Dessert/7 recipes

Buttery shortbread crust topped with gooey pecan-coconut filling creates bar cookies that taste like pecan pie without the fussy pastry work.

Buttery cookies hiding a whole Andes mint inside, wrapped in soft dough and topped with a pecan half for surprise chocolate-mint magic in every bite.

Old-fashioned icebox cookies with brown sugar, butter, and chopped nuts. Shape the dough into logs, chill, slice, and bake for crisp, nutty cookies with caramel-rich flavor.

These chewy squares ooze brown sugary butterscotch. They becrumb the lips and besmear the chin, like home-baked goodies should.

A decadent dessert with a lovely french presentation. Egg white puffs shaped into quenelles topped with caramel and seasonal fruit. Guaranteed to wow any guests.

A towering four-layer strawberry cake made easy with a box mix, fresh berry glaze between each layer, and tangy cream cheese icing all over. Semi-homemade and stunning.

Old-fashioned green tomato pie that turns end-of-season unripe tomatoes into a tart-sweet apple-pie alternative. Sugar, cinnamon, and butter spice thinly sliced green tomatoes under a flaky double crust.

Apple sheet cake with pecans and a warm brown sugar icing poured straight over the pan. Three cups of fresh apple keep every slice deeply moist.

Classic Italian fruit tart with a lemon-scented shortcrust, silky crema pasticcera, seasonal fresh fruit, and an apricot glaze. A pasticceria showpiece you can make at home.

Saure Kartoffel, a traditional Swabian sour potato dish with a tangy butter-onion sauce flavored with bay leaf, lemon zest, clove, and caraway. German comfort food.

Cherry pineapple upside-down cake with brown sugar glaze, pineapple rings, maraschino cherries, and a coconut-vanilla scented cake. A retro lower-fat take on the classic.

No-bake frozen strawberry pie with egg whites whipped 15 minutes with berries and sugar, then folded into cream. Light, airy, and icebox-cold in a graham cracker crust.

A scrumptious cheesecake made with orange juice and seedless raisins.

Melt-in-your mouth balls topped with crunch sesame seeds are a delicious, not too sweet, accompaniament to coffee or tea.

Soft, moist velvet pumpkin cake made with Bisquick, canned pumpkin, and vanilla, served warm with sweetened whipped cream. A cozy fall dessert ready in one hour.

Mini cheesecakes baked in cupcake liners with a vanilla wafer crust, cream cheese filling, and fresh fruit on top. A 5-ingredient, individual-sized cheesecake dessert.