Dessert Recipes

Croatian poppy seed povitica with a yeasted sweet dough stretched paper-thin and rolled around a honey-sweetened poppy seed filling. Traditional Eastern European holiday bread.

Magic chocolate pie melts unsweetened chocolate into sweetened condensed milk over a double boiler, then sets into a dense fudge-like filling in a baked shell. Five ingredients, no eggs.

Caramel apple pie recipe loaded with chopped Jonathan or Rome apples, melted caramel candies, gooey caramel topping, and toasted pecans baked into a buttery crust.

Cream cheese cookie bars with a buttery brown sugar walnut crumble crust and tangy cheesecake filling. Easy to bake, cut into squares, and best served chilled.

Light sponge cake baked in a casserole dish, then soaked with a hot rum sugar syrup and topped with toasted almonds or coconut. This boozy, syrup-drenched dessert is even better the next day.

Dark chocolate sea salt cookies, intensely cocoa-rich slice-and-bake sables studded with bittersweet chocolate and flecked with fleur de sel. Slightly underbaked for a soft, fudgy center and a salty-sweet finish.

Vanilla sheet cake split and filled with a whipped butter-shortening cream made with evaporated milk. Cut into squares for individual cream-filled cakes that taste like homemade Twinkies.

Silky chocolate amaretto pie in a crushed Oreo and hazelnut crust, filled with a rich custard spiked with amaretto liqueur, topped with cocoa whipped cream. Refrigerate overnight, bake gently, serve to stunned guests.

Lemon blossom pie with tall and tender meringue: a classic Southern-style bright lemon curd filling in a flaky baked pie shell, crowned with a sky-high, cloud-soft meringue that slices clean without weeping.

Thin, crisp Swedish cookies brushed with egg white, dusted with cinnamon-clove sugar, and topped with a whole almond pressed into each one. Lemon zest brightens the buttery dough. Ready in 25 minutes, makes 2 dozen.

The shredded zucchini makes this cake very moist, and the topping adds a nice crunch. Whenever zucchini is in season I freeze some, shredded, in 2 cup amounts so I can make this favorite anytime of the year.

Elegant individual tiramisu parfaits layered in stemmed glasses with mascarpone Italian meringue, coffee-soaked crumbs, dark rum, and bittersweet chocolate triangles.

Mix-in-the-pan chocolate fudge cake with no eggs, no milk, no butter. Poke three holes, pour, stir, and bake. The original depression-era wacky cake that still delivers.

Traditional Panforte di Siena with toasted almonds, hazelnuts, candied orange peel, citron, cocoa, and honey syrup cooked to soft ball stage. A dense Italian Christmas confection.

Pineapple cream loaf with ladyfinger-lined pan, a light sour cream and crushed pineapple filling with beaten egg whites, and a lemon extract lift. No-bake, make-ahead, keeps 2-3 days chilled.

Cinnamon Zucchini, Chocolate, and Walnut Cookies recipe