Dessert Recipes

Soft, buttery Cracker Barrel-style raisin cookies with sour cream, brown sugar, nutmeg, and plump soaked raisins. A nostalgic copycat recipe that tastes just like the original.

Giant almond Florentines bake whole 8-inch caramel-almond rounds in foil pie pans, then finish with a chocolate-coated bottom. Crisp, lacy, and dramatic. The classic European cookie scaled up to plate-size.

Jewish apple cake baked in a tube pan with layers of cinnamon-sugar Granny Smith apples and a moist oil-free batter made with applesauce and orange juice.

Neapolitan torte stacks chocolate, vanilla, and pink cake layers with green cream cheese filling and chocolate frosting. A retro Italian-flag-colored layer cake from boxed mixes.

Oatmeal apple cheese cookies pair sharp cheddar with sweet apples and warm cinnamon for a sweet-savory cookie that captures classic apple pie a la mode in every bite.

Old-fashioned honey-sweetened oatmeal sandwich cookies filled with a homemade raisin, orange, and lemon fruit filling. A nostalgic farmhouse recipe that yields 4 dozen.

Pistachio torte with 2 cups of finely chopped pistachios and breadcrumbs standing in for flour, lifted with beaten egg whites, and topped with a cup of lemon curd. A proper European-style celebration cake.

The surprise? Sauerkraut. Rinsed and squeezed dry, it melts invisibly into this spiced apple cake, adding incredible moisture. With cinnamon, nutmeg, Granny Smith apple, and chopped pecans, nobody will ever guess the secret.

Chocolate cream cheese sandwich cookies start with devil's food cake mix for soft, chewy chocolate rounds, then sandwich a tangy cream cheese frosting between them. An easy cookie you can tint for the holidays.

Crispy old fashioned ginger snaps made with whole wheat flour, molasses, cinnamon, and cloves. These spiced cookies bake up flat and crackled in just 8 minutes with a warm, snappy bite.

Oatmeal pecan pie deepens the classic with toasted oats and pecans in a honey custard, all baked in a rum-spiked oat crust. A nuttier, less cloying twist on pecan pie with a hint of black pepper.

Chocolate whoopie pies sandwiched with a fluffy peanut butter filling made the classic cooked-flour-and-milk way, for that bakery-style, marshmallow-soft texture.

Pumpkin layer cake with cooked fresh pumpkin, warm cinnamon, and a tender, moist crumb. A two-layer Thanksgiving and Christmas cake that's lighter than spice cake but just as comforting.

Favorite carrot cake loads a moist buttermilk batter with shredded carrots, crushed pineapple, coconut, and walnuts, finished with a hot buttermilk glaze and classic cream cheese frosting.

Raisin pecan bread pudding loaded with fruit cocktail and a vanilla-butternut custard. A nostalgic Southern bread pudding that uses up stale bread in 90 minutes.

Three-layer German chocolate cake with mashed potatoes in the batter for a tender crumb, German milk chocolate, and a cooked pecan-coconut frosting that's stirred for 12 minutes until golden.