Goose recipes

Van's Faves are crisp lace-thin oat cookies scented with orange zest and finished with a chocolate drizzle. Eight ingredients, big crunch, and an old-fashioned tin-cookie feel.

Melting moments cookies sandwich tender coconut shortbreads with orange buttercream and dip half in chocolate. Buttery, citrusy, and chocolate-finished sandwich cookies for tea or holiday plates.

Basic cheesecake recipe done right: three pounds of cream cheese, sour cream, heavy cream, and a foil-wrapped water bath for the silkiest, crackless slice you'll ever cut.

French baguette bread with a crackling crust and chewy open crumb, made from a simple yeast dough you can shape into baguettes, boules, or herbed loaves. Bakery-style results from your home oven.

Sugarless applesauce cake sweetens with raisins, dried fruit, and unsweetened applesauce instead of granulated sugar. A diabetic-friendly bundt cake spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Buttermilk orange tube cake studded with pecans and soaked while warm in a hot rum-orange-lemon syrup. A boozy, citrus-forward bundt with a moist, melt-in-the-mouth crumb.

Terry's turtle cake layers chocolate cake with melted caramel, chocolate chips, and pecans, then tops with more batter for a gooey caramel center. A church potluck classic on a doctored cake mix base.

Walnut fudge cookies (British-style biscuit fingers): a buttery shortbread base studded with walnuts and topped with a quick brown sugar fudge. Tea-time treat that slices clean.

Light ricotta cheesecake swaps cream cheese for ricotta and buttermilk, finished with fresh orange zest. The crust is graham crackers spiced with ground ginger. Italian-leaning, lighter version.

Crustless Oreo cheesecake with chunks of cookie folded right into the batter and a cookie-crumb top. Baked in a water bath until silky, then flipped so the bottom becomes the top.

Chocolate syrup cake bakes up moist and rich with a thin batter that turns into a fudgy 9x13 sheet cake. A vintage one-bowl dessert built around a full bottle of chocolate syrup.

Walnut cake is a traditional European-style flourless nut torte made with ground walnuts, crushed biscuits, and 8 separated eggs. Layered with apricot jam and frosted with vanilla whipped cream.

Gingerbread cookies in a gingerbread bowl: edible holiday centerpiece of spiced gingerbread shaped into a fluted bowl and filled with matching cut-out cookies. A holiday gift-giving showstopper.

Summer celebration chocolate cake swaps some oil for applesauce in a buttermilk-cocoa sheet cake, topped with quick chocolate frosting. A potluck-ready eggless crowd-pleaser.

Peanut butter cookies made with sugar replacement for a lower-sugar treat. Classic creamed margarine and peanut butter base, criss-crossed with a floured glass and baked to tender-edged gold.

Chocolate toffee icebox cake layers crisp chocolate wafers with vanilla pudding cream and crunchy Heath bar bits. A no-bake make-ahead dessert that slices into striking dark and creamy ribbons.