Baked goods recipes

Old-fashioned double-lemon cake: a tender butter cake made with zest-infused lemon sugar, soaked in hot lemon-sugar glaze, and finished with lemon frosting. Served with rum-kissed lemon-zested strawberries for a bright spring dessert.

Company apple pie is a three-pie batch showstopper with a sugar crust, lemony apple filling, caramel sauce stripes, cream cheese topping, and chopped walnuts. Built to feed a crowd.

Rich mahogany chocolate pound cake with cocoa, sour cream, and both white and brown sugar, baked in a bundt pan. Dense, moist, and deeply chocolatey with an optional quick chocolate sauce.

Three-layer chocolate caramel bars with a fudgy brownie base, gooey pecan caramel topping, and a lacy semi-sweet chocolate drizzle. Makes 54 bars that store beautifully for 10 days. Think homemade turtle candy in cookie bar form.

A kosher-for-Passover chocolate fudge torte: a flourless matzo-meal sponge layered with rich chocolate fudge frosting. Dairy-free and parve, rising on whipped egg whites instead of leavening.

Chocolate cake made with mashed potatoes for an incredibly moist, dense crumb. Unsweetened chocolate melted in milk and whipped egg whites keep it light.

Sweet roll and doughnut dough is a versatile yeasted sponge that can be fried into glazed doughnuts or baked into soft dinner rolls. Two desserts from one dough.

The surprise? Sauerkraut. Rinsed and squeezed dry, it melts invisibly into this spiced apple cake, adding incredible moisture. With cinnamon, nutmeg, Granny Smith apple, and chopped pecans, nobody will ever guess the secret.

Chocolate diamond cookies with unsweetened chocolate, pecans, and vanilla. A fudgy, brownie-like holiday cookie baked in one pan and cut into festive diamond shapes.

Soft oatmeal cookies loaded with raisins and chopped nuts, warm with cinnamon and allspice. Old-school drop cookies with chewy centers and crisp golden edges.

Chocolate chips and pecans bake into a rich, gooey filling spiked with bourbon and vanilla for a Southern-style pie that's part chocolate chip cookie, part pecan pie.

Babe's Apple Cake is a rustic, wholesome treat made with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, diced apples, walnuts, and warm cinnamon-nutmeg spice. Dense, moist, and barely sweet enough to call dessert.

Crunchy Italian orange almond biscotti, twice-baked for that signature snap and loaded with toasted almonds and bright orange zest. A no-butter cookie made for dunking in coffee or vin santo.

Texas-style pecan pie with a secret cornmeal addition for texture, both light and dark corn syrup for depth, and vanilla butternut extract. Gooey, crunchy, and piled with whipped cream.

Nesselrode pudding pie with a rum-spiked custard, whipped egg whites, and Nesselrode mix set in a pie shell and topped with chocolate shavings. A classic, elegant chilled holiday dessert.

Peanut muffins with a hidden jelly surprise: tender peanut-studded muffins baked around a molten pocket of fruit jam and topped with a crunchy peanut sprinkle. PB and J in muffin form, ready in about 45 minutes.