Dessert/9 recipes

Vera's buttermilk cookies use powdered buttermilk and a half-sugar, half-sweetener blend for a lower-sugar tangy sugar cookie. Crisp edges, soft centers, ready in 35 minutes.

Black Forest ice cream cake: two layers of moist chocolate-coffee cake sandwich a slab of vanilla ice cream, frosted with whipped cream and crowned with cherry pie filling. A frozen showstopper.

Crazy cake, also known as wacky cake, is an egg-free and dairy-free chocolate sheet cake made with vinegar and oil. Depression-era one-pan recipe that bakes in 35 minutes.

Old fashioned butterscotch cookies made with melted butter dissolved in brown sugar for pure caramel flavor. A thin, crispy drop cookie with just six pantry staples that bakes in 8 minutes.

Chocolate marshmallow fudge made with marshmallow cream, evaporated milk, and chocolate chips for foolproof creamy fudge every time. A massive 60-piece batch perfect for holiday gifting.

Classic Girl Scout-style trefoil shortbread cookies with butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Roll-and-cut sugar cookies for the trefoil cutter, makes 4 dozen.

Buttery shortbread-style nut cookies with almond extract and chopped nuts, shaped by hand into rustic finger rolls. Tender, crumbly, and lightly sweet.

Soft sour cream cookies with a sugar-pressed top, made from simple pantry staples. The sour cream keeps them pillowy and tender for days.

Glazed chocolate mint cookies: thin, crisp rolled cookies made with melted mint chocolate chips in the dough, then half-dipped in a glossy mint chocolate glaze. Like a homemade Thin Mint.

Mom's red velvet cake with old-fashioned ermine frosting (the original red velvet topping). Buttermilk, cocoa, and vinegar give the cake its signature tang and tender crumb.

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.

A light, no-bake cheesecake made with blended cottage cheese instead of cream cheese, set with gelatin and lightened with whipped egg white and whipped topping. Sugar-free, airy, and poured into a graham crust.

Josephine's pineapple salad: retro molded gelatin salad with cream cheese, crushed pineapple, and whipped cream. A classic potluck centerpiece from grandma's recipe box.

Diabetic nut cookies: sugar-free drop cookies with bright orange zest, chopped nuts, and no refined sweeteners. An easy low-sugar cookie recipe for diabetes-friendly baking.

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.

Strawberry cream pie layered with toasted almonds, a from-scratch vanilla cream filling, fresh halved strawberries, and a glossy strawberry glaze. Diner-counter classic done properly.