Dessert/9 recipes

No-bake mandarin orange pie with a creamy lemon gelatin filling and whipped cream in a pre-made pie shell. Light, citrusy, and chilled to a silky set.

Eccles cakes pack currants, mixed peel and warming spice inside flaky rough puff pastry, glazed with milk and crunchy caster sugar. Classic Lancashire teatime pastry from northwest England.

Creamy rice pudding folded with vanilla whipped cream and served with a blended strawberry preserve sauce. A cold, light dessert with a mousse-like texture.

Spiced chocolate layer cake with coffee, cinnamon, and cloves, frosted with cinnamon whipped cream. A rich, warmly spiced twist on classic chocolate cake.

Apricot filled cookies are buttery thumbprint cookies with a glistening pool of apricot preserves in the center. A classic teatime cookie with a tender shortbread base, makes about four dozen.

Classic pecan pie from Dear Abby columnist Abigail Van Buren, built on corn syrup, brown sugar, and whole pecans scattered across the top instead of stirred in. The old-school Southern holiday standard.

Chambord chocolate raspberry cake with chocolate cake mix, seedless raspberry jam filling, Chambord-soaked layers, and a sour cream chocolate ganache. A semi-homemade showstopper.

Self-saucing sticky toffee pudding, a date-studded muscovado sponge that creates its own rich toffee sauce underneath as it bakes. Spoon it warm over vanilla ice cream or pouring cream.

Old-fashioned Pennsylvania Dutch pickled pears: whole or sliced pears poached in spiced apple cider vinegar syrup with cloves and cinnamon. Traditional canning recipe for the holiday relish tray.

Apple banana crunch pie pairs chunked apples and bananas under a buttery cinnamon-nutmeg crumb topping. An unexpected fruit combination that bakes up tender beneath a streusel crust.

A traditional Irish oatmeal cream dessert from County Donegal. Pinhead oats soaked in milk, folded with whipped cream, orange zest, and a whisper of lemon. Silky, set, and topped with fruit sauce.

Warm pineapple mousse baked in souffle dishes with a hidden layer of shredded coconut, finished under the broiler with caramelized powdered sugar. An elegant tropical dessert.

Cherry dream squares with an oat-and-cake-mix crust, cherry pie filling center, and a brown sugar crumb topping with nuts. A semi-homemade bar cookie that's part crumble, part pie.

New England apple pie with a butter pastry, crumb topping, and heritage apples like Northern Spy or Rhode Island Greening. Cinnamon and lemon zest brighten the filling, and a two-stage bake browns the crust without burning.

Gluten-free shortbread made with rice flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar, and butter. Four ingredients, no wheat flour needed, and the texture is just as sandy and melt-in-your-mouth as traditional shortbread.

Sugar-free apple pie sweetened entirely with concentrated frozen apple juice instead of added sugar. A diabetic-friendly double-crust classic spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, baked golden in under an hour.