Dessert recipes

Buttery pretzel-shaped cookies made with powdered sugar, egg whites, and vanilla, baked golden and drizzled with an optional chocolate frosting. A fun twist on classic butter cookies.

Homemade fig newtons with a chewy brown-sugar cookie wrapped around real fig jam cooked with lemon. The classic lunchbox cookie made fresh, no preservatives required.

Chocolate chip tea sandwiches: a chewy brown-sugar blondie bar studded with chocolate chips, baked in a sheet pan and cut into dainty squares for tea, showers, or bake sales.

Soft, cake-like apricot cookies with jewel-toned jam centers that bake up tender and light. Chopped dried apricots in the dough add chewy bits of fruit throughout each cookie.

Classic rolled sugar cookie cutouts with a tender butter-and-cream dough, sprinkled with red and green colored sugar before baking. Holiday cookie-tin staple.

Fancy spritz cookies are tender, buttery pressed cookies enriched with ground almonds and almond extract for a marzipan-like flavor. Shape them with a cookie press into pretty holiday wreaths and stars.

Krumiri: Piedmontese piped butter cornmeal cookies from Casale Monferrato, Italy. Crisp, mustache-shaped shortbread with a distinct golden crunch and subtle vanilla flavor.

Chewy oatmeal cookie dough shaped into snowmen and decorated for the holidays. A fun winter baking project for kids that makes four big cookie snowmen.

Pecan crescents, buttery melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies rich with finely chopped pecans and a hint of nutmeg, shaped into little crescents. A cornstarch-tender holiday cookie in the wedding-cookie family.

Carob and chocolate chip cookies with cake flour, oat flour, and turbinado sugar. A health-leaning take on the classic with hearty texture and gentler sweetness.

Crispy meringue cookies loaded with semi-sweet chocolate chips. Low-and-slow baked at 300°F for hours until golden and crunchy. A nostalgic treat that melts in your mouth with chocolatey pockets throughout.

Hazelnut spritz cookies pressed into delicate rings, baked until pale gold, and dipped in dark chocolate. A European-style holiday cookie for cookie trays and gift tins.

Fudgy chocolate brownies with walnuts and a blender-made unsweetened chocolate frosting. Two-stage chocolate hit with rich crackly top and creamy frosting.

Snowdrop chocolate crinkle cookies with unsweetened chocolate, oil, and a powdered sugar coating that cracks open as they bake. Holiday cookie classic.

A simple, no-frills biscotti recipe. My mother gave this recipe to me. It's easy, quick, easy, and one of my preferred Italian cookie recipes.

Classic five-ingredient pound cake with butter, sugar, eggs, cake flour, and vanilla. No leavening needed, just pure, dense, buttery simplicity.