Dessert/7 recipes

Chocolate torte sweetened with fruit-based concentrates instead of refined sugar, layered with cream cheese filling and whipped cream, topped with sliced strawberries.

Appalachian stack cake is a 10-layer mountain heirloom: molasses-spice cookie layers pressed together with dried apple filling. Best after three days of resting.

Stack cake is an Appalachian multi-layer molasses cake with applesauce filling spread between thin layers, topped with whipped cream and chopped nuts. A pioneer wedding-table classic.

Vermont apple pie with layered tart apples, gingersnap-crumb streusel, crunchy walnuts, and a final pour of pure maple syrup. A New England-style heritage pie with deep fall flavors.

Strawberry ice cream pie with a spiced shortbread crust and a swirl of warm fudge topping. Make-ahead frozen dessert that comes together in under 30 minutes.

Sour cream apple pie with a cinnamon-spiced shortbread crust and a buttery walnut streusel top. McIntosh apples bake into a custardy filling that sets up creamy under the crunchy walnut topping.

Southern cream apple pie with par-cooked tart apples in a sour cream custard, finished under the broiler with a buttery flour topping. Makes two 9-inch deep-dish pies for a crowd.

Favourite sour cream apple pie tosses tart apples in a vanilla sour cream custard, then crowns it with a crunchy walnut-cinnamon sugar topping. No butter in the topping means a cleaner, crispier nut crust.

A dense, cinnamon-spiced apple cake loaded with walnuts and diced apples, soaked in a hot buttermilk sauce that seeps into every crumb. Old-fashioned baking at its finest.

Mom's pumpkin cookies loaded with chocolate chips, chopped maraschino cherries, and cinnamon. Soft, cakey drop cookies with 3 cups of pumpkin for a moist fall treat.

Soft gingerbread cake with lard and butter for tender crumb, spiced with ginger and cinnamon, baked until edges pull away from the pan.

Apple cake with a cinnamon-nut streusel topping, chopped apples folded into a brown sugar batter with sour milk. A tender, spiced sheet cake for fall baking.

M&M cookie pizza made with an oatmeal cookie base, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts, topped with colorful M&Ms. A giant cookie baked in round cake pans and sliced like pizza.

Pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with rolled oats, canned pumpkin, cinnamon, and semisweet chocolate chips. Soft, cake-like fall cookies. Yields 48.

Oatmeal coconut cake with a soft cinnamon-spiced crumb and a broiled brown-sugar coconut-nut topping that bubbles into a chewy caramel crown. Lazy Daisy-style, the way grandma made it.

Old-fashioned sour cream cookies with raisins, nuts, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Soft, cake-like drop cookies made with brown sugar and cake flour for an extra tender crumb.