Dessert recipes

Tender butter cookies studded with chopped fresh strawberries and scented with nutmeg and brandy, dusted in powdered sugar. Little jewel-like bites that melt on the tongue.

No-bake eggnog cheesecake built on a crumb crust, with sieved cottage cheese, gelatin, and whipped cream folded into a spiced eggnog custard. Light, airy, and finished with a dusting of nutmeg.

Puppy Chow is the classic no-bake party snack: Chex cereal coated in melted peanut butter and chocolate, tossed in powdered sugar until every piece looks like a sweet snowdrift. Addictive by the handful.

Maple walnut cookies made from boiled maple syrup, whipped egg whites, sherry, and chopped walnuts. Piped from a pastry tube and baked into crisp, meringue-style cookies.

Amigdala praline is a Greek almond brittle made with blanched almonds caramelized in butter and sugar with a drop of lemon juice. Crush it over tarts and ice cream for a crunchy topping.

Great-Grandma's lemon cake with real butter, lemon zest and juice, and beaten egg whites folded in for a light crumb. A heirloom loaf cake recipe that makes two freezer-friendly loaves.

Homemade poppyseed filling for hamantaschen made from a full pound of ground poppy seeds, honey, sugar, and egg. Traditional Jewish Purim pastry filling from scratch.

No-bake coconut mocha drops with toasted coconut, instant coffee, and powdered sugar microwaved into rich little candies. Five-ingredient bite-sized treats ready in 25 minutes.

Lemon cake pie bakes into two layers from a single batter: a creamy lemon custard on the bottom and a light sponge cake on top. Fresh lemon juice and zest give it bright citrus flavor.

Big, bakery-style chocolate malted cookies loaded with both semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips plus malted milk powder and chocolate syrup. That old-fashioned malt shop flavor in cookie form.

None Such mincemeat cookies: a vintage drop cookie made with crumbled prepared mincemeat folded into a simple shortening dough. Bakes 4 dozen in 12 minutes for the holiday cookie tin.

Brown sugar drop cookies made with buttermilk, shortening, and just seven ingredients. Soft, chewy, and caramelly with a one-hour chill and 10-minute bake.

Pecan shortbread cookies shaped into little ovals and rolled in powdered sugar. Only 4 ingredients, no eggs, mixed by hand, and they melt in your mouth. A Mexican wedding cookie cousin that makes 4 dozen.

Easy magic lemon pie thickens sweetened condensed milk with fresh lemon juice and egg yolks in seconds, no cooking the filling required. Topped with meringue and baked golden in a single shell.

Mom's lemon sponge pie separates as it bakes into a tangy lemon custard layer below and a fluffy cake-like sponge on top. A heritage two-layer pie made with one filling.

Lemon slice pie uses paper-thin slices of the whole lemon (peel and all) baked into a sugary egg custard between two crusts. Like a Shaker lemon pie with surprising bites of citrus marmalade.