Dessert recipes

Lemon bisque is a vintage no-bake dessert: whipped evaporated milk and lemon Jello layered between sweet graham cracker crumbs for a tangy, fluffy refrigerator cake.

Peanut butter pinwheel candy rolls a creamy peanut butter layer inside a sweet powdered-sugar fondant, then slices it into old-fashioned no-bake candy spirals. Just three ingredients.

Diabetic devil's food cake, a reduced-sugar chocolate cake with bloomed cocoa, egg substitute, and added sweetener for rich chocolate flavor without the sugar overload.

Honey popcorn balls bound with real honey and butter, then baked until deep golden and caramel-crisp. An old-fashioned treat with toasty flavor that keeps for up to two weeks.

Jalapeno ice cream made by folding diced jalapenos and lime zest into softened vanilla ice cream. A spicy-sweet frozen dessert with just 3 ingredients and no churning.

Hayes Street Grill apricot crisp tops tart apricots with a cinnamon brown-sugar crumble and bakes until the fruit bubbles golden. San Francisco restaurant classic dessert in under an hour.

Pears Melba with Bosc pears poached in Marsala and dry wine syrup, served over vanilla ice cream with pureed raspberry sauce. A classic French dessert with elegant simplicity.

Pineapple butterscotch cake doctored from pound cake mix and instant butterscotch pudding, topped with crushed pineapple and butterscotch chips. The shortcut potluck cake that always disappears.

Deep-fried cranberry jelly fritters with a light, crispy batter. Canned cranberry jelly gets cut into strips, dredged, battered, and fried golden. A quirky, crowd-pleasing holiday snack.

Fruit dip whipped from marshmallow cream and cream cheese, with strawberry cream cheese for a berry-pink, sweet-and-tangy swirl. A 5-minute dip for apples, strawberries, grapes, and graham crackers.

Cannolis stuffed with cream cheese, mini choc0late chips, and pistachio nuts.

Baked fig and walnut meringue puffs made with whipped egg whites, stewed figs, and broken walnuts. An old-school fruit dessert that bakes up airy and jammy, finished with sweetened whipped cream.

Z Tejas' chile fudge pie copycat: a gooey chocolate-and-nut pie spiked with smoky ancho chile puree for a subtle warmth behind the sweetness. Loaded with toasted pecans, walnuts, and melty chocolate chips.

Classic Bananas Foster with butter, brown sugar, banana liqueur, and white rum, flambéed tableside in a chafing dish. The original New Orleans dessert, ready in 15 minutes.

Chocolate vinegar cake with no eggs or milk, mixed in one bowl using the three-well method, topped with a mocha chocolate frosting made with hot coffee. A Depression-era classic.

Breton brittle, also known as Christmas crack: layered stone-ground wheat crackers under a brown sugar butter toffee, topped with melted chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Five ingredients, irresistibly snappable.