Dessert/4 recipes

Real-meat mincemeat in a manageable 20-serving batch. Beef, suet, apples, raisins, citron, and orange zest simmer with strong coffee, molasses, and warming spices into a deeply flavored holiday pie filling.

Greek butter cookies (kourabiedes) with ground cloves and a thick powdered sugar coating. Tender, crumbly, and lightly spiced for the holidays.

Frosted peanut butter cookies with a homemade peanut butter and powdered sugar frosting. Soft, chewy drop cookies loaded with double the peanut butter flavor.

Flourless walnut cake topped with a rich coffee cream made from dark chocolate, Madeira, and whipped cream. A European-style frozen dessert garnished with crystallized flowers for an elegant finish.

Delicious, light and fluffy! These taste of Fall, and the crystallized ginger gives then a lovely little zing. Even people who don't like pumpkin love these cupcakes. These disappear as fast as I can set them out!

Old-fashioned pound cake with shortening, six eggs, and no leavening. Vanilla and almond extract give this dense, tender tube cake its signature flavor.

Frozen raspberry parfait, a silky no-churn mousse of cooked raspberry puree, framboise brandy, meringue, and whipped cream. A classic French dessert frozen for hours.

White chocolate orange dream cookies are buttery drop cookies studded with white chips and brightened with fresh orange zest. Makes 2 dozen creamsicle-flavored cookies.

Vintage Midwest Jell-O salad with lime gelatin, sour cream, crushed pineapple, pecans, and maraschino cherries. No baking required. Set, slice into squares, and top with whipped cream.

Tofu cookies are a wholesome whole wheat drop cookie sweetened with honey and built on blended silken tofu, raisins, dates, and warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

A dump-and-bake strawberry cake with marshmallows, cake mix, Jello powder, and frozen strawberries layered in a pan with zero mixing. The oven does all the work. Sticky, gooey, and ridiculously easy.

Classic white cake with buttermilk and egg whites for a pure white, tender crumb. Easy two-layer recipe with a marble cake variation built in.

Crisp, wafer-thin cream cheese cookies studded with finely chopped walnuts. Just five ingredients and 10 minutes in the oven. A Hollywood legend's own recipe.

Christmas tree cake cut from a 13x9 sheet cake into a tree shape, frosted green and decorated with peppermint candies, pretzel rod trunk, and a gumdrop star. Festive holiday show-stopper from one boxed mix.

Lemon poppyseed spritz cookies are pressed into star and swirl shapes, baked tender, then iced with a pale lemon glaze and finished with a poppyseed sprinkle.

Pumpkin delight is a no-bake layered dessert: a graham cracker base under a fluffy spiced pumpkin filling of cream cheese, vanilla pudding, and whipped topping. A lighter, make-ahead alternative to pumpkin pie.