Dessert/4 recipes

Creamy apple pie with a sour cream custard filling and cinnamon crumb topping. Simple Pennsylvania Dutch baking with no spices in the filling, just pure apple flavor.

Sour cream chocolate chip cake: a tender, coffee-cake style cake made with cold-cut butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a generous cup and a half of chocolate chips. Sinks slightly in the center as it cools.

Classic British millionaire's shortbread with three irresistible layers: buttery shortbread, gooey homemade caramel, and a glossy dark chocolate top. Dangerously addictive.

Pineapple upside-down cupcakes with a brown sugar-cinnamon topping, crushed pineapple, and maraschino cherry centers. Light cake flour batter with whipped egg whites for extra lift.

Rich baked chocolate pudding pie with 18 egg yolks, two types of chocolate, heavy cream, and dried currants. A custard-style filling baked in a water bath.

The easiest brownie pie you'll ever make: boxed brownie mix poured into frozen pie shells with chopped nuts and baked slightly underdone for a fudgy center. Makes 2 pies. Serve with mocha ice cream.

Whacky cakes are the Depression-era chocolate classic reworked for a pizzelle iron: no eggs, no butter, no milk. Vinegar and baking soda do the lift. Vegan, fast, kid-friendly.

Vintage stuffed date drops from the 1950s: pecan-stuffed dates dipped in sour cream cookie batter, baked into tender little drops, and finished with a browned-butter golden glaze.

7-Up Refrigerator Dough: a soft, enriched make-ahead yeast dough where lemon-lime soda stands in for some of the sugar. Mix today, bake tomorrow for tender rolls or coffee cakes.

Rich Brazilian chocolate cake baked in a tube pan with two kinds of chocolate melted into strong coffee. Intensely fudgy with a tender crumb, finished with a simple dusting of powdered sugar.

Chocolate sandwich cookies with a pastel mint wafer hidden inside each one. Thin cocoa dough rounds sealed with a fork, sugared on top, and baked until set. A fun surprise cookie.

Ricotta and sour cream tiramisu skips raw eggs and mascarpone, layering coffee-soaked ladyfingers with a whipped cream-ricotta-sour cream filling spiked with dark rum.

Popcorn fruit cookies made with ground popped corn, cornmeal, dried fruit, and nutmeg. A crunchy, unusual rolled cookie with a satisfying corn-forward crumble.

New Orleans-style bread pudding loaded with pecans, raisins, and apple, baked low and slow in spiced custard, then drenched in a rich bourbon butter sauce. Pure Southern indulgence.

Apple sour cream coffee cake layers buttery batter with sliced apples and a cinnamon-sugar-nut streusel ribbon, topped with more streusel for a tender, bakery-style brunch cake.

Raspberry cream pie with a toasted pecan-cinnamon crust and a light, gelatin-set raspberry filling folded into whipped cream. Grain-free and easy to lighten on sugar, it sets up cool and airy in the fridge.