22 magic recipes

Add some magic to your meat loaf with this simple recipe that will instantly become one of your favorites.

Magic cookie bars layered with graham cracker crumbs, walnuts, chocolate chips, flaked coconut, and sweetened condensed milk. Six ingredients, no mixing, and no special skills for a gooey, chewy bar cookie.

Master magic lemon pie sets sweetened condensed milk with fresh lemon juice and zest, no cooking required for the filling. Crowned with a billowy meringue over a cinnamon-graham crust.

Pasta shells Florentine stuffed with a spinach, mozzarella, cottage cheese, and Parmesan filling seasoned with nutmeg, baked under spaghetti sauce. A vegetarian stuffed shell dinner that's easy to assemble ahead of time.

Beef and bacon chili browns ground beef in rendered bacon fat with pinto beans, picante sauce, and tomatoes for a smoky weeknight chili. The bacon is the magic. Ready in an hour.

Chocolate Twinkie cake with a fluffy homemade cream filling sandwiched between layers of chocolate pudding cake. Uses a box mix for easy baking but the from-scratch filling is where the magic happens.

Aunt E.C.'s pound cake is a true four-ingredient pound cake: butter, sugar, eggs, flour. No leavener, no liquid, no flavorings, just pure creaming-method magic baked in a tube pan to a tall, golden, tender cake.

Hot fudge pudding cake that creates its own chocolate sauce as it bakes. A cocoa and honey batter topped with brown sugar and cocoa, then doused with hot water. Magic happens in the oven.

Chewy Rolo cookie bars: a yellow cake mix base studded with halved Rolo candies that melt into rivers of chocolate caramel. Five-ingredient bake-sale magic.

Hidden treasure chocolate chip cookies made with graham cracker crumbs, coconut, sweetened condensed milk, and semi-sweet chips. Tastes like a magic bar in cookie form.

Five-ingredient magic bars with a soda cracker base, coconut, chocolate chips, nuts, and sweetened condensed milk. No mixing bowl needed. Ready in 30 minutes.

Hot fudge pudding cake that bakes its own chocolate sauce underneath. A vintage one-pan dessert where cocoa batter and a sugar-cocoa sauce magically separate in the oven.

Buttery cookies hiding a whole Andes mint inside, wrapped in soft dough and topped with a pecan half for surprise chocolate-mint magic in every bite.

Hello Dollies are layered magic cookie bars with vanilla wafer crust, pecans, coconut, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and sweetened condensed milk baked until gooey and golden.

Blender-easy Thai green curry paste made with fresh green chilies, lemongrass, galangal, purple shallots, and cilantro. Blend everything smooth, store refrigerated, and you've got curry magic ready.

A bold beef barbecue sauce simmered with beer, chili sauce, pimento-stuffed olives, and butter. Briny, tangy, and ready in 15 minutes. Makes 1½ cups of pure backyard magic.