Dessert recipes

Chocolate mint sticks: a three-layer holiday bar with a fudgy brownie base, a bright green peppermint buttercream middle, and a glossy chocolate glaze on top. A Christmas-cookie classic.

Sad cake is a dense, chewy brown-sugar cake studded with coconut and nuts, made easy with a baking mix. It sinks in the middle on purpose, baking up gooey and butterscotchy like a giant blondie.

A no-bake cookies and cream cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust, creamy gelatin-set filling, and chunks of cream-filled cookies layered throughout. No oven required.

Made popular back in the 1960's by a bakery in Brooklyn. Chocoholics of all ages love this rich chocolate layer cake that uses a thick pudding instead of icing.

Although this dessert is called a cake, the consistency is more similar to that of a pie.

Chewy oatmeal cookies with a thumbprint center filled with spiced apple pie filling, combining wheat germ nuttiness with warm cinnamon sweetness.

Spiced brown sugar bundt cake with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and cloves, baked with chopped pecans and finished with a butterscotch glaze. Holiday-table ready.

Grandma Hilda's apple pie: an old-world sheet-pan apple pie with a tender egg-rich dough, piled with grated apples, brown sugar, and a cinnamon-sugar crust on top.

Apple brownies with fresh chopped apples, cinnamon, and nuts baked into a dense, chewy bar. No chocolate here. The apples release moisture as they bake, creating that signature chewy, blondie-like texture.

Creamy vanilla cheesecake swirled with a cocoa-rich chocolate layer for a gorgeous marbled effect. A slow-cool oven method keeps the top crack-free and silky smooth.

Elegant deep-dish apple pie with homemade almond crust and a dramatic cider pour through the top crust for extra moisture and flavor in every spiced bite.

Six-ingredient oatmeal cookies with butter, orange zest, and almond extract pressed with a fork and baked golden. No flour, naturally gluten-friendly, and impossibly tender with a sandy, melt-away texture.

Chocolate banana peanut butter shake made with a frozen banana, diet chocolate shake mix, and frozen soda cubes blended thick. A frosty, creamy treat without ice cream.

Old-fashioned Canadian jam jam cookies: oatmeal and brown sugar rounds sandwiched around a homemade date filling. A prairie-farmhouse classic with a soft, chewy bite.

Raspberry trifle layers jam-spread ladyfingers, fresh raspberries and split almonds with a homemade wine-laced custard, all crowned with whipped cream. A classic English make-ahead showstopper in a glass bowl.

Roasted curried almonds glazed with mango chutney, turmeric, and curry powder. A 20-minute spiced snack that's golden, crunchy, and ridiculously addictive. Only 4 ingredients.