. Rolled jelly-roll style, sliced, and dusted with powdered sugar for an easy chocolate Danish.

Cantaloupe ice cream blends ripe puréed cantaloupe with egg yolks, sugar, milk, lemon juice, and whipped cream. Pale orange, floral, and frozen without an ice cream maker for a refreshing summer dessert.

Make-ahead pumpkin chiffon pie with a cloud-light gelatin filling of pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg folded into stiff egg whites. Lighter than classic pumpkin pie and a Thanksgiving prep-day winner.