Dessert Recipes

Use light or low-fat cream cheese to reduce the fat and calories even further than this tasty rich buttercream frosting alternative.

No-bake peanut butter rice cereal drops made with just 4 ingredients in 15 minutes. Crunchy, chewy, and dangerously easy to make. Kids and cookie swaps love these.

Lemon filling for cakes with egg yolks, fresh lemon juice, zest, and butter. A tangy, silky curd that spreads between layers. Stovetop or microwave method included.

Deep chocolate cookies spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, made lighter with yogurt instead of butter. Crisp edges with chewy centers at just 41 calories per cookie.

Easier to work with. The original recipe called for brandy or grape juice, but I found that if you substitute the orange juice concentrate, it has a nicer flavour.

Spiced pizzelles flavor the classic Italian wafer cookie with warm nutmeg and floral cardamom. Crisp, lacy, and lightly spiced, perfect for stacking on a holiday cookie tray or sandwiching with mascarpone.

Suji halva is a warm Indian semolina dessert toasted in ghee until golden, then soaked in cardamom-scented sugar syrup. Topped with sliced almonds and plump raisins, it's ready in just 20 minutes.

Kiwi sorbet made with puréed fresh kiwis, a vanilla bean simple syrup, and a squeeze of lemon. Optional Cointreau for grown-up flavor, plus a Champagne variation.

Fresh peach sorbet with Marsala wine and lemon juice in a simple sugar syrup. A dairy-free frozen dessert with just five ingredients, served over fresh berries.

Excellent as an ice cream topping or as a filling for Bananas Foster Chimichangas.

Three-ingredient mousse made with instant pudding mix, milk, and Cool Whip folded together. Light, fluffy, and ready in 5 minutes with any Jello pudding flavor you like.

Angel food ice cream cake layered with vanilla ice cream and topped with sweetened fresh strawberries. A no-bake summer dessert that serves a crowd of 15 in 15 minutes of active prep.

Oven-baked banana s'mores with graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and sliced bananas. Indoor campfire treat ready in 20 minutes, no fire needed.

Almond Coconut Twinkles (1953 Pillsbury Bake-Off Winner): coconut-and-almond drop cookies topped with double-boiler chocolate frosting. A senior-division winner that still delivers.

No-bake banana split cake with a graham cracker crust, creamy filling, sliced bananas, crushed pineapple, whipped topping, walnuts, and cherries. All the flavors of a banana split in dessert form.

Chinese almond jelly dessert with a silky gelatin base of evaporated milk and almond extract, topped with fresh kiwi and strawberries. Light, refreshing, and set in the fridge in minutes.