Dessert Recipes

Annie's butter cookies: one buttery, rich dough that shapes into candy canes, pinwheels, spritzes, cutouts, or drop cookies. The Christmas-cookie foundation worth memorizing.

Italian apple tart (crostata di mele) with lattice top and minimal sugar. Thinly sliced apples in homemade tart dough bake until golden. Simple, rustic, and authentically Italian.

Apple pound cake loaded with chopped apples, pecans, and raisins spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. A moist oil-based tube cake baked low and slow until golden.

Rio Grande-style biscocitos with butter, anise seed, and brandy, dusted in cinnamon sugar before baking. Crisp, fragrant, and easy to cut into festive shapes. Makes 3 dozen.

French hazelnut meringue biscuit with finely ground filberts folded into whipped egg whites. Baked hot and fast for a light, nutty base layer that's a pastry chef's secret weapon.

Fudgy chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling, topped with sugared chopped almonds. The eggless cocoa batter stays moist while the almond crunch on top adds a nutty, caramelized bite.

Preserved blueberries in orange liqueur syrup with fresh lavender flowers, canned in a boiling water bath. Spoon over vanilla ice cream, fold into yogurt, or gift a jar to someone who deserves something truly special.

Microwave blueberry buckle with a cinnamon-butter crumb topping and two cups of blueberries folded into a tender cake batter. Done in 12 minutes flat.

Tender cream cheese cookies wrapped around walnut halves and dusted in powdered sugar. Just 5 ingredients, melt-in-your-mouth rich. Makes 2 dozen elegant bon bons.

Brown butter blackberry charlotte with ladyfingers, eggs, and vanilla baked until crusty on top and custard-smooth inside. A French-style dessert that freezes beautifully for up to 4 months.

Southern buttermilk meringue pie with a tangy custard filling sweetened with brown sugar, topped with light whipped meringue. A heritage pie from old Appalachian and Southern kitchens.

Butterscotch layer cake built on brown sugar for deep caramel flavor, finished with a browned-butter frosting that's nutty and toffee-rich. A tender, old-fashioned two-layer cake with real butterscotch character.

California ricotta cake: devil's food cake layers brushed with orange liqueur, filled and frosted with sweet ricotta whipped with cream, orange zest, almonds, and chocolate chips.

A surprising double-crust pie filled with sliced carrots, apples, raisins, and orange zest, lightly spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Old-fashioned, sweet, and unlike any pie you've tried.

Soft, cake-like carrot cookies with pureed carrots, golden raisins, orange zest, and cinnamon. Tender drop cookies that taste like miniature carrot cake bites. Comes together in 30 minutes flat.

Three-layer carrot cake baked low and slow with grated carrots, chopped nuts, and cinnamon, topped with a thick cream cheese icing. A Southern-style classic that never goes out of style.