Dessert/5 recipes

Serve another kind of side dish with this tasty recipe that's extremely easy to follow.

Banana walnut snack cake starts with a cake mix and adds mashed banana, buttermilk, and chopped walnuts. A quick semi-homemade cake that tastes like banana bread.

Southern lemon pecan fruitcake with candied pineapple and cherries. A lighter, brighter alternative to dark rum fruitcake, loaded with nuts and citrus.

Classic cream cheesecake on a buttery graham cracker crust with sour cream in the filling and a sweetened sour cream topping. Dense, smooth, and crack-resistant.

Twice-baked almond biscotti packed with walnuts and optional chocolate swirl. Crisp, crunchy Jewish cookies perfect for dunking in coffee or tea.

A from-scratch cheesecake with a buttery lemon shortbread crust, rich cream cheese filling, and homemade tart cherry sauce. This is the cheesecake you make when you mean business.

Ginger molasses cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar with a crackled top. Loaded with ginger, cloves, and cinnamon for bold spice. Underbake for soft centers or bake full for snaps.

Sugar-free apple pie sweetened entirely by plumped raisins and spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. A naturally sweet double-crust pie with no added sugar.

Easy bundt cake made with yellow cake mix, orange Jell-O, apricot nectar, and chopped nuts. Finished with a tart sour orange glaze. Mix everything in one bowl, bake, and glaze. Serves 8.

Chocolate potato cake made with hot mashed potatoes for an incredibly moist crumb, cocoa, cinnamon, and folded egg whites. Finished with tangy cream cheese frosting.

A clever single-serving microwave pavlova rolled with whipped topping and fresh strawberries. Light, crisp meringue meets soft fruit in this low-calorie, gluten-free treat that's ready in 20 minutes.

Almond Roca bars layer a buttery shortbread base under melted Hershey chocolate and chopped almonds. The classic potluck cookie that mimics the famous toffee candy in cookie-bar form.

Frozen chocolate souffle cake: a flourless cocoa meringue base topped with rum-whipped cream and chocolate chips, chilled overnight, then served straight from the freezer. Airy, rich, unusual.

Oven-Baked Rum-Raisin-Apple Graham-Cracker Pie recipe

Blue corn sopapillas made with whole wheat flour, blue cornmeal, yeast, and honey. Rolled thin and fried until puffy and golden, these New Mexican pillows of dough are irresistible drizzled with honey.

Nusskipferl are Austrian yeast-leavened crescent cookies filled with sweet ground nut meringue. A traditional Viennese coffeehouse pastry rolled jelly-roll style and curved into delicate horns.