Dessert
3842 recipes found
Denver Chocolate Sheet Cake
Since the 1950s, when the Junior League first started publishing cookbooks to raise money for charity, it has sold hundred of millions of copies. This recipe came to The New York Times in 2003 from the Denver chapter: a basic chocolate sheet-cake of tremendous moistness that's very easy to make. It is meant to have a very mild, milk chocolate flavor, but if you prefer a bit more depth, double or even triple the cocoa in the cake and frosting.
Buttermilk Banana Pudding With Salted Peanuts
Banana pudding typically sits on the sweeter side of the dessert spectrum. Despite layers of instant pudding, vanilla cookies, sliced bananas and meringue or whipped cream, the sweet snack can feel a little one-note. But with a few simple tweaks and some new ingredients, it can feel fresh. The addition of buttermilk gives the custard a tangy zip of acidity, and tossing the Nilla Wafers with salted brown butter imparts a nutty, caramel-like flavor. Sour cream is incorporated into the whipped-cream topping, which helps the heavy cream stay firm while refrigerated and turning this into a fail-proof make-ahead dish. Garnishing the top with some more crushed cookies and chopped salted peanuts provides the pudding with crunch.
Bittersweet Brownie Shortbread
These chewy bar cookies combine two all-time favorites: crumbly, buttery shortbread and bittersweet brownies. Nut lovers can mix almonds, pecans or walnuts into the brownie batter, which gives the bars a delightful crunch. But those who prefer savoring the smooth, gooey centers of their brownies can easily leave them out. In any case, be sure not to overbake the brownies. As soon as the top sets, they’re done.
Apple Sheet Cake With Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
This lightly spiced apple cake comes together in no time at all, and a few swoops of fluffy cinnamon cream cheese frosting dress it up for dessert. As written, this recipe yields a modest amount of frosting, so frosting lovers may want to double the recipe. Make sure to use fresh cinnamon for this recipe (and all of your fall baking) to get the best results.
Cranberry Lemon Bars
Cranberries that are quick-cooked into jam add a striking magenta color and complex tartness to these two-toned lemon bars. A thin layer of the classic lemon filling coats the cranberry mix like icing, and lemon zest boiled with the berries echoes the citrus taste of the lemony top. (Its pectin also thickens the jam.) To achieve a sturdy crust that isn’t tough, melted butter is stirred into a flour blend and simply patted into the pan. That vanilla cookie base, generously salted to balance the tangy sweetness on top, comes out crisp and holds up well even as the bars keep in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Cherry Yum-Yum
If its name is any indication, this retro Southern no-bake dessert maximizes flavor — and it does so while minimizing time, effort and ingredients. Layers of graham cracker crust, tangy cream cheese and canned cherry pie filling create a dessert that straddles a no-bake cheesecake and a classic trifle. The graham cracker crust sets as it chills, lending both texture and a toasty flavor that balances the rich dairy and the sweet pie filling. Almond extract, though optional, complements the cherries perfectly. Yum-yum is the perfect blank canvas party dessert — you can amend it with different cookie bases (Oreos or gingersnaps); flavorings in the cream (Kirsch or almond liqueur); and pie fillings (apple or berry) to suit all seasons and tastes.
Magic Cookie Bars
Coconut dream bars. Magic cookie bars. Hello Dolly bars. You’ve seen these classic treats at bake sales, holiday parties and potlucks over the years. But they tend to crumble when cut, thanks to a thin graham cracker crust. And, topped with gobs of super-sweet shredded coconut, sweetened condensed milk and semisweet chocolate, they have a cloying bite that may be too much for even the sweetest tooth. This version starts with a thicker graham cracker cookie base. It's baked with an egg, a bit of brown sugar and some leavener, which makes it pleasantly dense and chewy and means that it cuts nicely and stands up well to the decadent toppings. Next, unsweetened flaked coconut and dark chocolate are layered with plenty of chopped pecans and condensed milk. The slightly bitter chocolate and toasty coconut tame the sweetness of the condensed milk, which caramelizes as it cooks, making the whole package well-balanced and full of flavor.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
A simple cheesecake recipe that requires no water bath or springform pan and tastes like a creamy pumpkin pie. Baked in a 9-by-13-inch pan, these are sliced into bars that are easy to serve and eat. If you want to make them a bit fancier, you can reserve some of the plain cheesecake batter to swirl into the pumpkin batter just before baking.
Sugar Cookie Bars
These sugar cookie bars, which are adapted from “American Girl Cookies,” are happiness in a 9-by-13 pan. The addition of cream cheese in the batter makes them very tender and slightly tangy, a perfect counterpoint to the sweet buttercream frosting. You can, and should, experiment with frosting colors and use sprinkles with abandon. Whatever you do, do not overbake these beauties. When testing for doneness, you want a few moist crumbs to cling to the toothpick.
