Dessert Recipes

Thumbprint buttercream cookies made with brown sugar, egg yolks, and shortening, coated in stiff egg whites and nuts, then filled with buttercream icing after baking.

To Do Tarts: small pecan cookies bound with ground stale bread, orange zest, and stiffly beaten egg white. Five-ingredient nut cookies with no flour and no butter, ready in 30 minutes.

Saltine cracker torte folds crushed soda crackers and walnuts into stiffly beaten egg whites for a flourless meringue-style dessert topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

Turtle shells are a novelty edible-insect snack: cooked cicadas dipped in warm chocolate glaze and cooled into crunchy, chocolate-topped morsels. A bold entry into entomophagy for the adventurous.

Twice-baked almond cookie shells filled with a chewy caramel-nut center. Tiny tartlet-style sweets with crisp edges and a sticky-sweet filling, baked in muffin tins for a cookie-meets-tart hybrid.

Wacky cake, a Depression-era chocolate cake made with no eggs, no butter, and no milk. Vinegar and baking soda provide the rise, and cocoa powder delivers deep chocolate flavor from pantry staples.

Light lemon blitz cake with a tangy lemon curd filling made from skim milk, and a yogurt whipped topping frosting. A low-point layered dessert that tastes rich without the guilt.

Retro fruit pie with sour cherries, crushed pineapple, bananas, and cherry Jello in a graham cracker crust topped with whipped cream. A vintage no-bake dessert that brings the church potluck right to your kitchen.