Dessert recipes

Old-fashioned persimmon cake made with ripe persimmon pulp, shortening, eggs, and a simple flour-and-leavening base. A vintage autumn bake from the Hoosier and Appalachian traditions.

These moist and rich cookies are a great snack after dessert, just make sure you hide the cookie jar after.

Bizcochitos are the official state cookie of New Mexico: lard-based shortbread perfumed with anise and sweet wine, dusted in cinnamon sugar, and baked into delicate flaky rounds. The traditional Christmas and wedding cookie of the Southwest.

Lemon prairie cake, a Southern-style pound cake with lemon-lime soda for lift and lemon extract for citrus punch. Rich, buttery, and baked in a fluted Bundt pan until golden.

Individual pineapple upside-down cakes baked in small Pyrex dishes with a homemade cinnamon-pineapple syrup and a pineapple ring in each. Buttery, caramelized, and portion-perfect.

Traditional Scottish shortbread made with butter, flour, cornstarch, and sugar. A four-ingredient buttery cookie baked low and slow until just pale gold, then dusted with sugar while warm.

Triple-layer lemon cheesecake with a cinnamon cracker crust, creamy lemon filling, sour cream topping, and a tangy lemon curd glaze. A make-ahead dessert with bright citrus in every layer.

Chinese-style caramel fried apples or bananas battered and deep-fried, then coated in crackly spun sugar with sesame seeds. Dipped in ice water for a shatteringly crisp shell.

They are so good, buttery pie crust, moist and juicy filling inside, and frying gives the golden, brown and crispy result.

Warm blueberry cake with lemon zest, served straight from a springform pan with boozy whipped cream. Tender crumb bursting with juicy berries in every slice.

Cherry chocolate baked Alaska stacks devil's food cake with frozen cherry yogurt filling under a flash-baked cocoa meringue. Retro dessert drama with hot meringue and ice-cold center.

No-bake fig and coconut candy balls with ground nuts and bright lemon zest. Naturally sweet, chewy, and rolled in finely chopped coconut for a vintage confection.

Traditional Irish porter cake made with stout beer, currants, raisins, mixed peel, and brown sugar. A dense, rich fruit cake that improves with a week of resting before slicing.

Biscotti crocanti, traditional Italian twice-baked cookies with whole almonds and a pairing of almond and anise extracts. The classic crisp Italian biscotti for dunking in espresso or vin santo.

Diabetic-friendly Black Forest bars made with just three ingredients: no-sugar chocolate cake mix, sour cherries, and sugar substitute. Quick, simple, and guilt-free.

No-bake cream cheese pie with condensed milk, whipped cream, pineapple, and pecans in a graham cracker crust. Fluffy, tangy, and ready after a quick chill.