Dessert
3848 recipes found
Chewy Earl Grey Sugar Cookies
Floral and citrusy Earl Grey tea livens up these chewy sugar cookies. Instead of adding the leaves to the dough, the tea is steeped in melted butter for maximum flavor. If you are using loose leaf tea instead of tea from bags, use a mortar and pestle or spice grinder to finely grind it before adding it to the butter. Try adding a handful of chopped chocolate shards to the dough to make these cookies even more special.
Gingerbread Sheet Cake With Whipped Chocolate Ganache
The gentle bite of fresh ginger and spices pairs wonderfully with bittersweet chocolate. Sticky molasses and spicy ginger flavor this warm and cozy one-bowl cake, which tastes wonderful on its own, but is even better when topped with a fluffy whipped chocolate ganache. Make sure to use chopped bars of chocolate here rather than chips, which contain stabilizers that will make the ganache grainy. The ganache will look and feel a lot like whipped cream when you spread it on the cake, but will solidify to a more mousse-like consistency when it cools.
Plum and Raspberry Cornmeal Crisp
This summery fruit crisp has a bit of a savory edge thanks to crunchy cornmeal in the topping and pinches of salt. Plums and raspberries are a wonderfully sweet-tart pair, but you can use any fruit you like. Simply use a little less sugar if your fruit is particularly sweet. You can also prepare this dessert ahead to enjoy later: Make the topping (Step 3) and freeze it for up to one month. If traveling or bringing this dessert to make elsewhere, mix the dry topping ingredients in a bag and pack the remaining ingredients separately to assemble and bake at your destination.
Cherry-Lemon Cream Jell-O Mold
This jiggly, layered mold holds a base of clear crimson (sweet cherry) and a topping of ivory white (tangy lemon mixed with sour cream). If you have extra time, you could make it into four layers, producing red and ivory stripes. Garnished with shiny green leaves like bay or holly, it looks especially festive, and is also quite delicious. Swapping out some of the water in the Jell-O formula for ingredients like sour cream and cherry juice gives this dessert its bright taste.
Peanut Butter Blackberry Bars
The love child of a juicy summer fruit pie and a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich, these family-friendly bars are perfect for a backyard picnic or an after-school snack. They’re super fast to make with an electric mixer, but you can also make the dough by hand: Just be sure the butter is very soft before you start, and mix with a sturdy wooden spoon or rubber spatula. To make easy work of pressing the dough into the baking dish, use lightly floured hands or the bottom of a flat measuring cup.
Chiffon Cake
In 1927, a former insurance agent in Los Angeles was fiddling obsessively with ingredients in his home kitchen when he came up with a cake that was weightless yet rich — angel and devil at once — which we know today as chiffon. His secret: Instead of butter, he used vegetable oil in a batter thick with yolks, folded together with glossy peaks of whipped egg whites. The cake’s kinship to clouds makes it an ideal dessert for Christopher Tan, who lives in Singapore, where the temperature and humidity are enemies of more traditional, butter-based cakes. Here, he uses mandarin oranges, packing in as much juice and zest as possible. The most difficult part is beating the egg whites properly. Tan has a baking secret of his own: He mixes a little potato starch (which absorbs more liquid than other starches) into the meringue, to guard against deflating.
Hindbaersnitter (Danish Raspberry Slices)
Glazed and dotted with sprinkles, this Danish treat sandwiches raspberry jam between two buttery cookie layers — and has Pop-Tarts vibes. Popular in bakeries across Denmark, it’s achievable at home because it’s assembled in one large piece. For this recipe from “ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge” by Brontë Aurell, the author recommends a not-too-thick layer of good-quality jam: “Go for intense flavor instead of volume.” Traditionally, these cookies are made with raspberry jam and cut into squares, but they invite experimentation. Slice them into rectangles or triangles; opt for other bright, tangy preserves; and decorate them liberally, adding color to the icing and sprinkling with chopped freeze-dried fruit, crystallized ginger or toasted nuts. Their nostalgic charm will still shine through.
Chocolate Cake With Peppermint Frosting
Dutch-process cocoa and a bit of espresso powder give this simple one-bowl cake deep chocolate flavor without much effort. The generous swoop of fluffy peppermint buttercream frosting makes it a festive treat. A bit of optional red food coloring gives the frosting those classic peppermint candy stripes, and you can dress the cake up even more with sprinkles and shaved chocolate for a special occasion. The oil in the cake makes it extra moist, and it keeps well on the counter for a few days — if it lasts that long.
Sour Cream and Fruit Scones
The benefit of using frozen fruit in these tangy scones is in how it keeps the butter cold. Cold butter melts slowly in the oven, creating steam and tender pockets in the scones. The frozen fruit also doesn’t get smashed the way fresh fruit does. You can freeze the scones before baking for up to a month, just add a few minutes to the baking time. They are delicious on their own or with a bit of butter, but, for extra credit, split and toast the scones, then mix a spoonful of sour cream with some freshly whipped cream and sandwich inside.
Strawberry Cream Pie With Chocolate Cookie Crust
A chocolate cookie crust makes this strawberries-and-cream pie taste a bit like Neapolitan ice cream, but other crumbly cookies or sweet crackers work too. The best strawberries have a heady scent — they should smell like candy — and likely won’t need sweetening. But strawberry sweetness varies greatly, so taste one and toss them all with a little sugar as needed.
Brown-Butter Mochi
With a recipe that calls for exactly a can each of coconut and evaporated milks, butter mochi seems like the prime hapa example of classic postwar dump-and-stir baking. Packed with brown butter and brown sugar, this version is rife with the nutty, butterscotch notes of caramelization. The way the thick, dark crust contrasts with the chewy, faintly tropical center will bring the French canelé to mind, but these little cakes are a lot easier to make!
