Dessert
3903 recipes found
Pistachio-Lemon Bars
These delightful and easy lemon bars have everything the traditional ones do – tang, sweetness and a buttery base – plus the added benefit of pistachios folded into the filling and the crust.
Crisp Toffee Bars
The original recipe for these buttery, basic toffee bars belongs to Maida Heatter, the great American dessert maven of the 20th century. It was adapted for a cast-iron skillet by Charlotte Druckman, who wrote a book on cast-iron baking in 2016. “You can caramelize a crust in cast iron in a way that would never happen in a sheet pan,” she said. Make sure to bake the bars until very well browned across the top; that is the sign that the desired level of crisp chewiness has been achieved. The recipe calls for adding either nuts or chocolate to dough; you can add both if you like, but in that case use a larger cast-iron skillet (or use a plain old 9-by-13-inch baking pan).
Chocolate Soufflé
Some of the most experienced home cooks are afraid of soufflés. They’ll never rise, they’ll immediately fall, they’re difficult to make, they’re temperamental. Yet people do want to make soufflés — or want them made for them. Hence this recipe, which is not only not scary, it’s also easy. It can be made ahead of time, it’s rich and light, it will dazzle your significant other (or anyone else), and it requires no more effort than it takes to beat a few eggs.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
These chocolate peanut butter cups are dangerously simple to make, with just a few ingredients that you probably have in the pantry right now. They come together faster than a trip to the convenience store. And they are completely customizable. Once you’ve gotten your fill of the standard peanut butter cup, try honey-sweetened cashew butter cups. Or cinnamon-spiked almond butter cups. Drizzle the finished cups with a bit of white or milk chocolate, some flaky sea salt or a sprinkle of finely chopped nuts for an upgraded presentation. Or sneak a tiny dollop of raspberry jam underneath the peanut butter layer for another delightfully classic pairing. The possibilities are endless.
Devil’s Food Cake With Black Pepper Buttercream
Like all the best devil’s food cakes, this six-layer beauty has a deeply fudgy flavor and a light and feathery texture. In between the tender cake layers, a black pepper and vanilla buttercream creates a soft and creamy contrast to the dense fudge frosting on the top and sides. With six layers and two frostings, this cake is definitely a project, but one well worth making if you want to impress. And you can make it in stages. The frostings can be made up to a week ahead and stored in the refrigerator. Bring them to room temperature and briefly beat with an electric mixer before assembling the cake. The cake layers themselves can be baked a day ahead. Store them, well-wrapped, at room temperature.
Cranberry-Pear Crumble Bars
Sweet pears and tart cranberries pair perfectly in these treats, which are part bar cookie, and part fruit crisp. Here, both crust and crumble topping are made from the same almond flour-rolled oat mixture mixture, giving it a nutty flavor. Precooking the filling allows the fruit to soften and release some juices ahead of time so the bottom crust stays nice and crisp. The result is a chewy, fruity cookie that just as easily a perfect afternoon snack as it is a paired with some ice cream for dessert. Choose pears that are on the firm side of ripe: Comice and Anjou both work great.
Strawberry Eton Mess
Eton mess is a classic British dessert made of a mixture of fresh fruit, cream and crushed baked meringue. It’s deliciously simple and perfect for lazy summer days when berries are in season and the less time spent in the kitchen the better. Of course, you could make meringue cookies from scratch, but if you choose to buy them, there will be very little work to do. A little lime zest and juice gives this simple dessert an essential sweet-tart edge, though lemon would do the trick as well.
Dark Chocolate-Cherry Ganache Bars
Homemade ganache is just about the easiest chocolate recipe out there, a dead-simple mixture of melted chocolate and hot cream, whisked until smooth, then chilled until fudgy.
Fudgy Nutella Brownies
Generous swirls of chocolate-hazelnut spread put these super decadent brownies straight over the top. Take care to fold the flour in gently and bake them until they are just set for the richest, fudgiest texture.
