Dessert/4 recipes

Fresh bananas and Bartlett pears drizzled with melted vanilla ice cream as a ready-made custard sauce, topped with chopped pecans. No cooking, no custard-making. The ice cream is the sauce.

Lemon chiffon pie folds whipped egg whites into a tart lemon-gelatin custard for a cloud-light, no-bake pie filling. Crowned with sweetened whipped cream in a baked shell.

Blueberry drop cookies fold fresh blueberries and bright lemon zest into a soft cake-style dough, then bake into pillowy, fruit-studded rounds. A summer cookie that's halfway to a muffin top.

Fruit custard pie pours a silky scalded-milk custard into a pastry shell, then tops it with fresh berries that sink and bake into pockets of jammy fruit. A simple British-style dessert with six pantry ingredients.

Spritzgeback are classic German pressed butter cookies flavored with almond extract. Pipe them through a cookie press for decorative shapes, then bake until just golden.

Cooked coconut pecan icing made with evaporated milk, sugar, and margarine. A thick, buttery frosting with toasted coconut and pecans, poured over hot cake.

Frozen grasshopper ice cream pie with a chocolate wafer crust, vanilla ice cream layer, and a fluffy mint-and-chocolate liqueur topping. Boozy retro showstopper that's made days ahead.

In a Cretan zacharoplasteion (sweet shop), we were so intrigued by these coconut pastries (among the newer breed) that I tried them at home. You can expect the potato pastry to be a bit difficult to manipulate, and you can also anticipate compliments on the results. Attractive and tasty, not excessively sweet.

Apricot drop cookies fold chopped dried apricots into a quick brown-sugar batter brightened with orange juice and zest. Soft, chewy drops with bursts of fruit in every bite.

Four-layer coconut cake with coconut cream pudding filling, chopped macadamia nuts, whipped cream frosting, and shredded coconut pressed all over. A showstopper from a cake mix.

Lemon butter biscotti: buttery lemon-zest dough rounds layered with microwave vanilla pastry cream in cupcake pans, then baked into individual lemon cream pastries.

Macadamia mandelbrot with orange juice, orange zest, and almond extract, twice-baked into crisp, crunchy cookies. A tropical twist on the classic Jewish biscotti.

Melomacarona, traditional Greek honey cookies made with oil instead of butter, dipped in warm honey syrup and topped with chopped walnuts. Egg-free and butter-free.

Buttery shortbread sticks with ground almonds baked into the dough and a crunchy almond-sugar topping. These elegant little cookies snap with a satisfying crumble and make 3 dozen in under an hour.

Blueberry batter cake bakes its own sauce as boiling water poured over a sugar-cornstarch topping creates a syrupy blueberry layer beneath the risen cake. A self-saucing pudding cake.

Apple or pear upside-down cake baked in a cast iron pan with a buttery base and golden caramelized fruit. A simple six-ingredient cake with crisp sugary edges and tender fruit on top.