Pumpkin Cream-Cheese Muffins
The little bits of cream cheese in these warmly spiced pumpkin muffins make for a rich and creamy treat that’s sweet and a little savory. The streusel on top is optional, but worth giving a try: It takes only a few minutes to put together, and adds an extra boost of cinnamon and a crisp texture to the top. Enjoy these muffins warm with a cup of tea for the perfect fall snack.
Milk and Honey Pie With Cereal Crust
This pie’s crunchy toasted cornflake crust and honey-sweetened pudding may inspire new pie-centric breakfast routines, especially when topped with juicy plums. Feel free to play around with nectarines or peaches, too. Because cornflakes (and other not-too-sweet cereals) don’t have as much fat and sugar as packaged cookies and crackers, they need more sugar and butter to bind them into a sturdy crust. The extra butter here can sometimes cause the crust to puff or shrink while it bakes. If that happens, don’t worry: gently press the crust back into place while still warm with a flat bottomed measuring cup and proceed.
Chocolate Earl Grey Crème Brûlée
Floral, citrusy Earl Grey tea and chocolate make a delicious pair in this twist on classic crème brûlée. A kitchen torch might be a specialty tool, but there truly is no substitute when you are trying to achieve that perfectly crisp, caramelized sugar top. Use a chocolate bar with around 70 percent cacao for the richest chocolate flavor, and make sure to bake the custard until it is just set for a luxuriously creamy custard. The custards can be made up to 2 days ahead and chilled before the sugar is torched on top just before serving.
Angel Food Cake With Nectarines and Plums
The key to success with angel food cake is not overbeating the egg whites, which means you should never go above medium speed, and the peaks should fold over when you lift them with a spatula or beaters. If the meringue is too stiff, the cake will not maintain its height once baked. You should be able to pour the batter into the pan. Make sure that the egg whites are at room temperature before you begin. Use an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, preferably one with a removable bottom (even better if it has feet, for air circulation when you cool it upside down). Once baked, let it cool completely in the reversed pan.
Golden Ginger Cake
Not your traditional gingerbread, this cake is flavored with familiar spices and enhanced with freshly grated ginger. (And yes, of course, there is still molasses.) Unlike a brittle cookie or dense loaf, this cake has the texture of what can only be described as a very good cake doughnut, crunchy on the outside and delightfully fluffy on the inside. It’s best served just warmed, with a generous helping of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Fresh Fig Tart
The photogenic tart will make you look like a pastry chef, though it's no more difficult than baking a pie. A sweet tart crust is layered with almond cream, fig jam (homemade is nice, but store-bought works well, too) and fresh figs. The key to success is superb figs. They can’t be so jammy that they collapse when you cut them into quarters or sixths. But they should be sweet and ripe. The dough recipe below makes two crusts, one for now and one for later (store extra dough, well-wrapped, in the freezer).
Lemon Cheesecake Tart
With a simple, pat-in-the-pan crust and a thin layer of light, lemon-scented cream cheese, this cheesecake tart is a lot easier to make than you might imagine. The base can be baked right away, with no chilling required, and the custardy filling relies upon little more than tangy cream cheese, lemon zest and juice, sugar and eggs. It’s the perfect dessert for a winter or early spring gathering, when there might not be much fresh fruit around but you’re in the mood for a bright dessert.
Easiest Vanilla Ice Cream
There are many delicious things you can add to this vanilla ice cream. Try berries mashed with sugar, thick dulce de leche or chocolate shards; they should be added to the machine at the very end, once the mixture is already thickened and ready to go into the freezer. Or make Earl Grey ice cream by using loose tea (and a teaspoon of vanilla extract) instead of the vanilla bean.
Applejack Butter Pecan Bundt Cake
A traditional flavor combination (butter pecan) melds with a modern one (salted caramel) in this magnificently burnished golden cake. Brian Noyes opened Red Truck bakery in 2008 on the eastern edge of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, where plentiful local produce was part of the draw. A dose of aged apple brandy (he uses a local product, Catoctin Creek) keeps the sweetness in check, but bourbon or any aged brandy will do the job. For a nonalcoholic version, simply omit the brandy from the sauce, and swap in apple juice or cider in the cake batter.
Spiced Pumpkin Cookie Cake
Two spiced shortbread cookies are soaked with a little coffee, then layered with a light pumpkin whipped cream in this rich, elegant icebox cake. You don’t need to be precious with the cookies or the cream while preparing them — they're fairly foolproof — yet they come together into a stunning make-ahead dessert. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice but have a relatively well stocked spice cabinet, you can make your own homemade version (see Tip).
Apple and Swiss Chard Pie
This is a version of a classic French tourte aux blettes, a Swiss chard pie made with abundant chard, raisins, pine nuts, Parmesan or Gruyère, sugar and apples. But here, the usual olive-oil crust has been swapped for a flaky butter-based pâte brisée.
Old-Fashioned Strawberry Cake
If strawberry doughnuts are your thing, then this cake is absolutely your thing. A classic, old-fashioned buttermilk cake with bits of berries strewn throughout, it manages to taste just like your favorite fried treat (without the frying, of course). Be sure to bake the cake all the way through; strawberries have a high water content and tend to make for a soggy cake if not baked properly. The top should be crackly, deeply and perfectly golden brown, and the edges should pull away from the sides of the pan.
Blackberry Frozen Yogurt Pie With Cracker Crust
Tangy from yogurt and rippled with blackberries, this frozen pie will make a pretty addition to barbecues and backyard cookouts. The salty cracker crust against the sweet tart filling is a match made in summer heaven. Raspberries work in place of the blackberries, too. Want to know what to do with leftover sweetened condensed milk? Stir into iced coffee or Thai iced tea, or drizzle over sliced fresh fruit.