Dessert/7 recipes

California ricotta cake: devil's food cake layers brushed with orange liqueur, filled and frosted with sweet ricotta whipped with cream, orange zest, almonds, and chocolate chips.

Golden apricot rice pudding baked in individual molds with a brown sugar and dried apricot bottom that becomes a caramel topping when unmolded. Elegant and simple.

From-scratch pumpkin pie with fresh or canned pumpkin, dark brown sugar, molasses, raisins, and toasted pecans. Richer and more complex than the back-of-the-can version.

Honey orange biscotti with pecans, orange juice concentrate, and orange zest, twice-baked until crunchy. A low-fat Italian cookie perfect for dipping in coffee or tea.

Almond crisp bars with rolled oats, coconut, and toasted almond pieces in a buttery brown sugar base. Six ingredients pressed into a pan, baked, and cut while warm into chewy-crisp squares.

Almond crescent cookies with toasted ground almonds and a tender shortbread base, finished with a chocolate drizzle or powdered sugar dusting. A Christmas cookie tin classic that holds for a week or more.

Make-ahead chocolate chip cookie dough that keeps in the fridge for up to 4 weeks. Sour cream keeps them soft and chewy, pecans add crunch, and you can bake a fresh batch whenever the craving hits.

Three-layer pumpkin bars built on a yellow cake mix base with spiced pumpkin custard center and a buttery cake-mix streusel top. Makes 24 bars in a 9x13 pan.

Apple streusel squares with a buttery shortbread crust, cinnamon-raisin sauteed apples, and a pecan-brown sugar crumble topping. Three layers of fall flavor in every bar.

Light pumpkin praline cheesecake: low-fat cottage cheese stands in for cream cheese, wheat germ replaces graham crumbs in the crust, and pumpkin pie spice carries the flavor. Topped with maple-drizzled pecans.

These cookies have many names: Butterballs, Russian Teacakes, etc. In New Mexico, they are "Polvorones" which is Spanish for "Dust Balls".

Peach crumb cake with an almond paste pound cake base, fresh peach slices, brown sugar crumb topping, and sliced almonds. Dense, buttery, and freezer-friendly for up to a month.

Almond marble cake with swirls of cocoa through a light, airy batter made with real almond paste and whipped egg whites. Topped with sliced almonds and baked golden in a loaf pan.

Three-layer chocolate almond cake with cocoa buttermilk layers, almond cream filling, and rich chocolate frosting. A showstopper from-scratch layer cake.

Turtles cheesecake with chopped caramel-pecan chocolates folded into a brown sugar cream cheese filling on a buttery pecan crust. Rich, indulgent, and topped with whole Turtles.

Viennese cookies with pecans, chocolate chips, lemon zest, cloves, and cinnamon in a buttery brown sugar dough. Tiny, crisp drop cookies baked in under 8 minutes.