Dessert Recipes

Chocolate-spice crinkle cookies rolled in sugar with cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and cloves. Chewy, fragrant, and lower-fat thanks to a yogurt swap for most of the butter.

Sweet spinach tart with wine-steamed spinach cooked in rosewater, sugar, and cinnamon, filled into a pie shell and topped with fresh sliced strawberries. A medieval-inspired dessert that's surprisingly beautiful.

Tamora pudding made from blended papaya, fresh pineapple chunks, and orange juice, chilled until firm. A three-ingredient tropical fruit pudding with no dairy, no sugar, and no cooking required.

A clever single-serving microwave pavlova rolled with whipped topping and fresh strawberries. Light, crisp meringue meets soft fruit in this low-calorie, gluten-free treat that's ready in 20 minutes.

Soft pumpkin cookies with tofu replacing eggs, spiced with nutmeg and allspice, loaded with raisins and walnuts. An egg-free drop cookie that yields 7 dozen.

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.

Touchdown football cake: a round yellow cake mix transformed into a football shape with milk chocolate frosting and piped vanilla laces. The Super Bowl party showpiece kids and adults both love.

Tropical quesadillas filled with ripe banana, green chilies, and Monterey Jack cheese with a squeeze of lime. A sweet-savory snack or dessert ready in 15 minutes.

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.

Vegan brownies with chocolate sauce bake into a self-saucing pudding cake with no eggs and no dairy. Soy milk and oil keep the crumb tender, while a layer of cocoa, brown sugar, and boiling water poured over the batter sinks down into a fudgy hot sauce as it bakes.

Vegetarian mincemeat with fresh pears, mixed dried fruit, candied peel, glace cherries, dates, almonds, citrus zest, and whiskey. A meat-free version of the British holiday classic.

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.

White chocolate sorbet with dark chocolate chips and a whisper of creme de cassis. A dairy-free frozen dessert with deep cocoa-butter richness and bright black-currant lift.