Dessert/8 recipes

Strawberry granita made from just three ingredients, no ice cream machine needed. Fresh strawberry puree and simple syrup frozen and scraped into glittering, refreshing ice crystals. Pure summer in a glass.

Raspberry poppy seed cookies are tender butter thumbprints studded with crunchy poppy seeds and filled with jewel-bright raspberry preserves. A bakery-style classic with two textures in every bite.

Fig garden party cakes layer sponge cake or lady fingers with a homemade dried-fig filling cooked down with peanut butter, butter, and lemon juice. A vintage tea-table dessert with surprising depth.

A spice cake mix upgraded with rolled oats, low-fat yogurt, and chopped apples, finished with a crunchy brown sugar and oat crumble topping. Bakes in one pan, ready in an hour.

Rosettes are delicate Scandinavian fried cookies shaped on a decorative iron, crisp like a wafer and dusted with powdered sugar. A Christmas tradition in Nordic and Midwestern kitchens.

Cherry divinity is the pink church-cookbook candy: hard-ball sugar syrup whipped into beaten egg whites with cherry Jello, then loaded with chopped nuts and coconut. Old-fashioned, fluffy, festive.

Chocolate mint rice pudding layered in sherbet glasses, lightened with whipped cream and egg whites, studded with cooked rice and swirls of mint jelly.

Moist walnut spice cake with brown sugar, nutmeg, and allspice topped with a bake-on meringue. Old-fashioned comfort baking with a crispy, golden crown.

Fried diamond twist cookies with egg yolk dough, deep-fried crisp and dusted with powdered sugar. Scandinavian rosettes-meets-krumkake pastry also known as chrusciki or rosettes in other traditions.

Chocolate angel food cake hollowed out and filled with orange sherbet. A frozen dessert that pairs airy cocoa sponge with tangy citrus ice. Fat-free cake, too.

Gingerbread dough made the old-fashioned way with boiled molasses, shortening, allspice, and cinnamon. Perfect for rolled cookies, houses, or cut-out shapes.

Cinnamon rugelach made with a tender cream cheese pastry dough, rolled crescent-style around a cinnamon filling and dusted with cinnamon sugar. Flaky, buttery little cookies for the holidays and cookie trays.

Flaky, buttery pastry triangles filled with jam and kissed with orange zest. A classic Austrian cookie that uses hard-cooked egg yolks for an impossibly tender dough.

Mocha crinkle cookies with deep cocoa, instant espresso, and a surprising pinch of black pepper, rolled in powdered sugar for that signature cracked-top look. A grown-up twist on classic chocolate crinkles.

Sunny citrus cubes: bright orange and grapefruit juice set with gelatin into firm, tangy jelly squares with a walnut crunch. A diabetic-friendly no-cook treat.

Double cappuccino heaven is a mocha angel food cake bursting with espresso and cocoa, finished with a fluffy marshmallow frosting. Fat-free, light as a cloud, and rich in coffee flavor.