Dessert
3921 recipes found
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Mocha Tres Leches Cake
The bold flavors of chocolate and coffee shine through in this luxurious mocha tres leches cake.
Sheer Khorma (Cardamom Vermicelli Pudding)
Essential to Eid celebrations across South Asia, the tradition of preparing this dish is unique to each household. They all result in a creamy pudding, with ghee-fried vermicelli simmered in sweet milk, cloves, cardamom and fried slivered nuts. Stirring the blend in a heavy pot ensures even heat distribution to develop a creamy, almost caramelized texture. The value of blanching and slivering nuts is to achieve a crispness that far exceeds that of nuts left with their skins on. A splash of fragrant kewra water brings the dessert together, its delicate floral notes enhancing the pudding’s richness.
Bomboloni
Bomboloni are filled Italian doughnuts, often enjoyed with morning coffee or as a snack in the afternoon. They are referred to as “bombe,” or “bombs,” in some parts of Italy, possibly because the filling often explodes from the inside when you take a bite.
Shirini Gerdooyi
Desserts for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year that is also celebrated in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and beyond, are symbolic of a sweet year to come. In the days leading up to the first day of spring, which marks the New Year, home kitchens become a festive hub, busy with the preparation of baked goods to share with friends and family. Shirini gerdui, also known as pofaki gerdui, are one of many traditional Nowruz cookies. Here, they also are scented with vanilla. Made with only a handful of ingredients, they are light and delicately sweetened, crisp around the edges, chewy and slightly hollow on the inside with welcome bites of walnut. Serve with a cup of tea to welcome a sweet new year.
Tangerine Yogurt Sherbet
This easy, refreshing dessert can be made in an ice cream machine or in the freezer with a bowl and spoon. Once it’s set, serve it in tangerine “cups” made from halved, scooped-out tangerines or scoop it into glasses. A few pieces of candied ginger served alongside make a nice addition.
Lazy Daisy Cake
Also called Danish dream cake (drømmekage), this vintage recipe has a tender cake topped with a “lazy” frosting of butter, brown sugar and coconut. Then the whole cake, still in its pan, is run under the broiler until the brown sugar melts, turning fudgy, and the coconut toasts and singes in spots. It makes for a lovely treat that keeps well, too. The topping, brittle and crunchy on the day it’s baked, gets softer and creamier after sitting at room temperature overnight, where it will last for three days.
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Guinness-Chocolate Sheet Cake
The Guinness-chocolate sheet cake is incredibly moist and rich, with a deep chocolate flavor that’s complemented by the beer’s malty, tangy undertones. Topped with a malted vanilla frosting, it’s a delicious celebration-worthy dessert.
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Qatayef (Stuffed and Fried Pancakes)
Qatayef is one of the most iconic desserts of the Ramadan season in the Levant. These yeasted pancakes are cooked on a flattop griddle or in a skillet until golden on one side with light air pockets throughout. They’re then filled with cheese or spiced walnuts and raisins, folded into a crescent shape, fried until crispy and golden, then finally dipped in orange blossom syrup right before serving.
Chocolate Irish Cream Cake
In this rich but balanced dessert, two layers of moist and soft chocolate cake are sandwiched together with a ribbon of rich, creamy dark chocolate ganache infused with Irish cream, then frosted with a light, fluffy Irish cream buttercream. This cake keeps well at room temperature for a few days, so feel free to make it in advance of your next celebration. It’s worth noting that the Irish cream liqueur does not get cooked, so it will retain its alcohol content.
Quesitos (Sweet Cream Cheese Pastries)
A Puerto Rican bakery classic, these flaky pastries filled with sweetened cream cheese are easy to make at home. Like much of the island’s best food, these simple pastries reflect a range of cultural influences, including Cuban pastelitos de queso, and it’s their simplicity that makes them timeless. You can find them in bakeries across the island as well as in the states, with variations like guava, chocolate, bacon and even plant-based cheese. Experiment in your own kitchen, too: this recipe is very adaptable, and can be easily halved or doubled. This filling is less sweet than traditional ones, so don’t hesitate to be more generous with the sugar inside or on top. However you make them, they’re best enjoyed with a hot cup of coffee.
King Cake With Strawberry and Cream Cheese Filling
King cake, a sweetened, yeast-raised bread eaten throughout the many weeks of Carnival season, is rolled and twisted like a cinnamon roll. Traditional king cakes are flavored with cinnamon and sugar, but today the flavor combinations are seemingly endless; this version pairs strawberry jam and cream cheese. The cream cheese filling is flavored with lemon zest and a little sugar; a spoonful of flour adds structure. Dollops of strawberry jam contribute a concentrated fruity bite; if you want more fruit presence, opt for canned strawberry pie filling. The whole pastry is bathed in a lemony glaze before being topped with green, gold and purple sugar, a visual cue that identifies this wreath of baked dough as a king cake.
Pączki (Jam-Filled Doughnuts)
Biting into freshly prepared, pillowy soft pączki is among the joys of life well worth indulging in. Pączki (pronounced ponch-key) are Polish doughnuts typically filled with plum or wild rose jam and dusted with powdered sugar or drizzled with glaze, and sometimes topped with candied orange peel. In Poland, they are a traditional food eaten on Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) — the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Pączki are less sweet but richer than typical doughnuts. They are also a deeper brown in color with a light ring around the middle. It takes time, patience and a little practice to prepare pączki at home. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, it will do most of the dough work for you. It is important to watch the oil temperature when frying pączki to ensure they cook through on the inside without turning too dark on the outside. Traditionally, spirytus, a high-proof alcohol with a neutral taste, is used in the dough so the pączki don’t absorb too much oil while frying, but other higher-proof spirits like vodka also work well. Pączki are best shared and eaten right away.
