Dessert/4 recipes

Mocha brownies with cocoa and instant coffee topped with a boiled coffee icing and marbled melted chocolate drizzle. Fudgy, shiny, and intensely caffeinated.

Celebration rugelach stacks three tiers of cream cheese pastry filled with walnuts, golden raisins, cinnamon, and raspberry preserves into a stunning Hanukkah or holiday centerpiece.

Iced shapes are simple British cut-out biscuits made from a buttery lemon-scented dough, stamped with cookie cutters and finished with colored icing and sprinkles. A kid-friendly baking project.

Fresh strawberry pie with a homemade cornstarch glaze over 4 cups of whole berries in a flaky baked crust. A no-bake filling that sets up glossy and bright in just 20 minutes of hands-on work.

Crazy cake mixed right in the baking pan with no eggs, no butter, and no milk. Cocoa, vinegar, and oil create a surprisingly moist chocolate cake from Depression-era ingenuity.

Classic French-style chocolate mousse with semi-sweet chocolate, whipped cream, beaten eggs, and a splash of crème de cacao. Silky, airy, and rich enough for any dinner party.

Glazed orange butter cake made with cake flour and cornstarch for ultra-tender crumb, scented with fresh orange juice and zest, then drizzled with a tangy orange glaze. The bright citrus cake worth pulling out the stand mixer.

Sugar-free orange cookies for diabetic-friendly baking. Fresh orange juice and zest carry the citrus brightness, sugar substitute keeps them sweet, and buttermilk gives them a tender, soft-cake crumb.

Pignoli cookies (pine nut macaroons): the chewy almond-paste Italian classic studded with toasted pine nuts and dusted with powdered sugar. Naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, and totally addictive.

Swedish butter cookies are slice-and-bake shortbread topped with browned butter frosting. Five ingredients in the dough, nutty caramelized butter on top, and the kind of crisp-edge melt that makes Christmas cookie tins worth opening.

Bizcochitos are the official state cookie of New Mexico: lard-based shortbread perfumed with anise and sweet wine, dusted in cinnamon sugar, and baked into delicate flaky rounds. The traditional Christmas and wedding cookie of the Southwest.

Genoise sponge cake whips warm whole eggs and sugar to ribbon stage, then folds in cake flour and melted butter for a delicate French-style layer cake base. The classic foundation for tortes and trifles.

Old-fashioned lemon meringue pie made with bread: a Depression-era thrift recipe that uses water-soaked bread as the thickener. Bright lemon, fluffy meringue, and pure pantry ingenuity in a baked pie shell.

Meringue cookies use just five pantry ingredients to make crisp, snowy puffs that melt on the tongue. Naturally fat-free and gluten-free, with a marshmallow-like interior and a delicate vanilla finish.

Kahlua mousse brownies with unsweetened and semi-sweet chocolate, coffee liqueur, instant coffee, butter, and pecans. Intensely chocolatey with a boozy coffee depth.

Double chocolate granita with cocoa, semi-sweet chocolate, and warm spices. Italian-style icy frozen dessert that scrapes into chocolate snowflakes.