Atlantic Beach Pie
Like a dreamy mash-up between a key lime and lemon meringue pie, this surprisingly fast and easy dessert is adapted from Bill Smith, who retired in 2019 after 25 years as the chef at Crook’s Corner, a Chapel Hill, N.C. restaurant that closed in June 2021. He was inspired by the lemon pies he ate at seafood restaurants in Atlantic Beach, N.C., while vacationing there as a child. While a food processor makes quick work of the saltine cracker crust, you don’t really need any special equipment — you can just as easily make it with your hands. Top it with whipped cream just before serving, and if you’re feeling flush, sprinkle it with flaky sea salt as they did at Crook's Corner, and citrus zest as we do: a lazy summer’s day in pie form.
Blueberry Pie Bars
At first glance, these bars may look like every other fruit crumble bar you’ve had, but they have a secret. Between the jammy fruit and buttery shortbread is a bonus layer of sweetened cream cheese you never knew you needed until now. Wild blueberries are less watery than conventional blueberries and have a more concentrated blueberry flavor that works beautifully in this recipe. They are available frozen and need not be thawed before using, but you can use whichever variety you find. These bars will be delicious no matter what.
Dolester Miles’ Coconut Pecan Cake
This is a rich, special-occasion cake that takes the traditional Southern coconut cake to another level, with ground toasted pecans in the batter and an easy-to-make Chantilly cream for frosting. It has become the signature dessert for Dolester Miles, who serves slices over a little puddle of crème anglaise at Chez Fonfon and Bottega, and sometimes at the Highlands Bar & Grill, the Birmingham, Ala., restaurants owned by Frank and Pardis Stitt. Assembly can be a challenge, so she suggests building the cake by stacking the delicate slabs of cake with filling in between each layer into a deep, round cake pan, then slipping it into the refrigerator for about an hour. The filling acts like a delicious glue. When the cake is inverted and unmolded, the edges have an even, professional appearance.
Gingery Mixed Berry Pie
Mixed berry pie is the ultimate summertime treat: Handfuls of the season’s finest blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are tucked into a crisp, buttery crust that’s just begging to be served with a scoop of ice cream. Fresh ginger lends unexpected warmth and spice to this well-loved classic, but for a little punch, add up to 1 tablespoon of very finely minced candied ginger. If you find yourself short on one type of berry, make up the difference with another — just make sure the berries are the best you can find. For a crisp bottom crust, bake the pie in the lower third of your oven until it is deeply golden and the fruit juices are bubbling, and don’t skip the lattice top. It’s not just for looks: The vents help steam escape and the berry juices to concentrate.
Peanut Butter Pie
Dead simple to make, this pie hits all the right notes. Sweet, nutty peanut butter mellows next to the tang of rich cream cheese and gets a lift from a little whipped cream. But if that doesn’t convince you, the chocolate cookie crust may. This version relies on five ingredients, instead of pre-made cookies, with the cocoa giving it a deep chocolate flavor. The crust is pressed into a well-buttered pie plate, baked, then cooled, ready to be filled and chilled. When it's time to serve, you have options: Finish it with a decorative chocolate topping or a puff of lightly sweetened whipped cream and a sprinkling of cocoa powder.
Nectarine and Blueberry Galette
The charm of a galette, a casual open-faced tart, is in its imperfections. It's O.K. if the fruit juices leak a little, and there is no fussy crust-crimping for those who find that part of pie-making frustrating. The often-overlooked nectarine is such a perfect summer fruit. It has all the honeyed sweetness of a peach, minus that fuzzy skin, plus a little hit of tartness, and it pairs beautifully with dark, sweet blueberries. The sugar here is given in a range: Use the smaller amount if your fruit is particularly sweet, the larger amount if it’s tart.
Original Plum Torte
The Times published Marian Burros’s recipe for Plum Torte every September from 1983 until 1989, when the editors determined that enough was enough. The recipe was to be printed for the last time that year. “To counter anticipated protests,” Ms. Burros wrote a few years later, “the recipe was printed in larger type than usual with a broken-line border around it to encourage clipping.” It didn’t help. The paper was flooded with angry letters. “The appearance of the recipe, like the torte itself, is bittersweet,” wrote a reader in Tarrytown, N.Y. “Summer is leaving, fall is coming. That's what your annual recipe is all about. Don't be grumpy about it.” We are not! And we pledge that every year, as summer gives way to fall, we will make sure that the recipe is easily available to one and all. The original 1983 recipe called for 1 cup sugar; the 1989 version reduced that to 3/4 cup. We give both options below. Here are five ways to adapt the torte.
