Dessert/7 recipes

Old-fashioned apple crisp with tart apple slices, cinnamon, and a buttery flour-sugar crust baked together in one dish. Serve warm with cream.

Rhubarb pie sweetened with applesauce instead of additional sugar, thickened with quick-cooking tapioca, and warmed with cinnamon and nutmeg under a lattice crust. The applesauce mellows the tart rhubarb naturally.

Maple sponge cake with just 4 ingredients: maple syrup, eggs, flour, and optional vanilla. A light, airy tube cake with no butter, no sugar, sweetened entirely by real maple syrup.

Greek kadaifi pastry with shredded dough layered around a cinnamon-almond filling, baked golden and soaked in honey-lemon syrup. A baklava cousin.

Turned out lovely. I've eaten so much my stomach hurts.

Steel Trolley Diner's Fresh Apple Crumb Pie recipe

Boston cream loaf candy boiled to soft-ball, beaten until stiff, then folded with walnuts and maraschino cherries. A vintage New England fudge-style sweet cut into nibble squares.

Weinkuechle or wine fritters: German sweet bread slices battered, fried golden, and drowned in hot sweetened wine or cider. A rustic winter dessert from the Black Forest tradition.

Classic rhubarb pie with a lattice crust and orange pastry made by swapping water for orange juice in the dough. Tart, sweet, and best served warm with vanilla ice cream.

No bake date drops, chewy stovetop cookies made by cooking chopped dates with butter and eggs, then folding in crispy rice cereal and chopped nuts for a quick treat.

No-bake Irish cream chocolate cheesecake with bourbon, cocoa, and whipped cream folded into a gelatin-set filling. A boozy holiday showstopper that chills, never bakes.

Rustic drop biscuit shortcakes topped with two quarts of maple syrup-soaked strawberries and frozen vanilla yogurt. A lighter spin on the classic that's ready in 20 minutes.

Airy, melt-on-your-tongue meringue cookies scented with orange oil and fresh zest. Just 4 ingredients, virtually zero calories, and ready in 30 minutes. These diabetic-friendly treats dissolve like cotton candy.

Delicious Chocolate Bread Pudding with Strawberry Sauce recipe

Reduced fat fudge brownies made with pumpkin puree instead of butter, just 1 tablespoon of oil, and 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder. Dense, chocolatey, and surprisingly rich for a lighter brownie.

Old-fashioned maple walnut ice cream made with real maple sugar, maple syrup, heavy cream, and chopped walnuts. Custard-free, hand-cranked, deeply maple-rich.