Dessert Recipes

Chocolate chip fruitcake with candied cherries, dates, walnuts, and chocolate chips bound by a light egg-and-sugar batter. A modern fruitcake that converts even fruitcake skeptics.

Emeril-inspired masa corn cakes with chili powder, topped with white wine chive cream and caviar. An elegant appetizer that turns simple corn into something show-stopping.

Mimi's bread pudding made with French bread soaked in evaporated milk, bananas, raisins, and a full ounce of vanilla. Served with a buttery whiskey sauce.

These are chewy and crunchy with a bittersweet chocolate coating. My Mom's favorite:)

Chocolate jimmy cake studded with chocolate sprinkles, flavored with cold coffee, and topped with a creamy vanilla frosting. A nostalgic New England bakery-style cake baked in a springform pan.

Slice-and-bake chocolate icebox cookies rolled in chopped pecans and topped with melted milk chocolate. Make the dough ahead, chill overnight, and bake 8 dozen in minutes.

Maple ginger snap cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar with real maple syrup, ground ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Crispy, spiced, and coated in a sparkly sugar crust.

Fermented mincemeat made with venison or beef tongue, suet, apples, dried fruit, red wine, cider, and brandy. A six-to-eight-week crock cure transforms the ingredients into the deep, boozy filling of old hunting cabin Christmas pies.

Whole-wheat sourdough applesauce cake bakes up moist and tender in a tube pan, with cinnamon, allspice, and clove warming a tangy starter-and-applesauce batter. A bundt-shaped keeper for fall.

Taffy apple pie loaded with Heath toffee bits, sliced apples, and a crunchy oat-walnut streusel topping. Decorative pastry leaf cutouts ring the edge for a showstopper finish.

Buttery gold tube cake flavored with lemon extract and mace, topped with a from-scratch mocha butter frosting made with cocoa, coffee, and egg whites.

Maria's Ischli cookies are Austrian sandwich cookies with ground hazelnuts or almonds, filled with raspberry jam and topped with chocolate icing. A classic European holiday cookie.

Rich cappuccino pound cake with cocoa, honey, sour cream, and warm spices like cinnamon and cloves. Finished with a Kahlua coffee cream glaze that takes it over the top.

The laziest, most crowd-pleasing dessert you'll ever make. Cherry pie filling, crushed pineapple, yellow cake mix, melted butter, coconut, and pecans. Just layer, dump, and bake.

A light, cloud-like Swiss souffle made from dried chestnuts simmered in milk, laced with grappa, and lifted by fluffy egg whites. Dusted with icing sugar and served straight from the oven.

Classic Alsatian apple charlotte with milk-soaked bread, cinnamon-spiced apples, chopped almonds, and a splash of kirsch. Baked in a bundt pan until golden, this rustic French dessert is pure comfort.