Edna Lewis’s Peach Cobbler
This delicious cobbler, which features pie crust instead of a biscuit or cake topping, is designed to let the incandescent flavor of summer peaches shine, and it’s best made when they are in season. Edna Lewis, the cookbook author and chef from Virginia whose books are considered definitive in the Southern culinary canon, often suggested a lattice top for it, with bits of raw dough tucked into the filling before baking. Those bits cook into tender dumplings while thickening the fruit juice. Serve the result warm with ice cream or whipped cream, or all by itself.
Blackberry Corn Cobbler
This cobbler substitutes fresh, juicy kernels and corn milk for traditional heavy cream, taking advantage of the sweetness of seasonal corn and adding texture to a buttery crust. Grating two large ears of corn should produce enough liquid for the topping, but, if not, you can grate a third ear, or add cream or milk. The rich, crumbly crust also gets some of its moisture from the filling, which is extra syrupy from the mashed blackberries. Serve the cobbler warm with a splash of heavy cream, a dollop of coconut yogurt, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Finishing it all off with a drizzle of dark rum, while not necessary, is especially sweet.
Pastelitos (Guava and Cream Cheese Pastries)
In Havana — and in Cuban neighborhoods across the U.S. — pastry shops make many types of cakes and cookies, but the best-sellers are always the pastels and pastelitos, flaky pastries filled with meat, cheese, coconut custard or guava jam. According to “Paladares: Recipes from the Private Restaurants, Home Kitchens, and Streets of Cuba” by Anya von Bremzen (Abrams, 2017), the shape of the pastel correlates with the filling: Triangular pastels are filled with guava paste and cheese, while rectangular ones are filled with just guava. Versailles, a Cuban restaurant in Miami, follows this rule, but at home, just make them rectangular, and add a swipe of cream cheese if desired. You can find guava paste in bricks at Latin American grocers, or swap in about 1/2 cup jam or preserves for a nontraditional take.
Summer Berry Buckle
Softer and more fruit-filled than a coffeecake, but with a higher percentage of buttery batter than a cobbler, buckles are harder to classify than they are to make. This one is tender, moist and filled with sweet summer berries. But feel free to substitute any other juicy fruit that you like: peaches, nectarines, figs, plums or pineapple. If your fruit is very sweet (figs, pineapple), reduce the sugar by a couple of tablespoons, while tart fruit (plums or tart blackberries) may need an extra tablespoon. Buckles are best eaten on the same day they are baked. But since they come together so quickly, you don’t have to plan ahead.
Lane Cake
This version of the classic Southern cake takes all of fruitcake’s best elements — bourbon-soaked dried fruit, toasty pecans and shredded coconut — and weaves them into a rich, custardy filling set between three layers of tender vanilla cake. It’s a special occasion dessert and a nightcap, all rolled into one. Acetate strips (see Tip) are useful for holding the layers in place while assembling, but if finding them is too much of a bother, use parchment or follow the instructions to assemble the cake without the strips. The flavor of this cake improves with time, so allow a few hours — or even a few days — before slicing and enjoying.
Lemon-Blueberry Bars
Fresh blueberries make these lemon bars a bit sweeter than usual, and very jammy, but without compromising their essential acidity. The grated lime zest gives the curd another note of citrus complexity. But if you’d rather leave out the lime, use more lemon zest. Or try playing with orange and grapefruit zests. The filling stays pretty soft in these tender bars, so it’s best to keep them in the fridge until right before serving, then dust with powdered sugar at the last minute.
Lemon Bundt Cake
This is a big, bold lemony cake that uses the zest, juice and flesh of lemons for an extrapuckery bite. A thin layer of crackly lemon glaze coats the whole cake for a beautiful and delicious finish. Serve this cake as is, or add some berries and whipped cream to dress it up. It tastes even better the next day, so feel free to make it ahead. Since it makes use of the lemon skins, use organic or unwaxed lemons if you can.
The Crunchiest Summer Fruit Crumble
The secret to this fruit crumble is to bake the sweet, cinnamon-scented topping separately, to dry it out. Then when you pile those crumbs over a mound of juicy summer fruit, they won’t absorb as much liquid, and stay crisp and cookielike. You can make the crumbs a day ahead. But the crumble is best baked on the day you serve it, preferably while still a little warm and brimming with syrupy fruit. Make sure to taste your fruit before adding the sugar. Sweeter fruit like strawberries, cherries and blueberries need less sugar than tart plums and nectarines. A spoonful of whipped cream or ice cream makes this even better.