Dessert recipes

Kolacky cookies made with a tender cream cheese pastry dough filled with fruit spread, pinched into tri-cornered shapes, and baked golden. A Czech holiday cookie tradition.

Lighter ricotta chocolate mousse made with part-skim ricotta, gelatin, cocoa powder, and chocolate syrup. A 25-minute Weight Watchers-friendly chocolate dessert that skips heavy cream entirely.

Forget rock-hard biscotti that threaten your teeth. This butter-rich Italian cookie bakes up tender enough to eat without dunking, studded with raisins and nuts in every bite.

Lily cookies: cream cheese pastry rounds folded around a jelly center and dusted with powdered sugar. Old-school holiday cookies shaped like opening lilies.

Soft, spiced German brown sugar cookies loaded with cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, and plump raisins. This old-world drop cookie recipe makes 4 to 5 dozen and fills your kitchen with warmth.

Flaky biscuit dough rolled with sour cherries, sliced into pinwheels, and baked golden. Served warm with a homemade cherry sauce and ice cream or sherbet.

A triple-strawberry milkshake blending strawberry ice cream, fresh berries, and strawberry concentrate into one thick, frothy glass. Pure berry overload in every sip.

Cream cheese pinwheel cookies filled with cinnamon, sugar, and chopped pecans. A tender, flaky dough rolled jelly-roll style and sliced into swirled rounds.

Mocha layer cake made with hot coffee, cocoa, sour cream, and folded egg whites, topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting. A rich, tender two-layer chocolate coffee cake from scratch.

Crisp, butter-brushed cookie sticks flavored with anise oil. A traditional Spanish treat that's simple to make with just 7 ingredients and ready in 30 minutes.

Cottage cheese blended with pumpkin purée, brown sugar, and warm spices makes a lighter, creamy filling for this graham cracker crust pie. Low-fat pumpkin pie that still satisfies.

Mock apple pie made entirely from Ritz crackers, sugar syrup, and cinnamon. The Depression-era classic that fooled families when apples were scarce or expensive, still uncannily convincing today.

Coca-Cola cake is a moist Southern chocolate sheet cake made with real cola and miniature marshmallows that melt and float to the top as it bakes. Rich, fudgy, and old-fashioned in the best way.

These simple almond sugar cookies are flavored with almond extract and topped with sliced almonds.

Cherries jubilee ice cream pie swirls a brandy-spiked dark cherry sauce through vanilla ice cream in a honey-graham crust, then freezes firm. A make-ahead frozen take on the flaming dessert classic.

Crisp, lacy Italian pizzelle cookies flavored with anise and lemon, pressed golden on a traditional pizzelle iron. These thin wafer cookies are an Italian-American holiday staple your nonna would approve of.