Baked goods recipes

Quick Native American fry bread: four-ingredient dough fried golden, served sweet with honey or savory as a taco base. Simple, fast, deeply traditional.

Traditional Appalachian stack cake with tender cookie-thin layers separated by spiced apple butter. Bake crisp golden rounds, then let them soften overnight as the apple butter melts into each bite.

Rich, buttery banana bread with a full cup of melted butter, chopped nuts, and a generous helping of ripe mashed bananas. Makes one large loaf or two smaller ones. Freezes beautifully.

No-bake cherry cheesecake with a buttery graham cracker crust, whipped cream cheese filling, and canned cherry pie filling on top. Chills to set, no oven needed for the filling.

Ossi di Morti (Bones of the Dead) Italian cookies flavored with cinnamon and clove oil, baked hard and meant to be dunked in coffee or tea. A traditional Italian All Souls Day treat.

Classic German yeast cake with a tender enriched dough and a buttery cinnamon-crumb topping, baked in pie pans. A traditional Streuselkuchen-style coffee cake from old-country German baking.

Irish whole wheat soda bread with bran and wheat germ for a hearty, nutty crumb. No yeast, no kneading, no rise time. From mixing bowl to oven in 15 minutes flat.

Fresh raspberry pie with a woven lattice crust, made with real berries cooked down with cornstarch for a thick, glossy filling. Dusted with powdered sugar and garnished with chocolate leaves.

Whole wheat pie crust made with a blend of whole wheat and white flour for a nutty, flaky pastry. A simple 5-ingredient dough that works for both filled pies and blind-baked shells.

Light and crisp egg-whipped anise biscotti made with cornstarch for extra snap. Nut-free, piped from a pastry bag, and twice-baked golden. The ideal dunking cookie for coffee or tea.

Parisian Sophisticates: almond-vanilla buttermilk cupcakes hollowed out and filled with airy chocolate truffle mousse, topped with toasted cake crumbs. Vintage tea-party fancy.

Old-fashioned gingersnap cookies with molasses, ginger, and cinnamon, rolled in sugar and baked until crinkly. Oil-based for a chewy center with crisp edges.

Pina Colada party cake: white cake mix doctored with pineapple juice and toasted coconut, soaked with pineapple syrup, topped with rum-extract frosting. Tropical island flavor, no booze required.

Sugar and spice layer cake with cinnamon, cloves, brown sugar, and buttermilk in a tender two-layer round cake. A warmly spiced classic with buttercream frosting.

Maple cream cake: a tender brown sugar and maple syrup cake topped with a fluffy maple buttercream made with egg white. Pure Canadian sugar shack flavor.

Mandarin orange sunshine cake made with yellow cake mix and canned oranges replacing the water. Frosted with a pineapple, sour cream, and vanilla pudding whipped topping.