Dessert/7 recipes

Deep-dish apple pie with six cups of cinnamon-spiced sliced apples under a flaky, nutmeg-scented pastry crust brushed with milk and cinnamon sugar. All fruit, no bottom crust.

Applesauce snack cake starts with a box cake mix boosted with applesauce, warm spices, raisins, and nuts for a moist, spiced sheet cake. A semi-homemade shortcut that tastes fully from scratch.

Chocolate leaves made by brushing melted chocolate onto real leaves and peeling away once set. An elegant no-bake garnish for cakes, tarts, and plated desserts.

Warm fruit crisp loaded with sliced apples and plump raisins under a crunchy oat-pecan streusel. Soaking the raisins in boiling water keeps them tender. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

They stay moist, keep beautifully, are the perfect gift or food-bazaar item, and the recipe makes a huge batch.

This is one of the basic dessert sauces. It is luscious simply served with fresh fruit.

Lemon and pistachio Italian style biscotti, perfect with tea or coffee.

Festive raisin tarts with a brown sugar, walnut, and orange juice filling in mini pastry shells. Bite-sized holiday treats similar to butter tarts, topped with whipped cream.

Norwegian cookies (biscotti-style) with chocolate chips and a cinnamon sugar topping. Dough baked in long rolls, then sliced diagonally into crisp strips. One batch makes four dozen.

A rich and delicious cheesecake that's simple to make and easy to enjoy!

Do-ahead sticky buns made with biscuit mix and butterscotch pudding, assembled the night before and baked fresh in the morning. Gooey, caramel-topped, and easy.

No-bake banana chocolate Chantilly pie with French vanilla pudding, cream cheese, whipped cream, and swirls of fudge sauce in a graham cracker crust. 39 reviews and counting.

Spiced molasses hermit bars with apple butter, raisins, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Chewy, warmly spiced, and lighter than traditional hermit cookies.

Rio Grande-style biscocitos with butter, anise seed, and brandy, dusted in cinnamon sugar before baking. Crisp, fragrant, and easy to cut into festive shapes. Makes 3 dozen.

Peanut butter banana chiffon pie with a cloud-like gelatin-set filling lightened by whipped egg whites and cream. Sliced bananas hide under the fluffy peanut butter top in a baked pastry shell.

Vanilla sheet cake split and filled with a whipped butter-shortening cream made with evaporated milk. Cut into squares for individual cream-filled cakes that taste like homemade Twinkies.