Frozen Fudge Pops
These easy fudge pops, with a mix of cream and milk, combine the fun of an ice cream truck Popsicle with the sophistication of a rich chocolate ice cream touched with salt. The key is making sure the ingredients are well emulsified in a blender. These will melt quickly so enjoy them right out of the freezer.
Mississippi Mud Pie
Mississippi mud pies come in all shapes and sizes: No two are exactly alike. They can have one layer, or five, and include ice cream or meringue, a flourless cake, nuts, fudge sauce and even brownie. This version, inspired by the towering beauty made by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito of Baked in Brooklyn and written about in their book, "Baked Explorations," features a graham cracker base, a dense brownie, chocolate custard and whipped cream. Needless to say, a little goes a long way. Share it with 16 to 32 of your closest friends. And a tip for serving: To ensure a clean release, give the underside and sides of the cake pan a 10-second blast with a hairdryer.
Peanut Butter Hot Fudge Sundaes
Cold, smooth ice cream, warm peanut buttery hot fudge sauce, crunchy peanuts and light, fluffy whipped cream make this sundae delicious enough for a special occasion but easy enough for a weeknight. For the richest, smoothest fudge, use a bittersweet chocolate with about 70 percent cacao and creamy peanut butter with added salt and sweeteners from brands like Skippy or Jif. You can prepare the sauce a few days in advance to make things even easier on yourself. To serve, top your favorite ice cream with the hot fudge, whipped cream, chopped salted peanuts and maraschino cherries. If you’d like to dress it up more, you can turn it into a banana split or add a few crunchy cookies.
S’mores Crispy Treats
This smile-inducing mash-up of crispy rice treats and s’mores combines the best qualities of both popular sweets. Toasty graham crackers and roasted marshmallows balance the overall sweetness, while melted butter and gooey marshmallows soften the dry graham crackers and brittle chocolate. To make these newfangled sweets, broil the marshmallows until they just start to smoke. Brown the butter to double down on the toastiness, then toss with the marshmallows, graham cereal and chocolate chips, which melt in streaks. After pressing the mixture into a pan, broil the top to get that toasted-over-the-campfire taste.
Date Bars
Native to North Africa and the Middle East, dates were planted in the Coachella Valley in the late 1890s and are now a California crop, with the state growing 90 percent of America’s dates, particularly the medjool variety. “The intense sweetness of dates makes them a great substitute for honey or sugar,” writes Tanya Holland, the chef and author of “Tanya Holland’s California Soul: Recipes From a Culinary Journey West” (Ten Speed Press, 2022). Her date bars from this cookbook feature a gorgeous strip of the beautiful fruit and make a great caky snack to serve alongside coffee or tea.
Salted Caramel Brownies
The salted caramel brownie is an ingenious combination of blond, bittersweet caramel and dark, bittersweet chocolate. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito of New York's Baked bakeries are not the first to note the affinity of caramel and chocolate, but by emphasizing the bitter, sweet and salty notes in both, they’ve made that rare thing — a perfectly balanced bite. The bittersweetness of the caramel can be easily adjusted by cooking it less (for a milder, Kraft-like taste) or more (edgier, stronger).
Easy Chocolate Fudge
“All candy-making is about preventing crystallization,” said Michael Chu, an engineer based in Austin, Tex., who writes about his kitchen experiments online at Cooking for Engineers. Mr. Chu’s chocolate fudge recipe, of which this is an adaptation, has the pleasantly cakey, almost sandy texture desirable in fudge, which can be tricky to achieve using milk and butter. He uses condensed milk to reduce the ingredients in the fudge to a mere three (salt is optional), and to eliminate the dreaded step of cooking the sugar syrup to the soft-ball stage. “The manufacturing process has already done that work for you,” he said.
