Dessert/5 recipes

Mocha pecan balls rolled in powdered sugar, made with espresso, cocoa powder, butter, and chopped pecans. A coffee-chocolate twist on classic snowball cookies.

An Italian-style cheesecake blending ricotta and cream cheese with a generous pour of amaretto liqueur on a buttery graham cracker crust. Creamy, almond-scented, and baked until just set for a luxurious dessert.

No-starter friendship Bundt cake with brandied fruit, coconut, dates, and a hit of orange and walnut extracts. The classic friendship cake without the 30-day countdown.

Speedy no-fuss rice pudding made with vanilla yogurt instead of slow-simmered custard, sweetened with honey and cinnamon, then layered with fresh summer berries and peaches. A light, chilled dessert.

Pumpkin Poundcake with Brown-Sugar-Walnut Glaze recipe

Crisp, cloud-light meringue cookies loaded with chocolate chips and walnuts. Pop them in a hot oven, turn it off, and walk away. They bake themselves overnight.

Self-saucing chocolate pudding cake that creates its own hot fudge layer as it bakes. Pour boiling water over cocoa-sugar topped batter and the oven does the rest. Flip it for a gooey, saucy revelation.

Peach cheesecake built on a cottage-cheese filling for a lighter, less dense bite, with a vanilla wafer pecan crust and a sour cream topping crowned with sliced peaches.

Traditional griddle-cooked potato cake stuffed with sweetened apples and butter for a unique British dessert served warm with thick cream and sugar.

Date drop cookies studded with chopped dates and walnuts and warmly spiced with cinnamon and cloves. A drop-and-bake batter with no chilling or rolling, ready for the cookie jar in well under an hour.

Sweet green tomato pie: thin-sliced unripe tomatoes baked like fruit in a spiced, double-crust pie. Tart and tangy with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, it tastes surprisingly like old-fashioned apple pie.

Pumpkin pound cake with warm spices, finished with orange glaze and homemade candied orange peel. Makes two 9x5 loaves, perfect for fall gifting or freezing.

Jam and oatmeal squares with raspberry jam between a buttery oat-walnut base and a crumbly golden topping. A simple bake-sale bar cookie with just eight ingredients.

Rich chocolate mint cake made with melted unsweetened chocolate, real mint, chopped nuts, and butter. Served chilled with chocolate glaze and sugared mint leaf garnish.

Oreo cookie pound cake with chunks of Oreos folded through a buttery batter and finished with a glossy chocolate glaze. A cookies-and-cream bundt that bakes up dense, moist and tender.

Old-fashioned prune cake with buttermilk, pecans, and warm spices soaked in a boiled buttermilk-butter sauce. Needs three days to cure for the richest, most intense flavor.