Dessert/9 recipes

Make a delicious and sweet pizza with apples, almonds and dulce de leche glaze. It's good enough for both kids and grown-ups to keep picking up another slice.

Louisiana banana cake with mashed bananas in a buttermilk batter, topped with sliced fresh bananas and a broiled coconut-brown sugar topping. A Southern sheet cake served warm.

Tortilla chip wreath: a salty-sweet holiday candy wreath of vanilla-coated tortilla chips arranged in a circle and decorated with gumdrops. A no-bake Christmas dessert kids can help with.

Best candy apple pie: a classic cinnamon-spiced double-crust apple pie crowned with a bubbling brown sugar, cream, and pecan caramel poured right over the top. Apple pie meets pecan praline.

Raspberry pecan thumbprint cookies spiced with cinnamon and allspice, filled with seedless raspberry jam and topped with chopped pecans. Better the next day.

A showstopper Boston cream pie with four layers of airy genoise, white chocolate pastry cream between each layer, a glossy dark chocolate ganache coating, and fresh raspberries on top. Patisserie-level dessert.

Whole Bartlett pears cored and filled with currant jelly, wrapped in golden puff pastry and baked, served pooled in Calvados caramel sauce. A bakery-window dessert that looks impossible but isn't.

Apple raisin crumb pie: a double-crust apple pie with plump raisins, cinnamon-sugar, and a buttery crumb layer hidden inside. Granny Smith apples keep the filling tart, the crumb adds extra crunch.

Jewel cookies (thumbprint cookies) rolled in chopped pecans, baked with a center depression, and filled with jelly or a maraschino cherry. A vintage Christmas cookie tin staple.

Hoernchen are German almond crescent cookies made with ground almonds, butter, and vanilla, dipped in colored sugar or sprinkles for a festive holiday cookie.

Mexican mocha balls: shortbread-style chocolate-coffee cookies with chopped walnuts and maraschino cherries, rolled in extra-fine sugar. Perfect for the holiday cookie tray.

Chewy oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with brown sugar and nuts create the ultimate bakery-style treat that you can bake soft or crispy based on your preference.

Italian pound cake split into three layers and filled with sweetened ricotta and strawberries or grated chocolate, then iced with a coffee-spiked chocolate ganache.

Frosted pecan cuplets, bite-sized butter cookies rolled in chopped pecans with a tinted buttercream center. A festive thumbprint cookie for holiday cookie trays.

Low-fat holiday cheesecake with nonfat cream cheese, lemon yogurt, and a graham cracker crust, topped with cherry pie filling and whipped topping.

Neiman Marcus seven layer cake is a legendary Texas department-store dessert: seven paper-thin vanilla cake layers stacked with chocolate butter frosting. Stately, showy, and engineered for special occasions.