Chocolate Ganache
Ganache is the French term for the luscious combination of chocolate and cream, and it makes a strategic addition to any dessert playbook. When it’s hot and pourable, it’s a classic companion to ice cream. Warm, you can pour or pipe it over a cake, cupcakes or cookies; it will set to a soft, rich glaze. Let it cool to room temperature and whip it in a mixer to make a fluffy frosting. Or chill it, then roll into balls and dust with cocoa powder to make truffles. This sauce has a slightly more adult flavor than the ice-cream-parlor standard; coffee will do that to a dessert. Leave it out if you prefer. Also note that bittersweet chocolate will deliver a stronger, sharper chocolate taste than semi-sweet. Refrigerate leftovers in a jar; it will keep indefinitely. To rewarm, place the jar in a saucepan half-filled with simmering water, or uncover and heat in microwave at low heat.
Chocolate-Bourbon Truffles
The perfect hedonist dessert is one chocolate truffle, followed by one more. Though these look fancy, they’re actually quite simple to prepare.
Apple Pie
In 2013, one of the great pie makers in New York City was Kierin Baldwin, the pastry chef at The Dutch in the SoHo neighborhood. This recipe is adapted from hers, for a plain apple pie. It benefits from heeding her advice to pre-cook the filling before baking. “Apple pies that have crunchy, raw apples in them are a pet peeve of mine,” Ms. Baldwin said. Peel and core the fruit, cut it into slices, then macerate them in a plume of sugar. Cook these soft with a splash of acid (like lemon juice or cider vinegar) and a hint of cinnamon and allspice, then add some starch to thicken the whole. Allow the mixture to cool completely before using it in the pie. (For everything you need to know to make the perfect pie crust, visit our pie guide.)
Peach Cobbler
Some cobblers can be dry, but not this one. It puts a twist on an old-fashioned recipe, taking parts of the traditional, which uses a biscuit topping, and adding elements of a crisp, like oatmeal, for crunch. Maple syrup replaces the brown sugar usually found in peach cobbler recipes, which brings a lightly woody sweetness; nutmeg and cinnamon add that nostalgic warmth. You can use fresh or frozen peaches here — because you can and should have peach cobbler year-round — and you can even throw in a handful of blueberries, if you have them. But don’t skip the vanilla ice cream: There’s no substitute for that combination of hot and cold.
Iced Coffee Sundaes
This ice cream sundae is born of both Vietnamese cà phê sữa đá, or dark roast coffee dripped over condensed milk, and Italian affogato, or espresso poured over ice cream. Here, a sort of granita made with very strong coffee is layered with a sweetened cream mixture, and then doused in a chocolatey coffee syrup. It’s a relatively lengthy endeavor, but one well worth doing. The individual parts must be made ahead of time, so plan accordingly.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Mesoamerican women are believed to be the first to ferment and roast cacao beans, a crucial step in chocolate making that is still used thousands of years later. Then, it was prepared as a frothy, unsweetened drink for rituals and medicinal purposes. Later, Spanish colonists brought the ingredient back to Spain, where sugar, cinnamon and vanilla were added, making it more similar to the spicy-sweet beverage we know today. This recipe is adapted from Churrería El Moro, a restaurant in Mexico City known for churros and hot chocolate. To get the signature foamy top, use a molinillo, a Mexican wooden whisk, or a wire whisk to make it light and frothy. And while it’s not traditional, you can also put the hot chocolate in a blender for about 2 minutes.
Creamy Vegan Hot Chocolate
For a vegan hot chocolate that rivals even the creamiest dairy-laden variety, add a few tablespoons of nut butter like almond, sunflower or peanut to the nondairy milk, chocolate chips and cocoa powder. Whisking is also essential here; nondairy products tend to contain stabilizers that keep them emulsified, so they can separate when boiled. If you keep whisking the mix as it heats and remove it from the stove when it’s nice and steaming, but before it boils, you’ll end up with perfectly smooth hot chocolate. Don’t worry if it breaks: You can simply blend it with a whisk or immersion blender over low heat to bring it back together.
