Dessert Recipes

Painted sugar cookies decorated with vibrant egg-yolk paint before baking, set on a no-leavening rolled cookie that holds its shape and color. A craft-and-bake project for kids and holidays.

Pajas are flourless coconut cookies loaded with butter-toasted pecans, dried apricots, and chopped chocolate, bound with sweetened condensed milk. No eggs, no flour, all flavor.

Panforte is the dense, chewy Sienese Christmas cake packed with toasted hazelnuts and almonds, dates, cherries, cocoa, and warm spices, bound by hot honey caramel. A traditional Italian holiday confection.

Parisian Sophisticates: almond-vanilla buttermilk cupcakes hollowed out and filled with airy chocolate truffle mousse, topped with toasted cake crumbs. Vintage tea-party fancy.

Italian Christmas cookies (Patina di Natale) studded with toasted pine nuts and brightened by lemon zest. A buttery, golden-glazed cookie-cutter classic from the holiday tables of southern Italy.

Patty Ann's chocolate diamonds are dense, fudgy chocolate-pecan bars cut into diamond shapes. A short ingredient list and one bowl deliver brownie-like richness with a satisfying nutty crunch.

Coconut kisses made from stiff egg whites folded with shredded coconut, vanilla, and almond extract, topped with a candied cherry. Light, chewy meringue cookies with only six ingredients.

A lighter peach brulee: ripe sliced peaches with orange juice, blanketed in tangy Greek yogurt and topped with a crackly broiled-sugar crust. The flavors of creme brulee with a fraction of the work.

Chilled peach soup with white wine, orange liqueur, maple syrup, and whipped cream. A silky, boozy fruit soup that works as an elegant summer dessert or first course.

Peaches and cream pie with sliced summer peaches baked into a single-crust shell with a sugar-flour layer and pure heavy cream poured over top. Five ingredients, summer in a slice.

Fresh peaches macerated in white wine, port, sweet vermouth, citrus juice, and sugar. An elegant Italian-style no-cook fruit dessert served chilled in glass cups.

Chilled peaches in sweet white wine syrup with lemon juice. An elegant, four-ingredient French-style dessert that comes together in minutes.

Drop cookies loaded with peanut butter, oats, and chopped peanuts. Chewy, hearty cookies with both peanut butter and whole peanut crunch in every bite. Makes 4 dozen.

Peanut butter chocolate chip cake built on a doctored yellow cake mix, a full cup of peanut butter, and 12 ounces of chocolate chips. Bakes into thick, chewy squares with a brownie-like crumb.

Four-ingredient peanut butter shortbread with butter, sugar, peanut butter, and flour pressed into a pan and baked low and slow. Sandy, crumbly, and nutty with no mixer or rolling required.

Chocolate peanut butter shortbread baked in a tart pan with a cocoa crust, creamy peanut butter filling, and a chocolate Kiss topped with a whole peanut on every wedge.