Dessert/8 recipes

Death by chocolate Bundt cake from Dom DeLuise's cookbook. Cake mix doctored with pudding, sour cream, and 12 ounces of chocolate chips for an intensely fudgy result.

Homemade apricot butter with fresh apricots, orange juice, and orange zest cooked down to a thick, spreadable preserve. Properly water-bath canned for year-round pantry storage.

Super chunky cookies pack four kinds of chocolate plus pecans and English toffee bits into a brown sugar dough. Bakery-style chocolate chip cookies with crispy edges and chewy centers.

Classic lemon bars with a buttery shortbread crust and a tangy lemon-egg curd top, dusted with powdered sugar. A two-layer dessert with bright citrus snap.

Cindy Schweitzer of Muskego offered this cherry twist on melt-in-your-mouth finger cookies.

No-bake blueberry white chocolate cheese pie with a toasted hazelnut crust. Piped cream cheese filling, melted white chocolate, and a heap of fresh berries.

Fudgy bon bons: a chocolate truffle-like dough wrapped around a Hershey's Kiss, baked just 6 to 8 minutes, and drizzled with white chocolate. A hidden-surprise cookie that bakes up shiny and molten.

This winning decorated cookie charmed us with its sophisticated look and pleasing chocolate-pepperminty flavor. It's from Deb Bonfiglio of River Hills.

Layered pumpkin walnut pie hides a buttery brown-sugar walnut praline beneath a creamy, cream-cheese-rich pumpkin custard in a shortbread crust, crowned with baked pastry leaves. A Thanksgiving showpiece.

Old-Fashioned butterscotch meringue pie recipe. A creamy and rich homemade butterscotch pudding filling topped with airy mile-high meringue.

Shortcut Italian sheet pan biscotti baked in a 9x13, sliced, and broiled golden. Six ingredients, 30 minutes, and you've got a tray of crispy-edged cookies with zero fuss.

White coconut cake with a tender crumb from cake flour and folded meringue, covered in boiled white frosting and showered with flaked coconut. A classic Southern layer cake.

Sugar-free peanut butter cookies made with sugar replacements for diabetic-friendly baking. Classic fork-pressed criss-cross pattern and a crisp, nutty crumb in under 30 minutes.

Apple praline pie with Granny Smith apples in a double crust, topped with a bubbly brown sugar, butter, and pecan praline glaze poured over the baked pie. Two desserts in one.

Microwave upside-down brunch cake with ham, crushed pineapple, and brown sugar under a cornmeal batter. Sweet and savory in under 30 minutes.

Oreo ice cream pie: a four-ingredient frozen dessert with crushed Oreos, softened vanilla ice cream, whipped topping, and chocolate drizzle. The easiest crowd-pleaser in the freezer playbook.