Dessert/8 recipes

Alice's lemon pie is a heritage 9-ingredient meringue pie with a cornstarch-thickened lemon filling and powdered-sugar meringue topping. Light, tart, and finished in a deep dish pastry shell.

Old-fashioned boiled fruit cake loaded with raisins, figs, and warm spices. The boiling method creates an incredibly moist crumb that stays fresh for days. Serves 12.

Easy chocolate chip cheesecake in a graham cracker crust with a glossy ganache topping. Mini chocolate chips studded throughout a creamy filling that bakes in under 35 minutes.

Finnish sticks are buttery almond shortbread cookies rolled into finger-thin ropes, brushed with egg, and topped with chopped almonds and sugar before baking crisp.

Rosky's (Czech rohlíky): cream cheese pastry cookies filled with apricot, dusted with powdered sugar. The Old World holiday cookie your grandmother kept on the tin every Christmas.

Pumpkin pie with sweetened condensed milk and orange zest, finished with a tangy sour cream and orange juice concentrate topping. The citrus brightens the spices and the sour cream cuts the sweetness.

Peanut butter bars are no-bake crowd-pleasers with a graham cracker and peanut butter base topped with melted chocolate. Five ingredients, one pan, refrigerate overnight. Buckeyes in bar form.

Easy orange chiffon cake uses an angel food cake mix as a shortcut to a fluffy, citrus-bright chiffon. Folded with whipped egg whites, fresh orange zest, and oil for that classic light-as-air texture.

Chewy coconut cookies loaded with toasted almonds and sweet dates bake low and slow until golden-bottomed with crisp edges for 4 dozen treats.

Easy Bisquick coffee cake with a buttery cinnamon brown sugar streusel and chopped nuts folded into a fluffy biscuit-mix base. One bowl, 25-minute bake, perfect for brunch or a fast breakfast.

Easy ricotta and cream cheese cheesecake blended smooth and baked on a buttery graham cracker crust. No water bath, no fuss, no stress.

Half Moon cookies with a soft, cakey drop cookie base frosted half chocolate and half vanilla. A classic Upstate New York bakery cookie made with sour milk.

The famous Neiman-Marcus cookie with blended oatmeal, two kinds of chocolate, chopped nuts, and both white and brown sugar. Makes a massive batch of 112 cookies.

Persimmon chocolate chip cookies: ripe Hachiya persimmon pulp folded into a spiced cookie dough with chocolate chips, walnuts, and dates. Soft, cake-like cookies with autumn-spice warmth in every bite.

Pina colada poke cake soaked with a mixture of pina colada drink mix and sweetened condensed milk, topped with whipped cream and coconut. A tropical sheet cake from a box mix.

Moist coffee orange fudge bundt cake doctored from a German chocolate cake mix with Kahlua, orange zest, sour cream, instant pudding, and chocolate chips. Bakery-quality from a box.