Microwave Nutella Pudding Cake
This warm, gooey, flourless chocolate cake requires just three ingredients, five minutes and a zap in the microwave. Nutella does the heavy lifting here, standing in for sugar, fat and flour and offering its milky cocoa sweetness and toasty hazelnut flavor to every spoonful. This cake is best slightly underbaked so the center is molten like a lava cake. A dollop of vanilla ice cream or Greek yogurt is optional, but a wonderful way to balance the richness of the cake beneath.
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Strawberry Cupcakes
Topped with a rosy pink buttercream and freeze-dried and fresh strawberries, these vanilla-scented cupcakes are light, tender, and speckled with fresh strawberries. They'd make a delightful contribution to a picnic, potluck, or special occasion.
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Singaporean Fudge Cake
In Singapore, people flock to Lana Cakes for a taste of their famous chocolate fudge cake. What sets it apart isn’t just the cake’s tenderness and intense chocolate flavor—it’s also the dessert’s unique frosting, which resembles chocolate pudding. Here's how to make the cake at home.
Stovetop Berry Crisp
You don’t need to wait for summer’s ripest fruit to enjoy a fruit crisp. This quick, small-batch version delivers jammy fruit beneath a crispy topping any night of the week, no matter the season. Start by making the topping in the microwave, then as it crisps, simmer the berries on the stovetop. Once they resemble a compote, add more berries for pops of freshness. You can use a mix of berries or just blueberries, and they can be fresh or frozen — no need to thaw the frozen ones first. Because the topping is already cooked when it’s scattered on the fruit, it won’t get soggy, delivering a brown-sugary crunch in every bite.
Microwave Sticky Toffee Pudding
You’re just 10 minutes away from a bowl of soft, date-flecked cake draped in a brown sugary sauce. This speedy take on sticky toffee pudding is made for one or two people and doesn’t require turning on the oven — just the microwave. Topping your warm cake with cold ice cream, whipped cream or sour cream is a welcome contrast and helps temper the sweetness. A few toasted pecans on top would add a nice crunch.
Fairy Bread
If you go to a children’s birthday party in Australia or New Zealand, you are very likely to find fairy bread: triangles of untoasted white bread covered with margarine or butter and “hundreds and thousands” (you can use round rainbow sprinkles stateside). Fairy bread is a much-loved treat with fairly murky origins; one variation is hagelslag, a Dutch treat that uses chocolate sprinkles instead of rainbow-colored rounds. After one bite of fairy bread, it is clear why the combination of soft bread, creamy butter and crunchy, sugary sprinkles is beloved by so many — and may be soon by you, too.
Triple-Chocolate Brownies
Featuring a terrazzo-esque contrast from a melted bittersweet-chocolate batter studded with shards of white chocolate and milk chocolate, these luxurious brownies owe their rich flavor and nuanced texture to a few essential details. The batter employs both melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder, a combination that provides complex flavor and a fudgy bite. Snappy chunks of milk and white chocolates get folded into the bittersweet base, creating a multidimensional celebration of chocolatiness. Both dark brown sugar and granulated sugar are key to obtaining that hallmark shiny surface and a velvety soft interior. About midway through the baking process, the baking pan gets tapped on the counter, resulting in a brownie that deflates until desirably gooey but not dense, which will please just about every type of brownie lover.
Chocolate Crepes
These cocoa-infused crepes are delicious rolled up and eaten as-is, but for a more celebratory dessert, dress them up with your choice of chocolate-hazelnut spread, whipped cream, powdered sugar and berries. Making crepes isn’t complicated, but it does require a bit of patience. Letting the batter rest for the full 15 minutes (or up to overnight) allows the flour and cocoa powder to hydrate, which contributes to a tender and slightly bouncy texture when cooked. To minimize frustration while cooking, use a good nonstick skillet and avoid cooking the crepes too hot and fast—medium heat is ideal.
Persian Love Cake
The origins of Persian love cake, a fragrant and tender cake adorned with rose petals, are shrouded in a romanticized story of unrequited love. Set in bygone lands with the scent of cardamom and rose wafting through the air, the tale tells of a Persian prince and the girl who won his heart by baking him this magical cake. It’s unclear from where this tale first sprung, but the timeline is certainly recent: The earliest mentions of Persian love cake do not date back to ancient or even modern-day Iran, but possibly to a chef in Australia in the early 2000s who prepared an almond flour-based cake and called it Persian love cake. Perhaps the combination of almonds, cardamom and rose water, ingredients typically used in Iranian baked goods, inspired the name. This version uses a combination of almond flour and all-purpose flour, which makes for a delightfully light crumb. The perfume of lemon and rose water in the cake is echoed in the syrup that drenches the cake, as well as in the icing that drapes it. Like every good romance, this take on Persian love cake will keep you coming back for more.
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Red Velvet Brownies
Topped with a tangy cream cheese frosting, laced with bittersweet cocoa powder, and flavored with rich white chocolate, these brownies taste like a fudgier version of classic red velvet cake.
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Water Ganache
Water and chocolate are all you need to make this luxurious dark chocolate ganache, which you can use to glaze cakes or fill pastries or turn into truffles.
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Chocolate Pot de Crèmes
Chocolate pot de crèmes—rich, velvety French custards—are easy enough to make on a weeknight, and luxurious enough for a special occasion like Valentine’s Day.