Baked goods recipes

Old-fashioned Christmas sugar cookies made with a full pound of butter, sour cream, and baking soda. The dough chills overnight for easy rolling and clean cookie cutter shapes.

Mocha meringue pie with a chocolate-pecan meringue crust standing in for pastry. Coffee ice cream fills the crisp shell and freezes solid, topped with whipped cream and chocolate curls. A pour of Kahlua over each slice finishes it.

This two-layer banana cake with buttermilk and chopped pecans bakes up incredibly moist and tender. Made with cake flour for a fine, soft crumb, it's the kind of from-scratch banana cake that wins blue ribbons.

Upside-Down Pineapple-Raisin-Carrot Cake bakes a spiced carrot batter over caramelized pineapple rings and raisins in a cast iron skillet. Two classics in one.

Walnut-stuffed dates wrapped in buttery sour cream cookie dough and brushed with a vanilla glaze. These retro blind date cookies are chewy, nutty, and irresistible.

Spectacular French apple dessert with caramelized apples layered in Calvados-soaked brioche, pressed overnight, topped with hot apples for elegant dinner party finale.

Three layers of deep chocolate cake get brushed with vanilla sugar glaze while hot, then stacked with mocha buttercream icing spiked with coffee and cocoa.

Walnut fudge cookies (British-style biscuit fingers): a buttery shortbread base studded with walnuts and topped with a quick brown sugar fudge. Tea-time treat that slices clean.

Cocoa and coconut truffles spiked with amaretto and honey, baked then rolled into bite-sized balls dusted with powdered sugar. Dangerously easy to make, impossible to stop eating.

Snickers candy bar cake made by melting chopped Snickers and peanut butter right into a buttermilk batter, then folding in whipped egg whites for a light, tender crumb. Caramel, nougat, and peanut in every bite.

Better than sex cake is a four-layer chocolate-pecan icebox dessert: a buttery pecan shortbread crust, sweet cream cheese, chocolate pudding, and whipped topping. A make-ahead potluck legend.

You will enjoy the taste of these scrumptious cookies that combine two of the richest flavors in baking: chocolate and peanut butter.

A layered pineapple coconut poke-style cake starting with a box mix, topped with coconut milk cream cheese pudding, crushed pineapple, whipped topping, and shredded coconut. Potluck-ready and crowd-sized.

Illinois apple pie stars Granny Smith apples with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg tucked under a milk-washed, sugar-dusted double crust. A Midwestern classic that bakes up golden and bubbly.

Potato chip cookies: a six-ingredient sweet-and-salty shortbread-style cookie with crushed potato chips folded into a buttery vanilla dough. The salty crunch is the whole point.

Lulen's grated apple pie shreds the apples instead of slicing for a custard-style filling bound with butter, egg, and cinnamon. Topped with pecans for crunch in a single-crust pie.