Dessert/9 recipes

No-bake chocolate mint torte with a chocolate cookie crumb crust and a silky chocolate-peppermint filling lightened with whipped cream. A dinner-party finisher that chills 3 hours and slices like silk.

Chocolate bundles are flaky puff pastry purses twisted around pools of semi-sweet chocolate and crunchy walnuts, baked golden and dusted with powdered sugar. A three-ingredient French-style dessert that looks far fancier than the effort behind it.

Kolatchkies, cream cheese pastry cookies filled with your choice of fruit filling, pinched shut, and dusted with powdered sugar. A classic Eastern European treat.

Traditional steamed cranberry pudding with suet, breadcrumbs and brown sugar. Dense, moist old-fashioned holiday dessert steamed for 2 hours.

Banana caramel pie pours a brown sugar custard into a baked shell, then crowns it with sliced ripe bananas and softly whipped cream. The make-ahead dessert that tastes like banana pudding meets pie.

Traditional German drop donuts (Tropfkrapfen) made with a buttermilk batter, fried golden and dusted in powdered sugar. Crispy outside, tender and cakey within. Simple old-world charm.

Rhubarb and nut streusel cake with thickened tart rhubarb filling sandwiched between buttery cake layers and topped with crumbly streusel. A spring coffee cake that turns rhubarb season into dessert.

Bob's vinegar pie crust holds up to two weeks in the fridge or freezes for months. One large batch yields four single 9-inch shells. The egg and splash of vinegar deliver a tender, flaky crust every time.

This reminds me of dad saying he just can't stand peanut butter--"salvation sav" on his mission. But somehow he always seemed to like the dessert that tasted like peanut butter. He deserves to be teased.

Rhubarb and melon fruit salad with rhubarb melted in white wine and sugar, then chilled with fresh melon balls and mint. A Scandinavian-style summer dessert salad.

Genoise mousseline is a classic French sponge cake made with whole eggs, extra yolks, and no butter, warmed over a bain-marie and whipped to airy volume for a tender crumb.

Three-ingredient chilled coffee caramel pudding with caramelized sweetened condensed milk, hot coffee, and chopped pecans. A retro dulce de leche dessert served in sherbet glasses.

A chocolate pecan fudge-like frosting makes this Sheet Cake

Three-layer butternut cake with tangy cream cheese frosting and chopped nuts. Rich buttermilk batter laced with butternut flavoring bakes up tender and moist, then gets slathered in a thick, nutty frosting that'll have folks lining up for seconds.

A juicy and scrumptious apple pie that tastes wonderful with any fruit topping or with the traditional whipped cream.

Traditional Middle Eastern semolina cake drenched in lemon syrup. This easy yogurt-based dessert bakes golden brown and soaks up fragrant citrus syrup for a moist, tender treat perfect with tea.