Dessert Recipes

Make-ahead slice and bake sugar cookies with lemon extract. Shape the dough into logs, freeze for up to 6 months, and bake fresh cookies in 10 minutes whenever the craving hits.

Hundred-dollar chocolate cake made with mayonnaise-style salad dressing instead of eggs and butter. Moist, fudgy, and topped with a boiled cocoa frosting.

Kentucky bourbon pecan cake with maraschino cherries, mace, and a pound of butter. Wrapped in bourbon-soaked cheesecloth and aged for up to a month for a rich, boozy fruitcake.

Jewish apple pecan cake layers cinnamon-spiced Granny Smith apples through a moist tube cake batter brightened with orange juice. Pareve, dairy-free, and a Rosh Hashanah favorite.

Comforting baked pudding layering sliced apples with buttery graham cracker crumbs, walnuts, and brown sugar, baked until the fruit melts into jammy sweetness.

A lightly spiced breakfast cake made with applesauce and bran for natural moisture, studded with raisins and nuts for texture.

Fudgy cocoa cookie balls loaded with chocolate chips, dipped in melted white chocolate, and rolled in festive sprinkles. Kid-friendly, bite-sized, and gone in seconds.

No-bake chocolate drops with cocoa, coconut, and rolled oats set in the fridge. Five ingredients and no oven needed for these fudgy, chewy candy cookies.

Buttery drop cookies loaded with oats, vanilla milk chips, flaked coconut, and macadamia nuts. Sour cream keeps them soft and chewy. Makes 5 dozen for the holiday cookie swap.

A thin, fudgy chocolate sheet cake baked right on a cookie sheet and iced while still hot. Feeds a crowd in 30 minutes flat. The ultimate potluck and church supper cake.

Hoernchen are German almond crescent cookies made with ground almonds, butter, and vanilla, dipped in colored sugar or sprinkles for a festive holiday cookie.

Rigo Jancsi, the classic Hungarian chocolate cake with two layers of rich sponge filled with rum-spiked chocolate cream and topped with a glossy chocolate glaze. An elegant European pastry.

Melt-in-your mouth balls topped with crunch sesame seeds are a delicious, not too sweet, accompaniament to coffee or tea.

Freeze-ahead oatmeal cookie dough made with vegetable shortening, ready to slice and bake whenever cravings strike for chewy raisin nut cookies.

Baklava with shatter-crisp phyllo, ground walnuts and almonds, and honey syrup steeped with lemon and orange slices. The classic Greek pastry done properly, in shimmering diamond-cut squares.

Cranberries and pears are a great pair. They make this deliciously fruity filling, and it tastes great with the buttery and flakey pastry. It's as delicious as an apple pie.