Dessert/5 recipes

Chocolate cream cheese gooey butter bars with a chocolate cake mix base, chopped pecans, and a sweet cream cheese topping. A St. Louis-style gooey butter cake in bar form.

Aeblekage: a traditional Danish apple cake with cinnamon-dusted apples baked under a buttery cake batter. Equal-weight flour-sugar-butter ratio for tender, golden-topped slices.

Schwarzwaelder Kirschtorte is the authentic German Black Forest cake: three genoise layers soaked in kirsch syrup, filled with kirsch buttercream and sour cherries, and draped in whipped cream with chocolate curls.

Light, airy cheesecake made with pressed cottage cheese and whipped cream in spiced rusk crust, topped with strawberry glaze studded with whole berries.

Elephant ears with pecan filling: puff pastry rolled with cinnamon-cardamom-pecan filling, sliced and baked into butterfly-shaped pastries. Bakery-style breakfast treat at home.

Chocolate shots slice-and-bake cookies with oats, butter, and powdered sugar rolled in chocolate sprinkles. A make-ahead icebox cookie with a fun, crunchy sprinkle-coated edge.

Butterscotch chocolate chunk cookies: chewy brown-sugar cookies loaded with semi-sweet chocolate chunks. The butterscotch flavor comes from both light and dark brown sugar, no chips required.

This delicious Italian snack is perfect with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

Fried apple pies with a cheddar cheese pastry and a cinnamon-apple filling with grated cheese. A Southern hand pie fried golden in a skillet.

No-bake cheesecake with cream cheese, sour cream, and whipped topping in a graham crust. Chills to silky firm in 4 hours. Easy summer dessert with no oven needed.

Warm brownie pudding cake bakes its own fudgy chocolate sauce underneath a soft cake top. Pour boiling water over the batter, don't stir, bake, then spoon out cake and sauce in one go.

Potato chip cookies: a six-ingredient sweet-and-salty shortbread-style cookie with crushed potato chips folded into a buttery vanilla dough. The salty crunch is the whole point.

Turtle cookies shaped around hidden caramel centers and nestled on pecan halves, then dipped in chocolate glaze. The Christmas cookbook classic that mimics the candy in cookie form.

A show-stopping layered blueberry pie with a white chocolate-coated crust, cooked blueberry filling, a fluffy blueberry Bavarian cream layer, and whipped cream on top. Five layers of blueberry heaven for your most impressive dessert spread.

Raspberry chews layer buttery shortbread, seedless raspberry jam, coconut, and almond meringue into chewy bar cookies. A vintage bar cookie that's equal parts soft and crunchy.

Pumpkin cheesecake with canned pineapple and warm pie spice, baked in a water-bath oven for a silky, crack-free finish. A crustless fall dessert with tropical flair.