Dessert Recipes

Four-layer spiced chocolate torte filled with apricot jam and frosted with a cocoa-espresso ricotta cream. Warm cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg give this butterless cake a complex, grown-up flavor.

Surprise-center butter cookies with 4 hidden fillings: Andes mints, cherries, chocolate chips, and pecans. Each batch gets its own color-coded icing. A fun holiday baking project.

Butterscotch dandy cake folds homemade hard-ball butterscotch syrup into a tender two-layer cake, then crowns it with a cooked brown sugar buttercream. A real-deal Southern butterscotch cake from scratch.

Hearty oatmeal raisin cookies loaded with rolled oats, plump raisins, and crunchy bran flake cereal for extra texture and fiber. Crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle, and a smart way to use up the cereal box.

Chewy blond brownies loaded with brown sugar, butter, chopped nuts, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Butterscotch-rich and fudgy in the center with barely crisp edges. Ready in 40 minutes with ingredients you probably already have.

Cornmeal cookies blend stone-ground cornmeal with flour for a sandy, slightly crunchy crumb. Studded with dried cherries or raisins and warmed with nutmeg. An Italian-American Christmas tin staple.

A professional-grade chocolate Bundt cake enriched with coffee and bourbon, served with rosewater whipped cream. Baked low and slow for an intensely fudgy crumb.

Fat-free oatmeal cookies sweetened with mashed banana, applesauce, and brown sugar. No butter, no oil. Whole wheat flour and oats give them satisfying chew. Vegan-friendly with optional raisins and sesame.

Festival Half Moon Cookies with Chocolate Frosting recipe

Haselnussmakronen, traditional German hazelnut macaroons: a cocoa meringue folded with crushed hazelnuts and lemon zest, baked low into chewy, flourless cookies. A naturally gluten-free holiday treat.

Hazelnut cornmeal biscotti with toasted whole hazelnuts, stone-ground cornmeal, and warm cinnamon. Italian twice-baked cookies with a sturdy crunch perfect for dunking.

Heath bar cookie bars with crushed toffee candy, pecans, and brown sugar in a streusel-topped batter baked in a pan. A chewy, butterscotch-flavored bar cookie with candy crunch.

Hungarian kiffels: tender butter-yeast cookies rolled around walnut, apricot, or prune filling. Old-world rolled cookies dusted in sugar, holiday tray classic.

Mandel rolls (mandelbrot) made with cake meal, matzo meal, potato starch, and chopped nuts. Twice-baked Jewish biscotti that are crisp, cinnamon-spiced, and Passover-friendly.

Maple oatmeal drop cookies with real maple syrup, sour cream, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Soft, cakey, and finished with a cinnamon-sugar sprinkle.

Melomakarona (fenekia) are traditional Greek honey cookies made with orange juice, cognac, farina, and walnuts. Baked, dipped in warm honey syrup, and dusted with cinnamon.