Dessert Recipes

Brandy-spiked pumpkin cheesecake on a buttery pecan crust with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and mace. A rich, spiced holiday dessert worth the overnight chill.

Traditional Christmas fruitcake with brandy-soaked candied citrus peel, citron, currants, and raisins, deeply spiced and aged in a tin with periodic brandy basting before the holidays.

Blackberry brandy sour cream pound cake built around dissolved jello, brandy, and a quartet of extracts. A boozy, jewel-toned bundt cake with deep berry flavor and a tender pound-cake crumb.

Traditional fruitcake studded with dates, figs, candied citron, pecans, and brandy-soaked fruits becomes a family heirloom recipe worth making.

Victorian jewels, glistening mini fruitcakes: brandy-soaked candied fruit and raisins in a spiced walnut batter, baked as bite-size muffins and glazed with melted jelly so they shine. A jewel-like holiday gift.

Authentic Italian tiramisu with cooked zabaglione, mascarpone, and brandy-coffee soaked ladyfingers in two layers. Topped with whipped cream, cocoa, and grated chocolate. The traditional method, no shortcuts.

Eggnog mousse with rum, brandy, nutmeg, and whipped cream set with gelatin. A light, airy holiday dessert topped with crushed peppermint candies that tastes like eggnog in cloud form.

Light fruitcake is the pale, buttery holiday classic: candied pineapple, cherries and citron with golden raisins, pecans and walnuts, brightened with lemon and vanilla, then brandy-soaked and aged for weeks.

Old-fashioned tube cake packed with fresh apples, nuts, and raisins, then doused with brandy while still warm. Moist texture that improves overnight.

Apple molasses pecan pie marries two Thanksgiving classics into one. Sliced apples and toasted pecans bound in a brandy-spiked molasses filling, finished with a buttery lattice crust.

Chocolate, cream cheese, coconut, sour cream and brandy make this delicious cheesecake.

Easy chocolate mousse made with semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate, brandy, and whipped cream beaten right into the eggs and sugar. Two methods: bowl for light, blender for dense.

Cherry and almond Christmas cake: maraschino cherries, apricots, ginger, and almonds macerated in amaretto and brandy, baked into a lighter apple-puree batter, then soaked in more amaretto. A boozy, fruit-packed festive cake that keeps for a month.

Baked pumpkin empanadas with a brandy-laced pastry dough and spiced pumpkin-brown sugar filling, finished with cinnamon sugar. A Mexican-Californian fall dessert pastry.

Rich spiced cake with cookie-crisp edges and a moist, chewy center loaded with apples, nuts, and brandy. Stiff dough bakes into bars with crunchy tops and brownie-soft middles.

Bourbon eggnog pie: chiffon-style holiday dessert with custard spiked with bourbon and brandy, lifted with whipped egg whites and folded with whipped cream. Topped with more whipped cream and grated nutmeg.