Dessert
3848 recipes found
Pecan Sandie Pie
All the richness of pecans, buttery and crisp in the cookie crust, candied in the gooey filling, run through this pie. In this take on a Thanksgiving classic, standard pie dough is swapped for pecan sandie dough. It’s not only tastier with its nuttiness, it also doesn’t require rolling. You can simply pat it into the pan and into a round for the top. For a toastier flavor and a little more crunch, bake the pecans first in a 350-degree oven until fragrant and a shade darker.
Fig and Cherry Cookie Pies
Similar to cucidati, the Italian fig cookies traditionally served at Christmastime, these adorable mini pies are filled with dried figs, dried cherries and almonds, then topped with a pretty almond-flavored glaze. But unlike most cucidati recipes, this one calls for softening the dried fruit in simmering water before it is puréed with nuts and spices. Sometimes dried fruit from the store comes without a drop of moisture left in it, so rehydrating it helps bring back some softness and ensures that the filling doesn’t rob moisture from the pastry as it bakes.
Spumoni Ice Cream Cake
Spumoni is a frozen Italian-American dessert made by layering pistachio, cherry and chocolate (or sometimes vanilla) gelati. This showstopper ice cream cake version looks difficult, but it’s made with store-bought ingredients, so it mostly involves shopping and assembly. The layers can be stacked ahead, and you also don’t have to worry too much about its melting rapidly: The cake’s sheer volume and store-bought ice creams' stabilizers help it stay cold. For a Neapolitan-style cake, you could swap strawberry ice cream for the cherry and vanilla for the pistachio. The only true challenge here is making sure there’s room in your freezer, since this cake is about 4 inches tall.
Two-Tone Ginger Custard Pie
This silky, spiced custard is especially dreamy inside a crisp, flaky crust. Some custard pies use eggs as a binder — this one uses flour for a thick custard that always sets perfectly, creating a flat surface that’s ideal for a dusting of sugar. This striking design requires just a sheet of paper and a sifter, while the topping itself is ground freeze-dried mangoes and strawberries mixed with confectioners’ sugar. You can find the freeze-dried fruit at most grocery stores and health-food stores, where they are often grouped with the nuts and dried fruit. The pie can be made up to 1 day ahead, but for the cleanest look, it’s best to apply the sugar within 2 hours of serving; beyond that, the sugar will eventually absorb moisture from the pie and begin to change color. But even if you skip the topping, the filling is beyond delicious all on its own.
Fruit Fluden
This dessert bar was first published by The New York Times in 1952 in a review of Passover dishes, and later it appeared in the pamphlet “Holiday Desserts: Cakes, Pies and Puddings for Special Occasions.” The traditional fluden is a leavened pastry, but this version is not. Whipped egg whites mixed with matzo meal, egg yolks, sugar and salt bind the layers together. To be certain that the dessert is kosher for Passover, all ingredients must be endorsed as such by “a recognized rabbinical authority,” as our editor June Owen wrote in 1952.
Keo Lac Vung (Peanut and Sesame Candy)
Gifting and eating sweets during Lunar New Year is an integral part of the Vietnamese Tet tradition. People often buy festive treats from confectioners equipped with particular skills and specialty ingredients, but you can make this easy, crunchy, delicately fragrant candy from readily available ingredients. This version of northern Vietnamese keo lac vung calls for corn syrup in place of maltose, which is often used in Vietnam. Sometimes, butter is added for a touch of fattiness, but coconut oil also works and makes the candy dairy-free.
Chocolate Shell Ice-Cream Topping
Here is a chocolate ice cream topping that has a texture nearly identical to that of the commercial product Magic Shell (which also contains coconut oil), but with a far richer, more fudgy flavor.
Lemon Olive-Oil Ice Cream
Lemon ice cream may not inspire the same excitement you find with flavors like salted caramel or chocolate chip cookie dough, but you don't want to miss out on it. This ice cream is surprisingly complex: creamy, sweet, tart and a little savory thanks to olive oil and a bit of salt. If you'd like, serve scoops with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt and lemon zest.
Peppermint Brownies
These crowd-pleasing treats start with a dense, chewy brownie that’s topped with a layer of creamy peppermint filling, dark chocolate glaze, and a sprinkle of crushed peppermints. For the cleanest slices, chill the finished brownies thoroughly, then use a warm knife to slice them. Dip the knife blade into hot water and wipe it dry with a kitchen towel between each cut, and you’ll be rewarded with clean layers of chocolate, peppermint and glaze. It’s fine to sub chocolate chips for the chopped chocolate, just make sure they are fully melted before proceeding.
Spiced Pear Tart
Gently spiced poached pears, vanilla pastry cream and flaky puff pastry are the stars of this sophisticated dessert that was created for the 2019 NYT Food Festival by Rachel Gaylord, the pastry chef at La Mercerie in New York. Ideally, this delicate tart should be eaten the day it’s made, so if you’re planning to serve this at a dinner party, make all of the components in advance and assemble the tart just before your guests arrive. Leftovers, if you have any, should be stored in the refrigerator and brought to room temperature before serving. The pastry will have lost some of its flakiness, but it will still be delicious. (This adaptation mercifully calls for store-bought puff pastry, but if you’re feeling ambitious, you can make your own.)
Italian Rainbow Cookies
Also known as Venetians, Neapolitans or tricolore cookies, these classic Italian-American treats are not really cookies at all, but thin, dense layers of brightly hued almond cake stacked with apricot jam, and coated with glossy chocolate. The layers are traditionally red, white and green to resemble the Italian flag, but, of course, you can play around with the colors depending on the holiday and what you have on hand. This version is adapted from Mary Carpino, from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., who made them every Christmas for years. One of her granddaughters, Nicole Carpino Frasco, passed along the recipe to us. We increased the chocolate and salt slightly, but the festive spirit of the recipe remains. Mrs. Carpino stored them in her chilly winter attic, but if you don’t have one of those, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 5 months.
Cream Cheese Semifreddo
This simple, refreshing and not-too-sweet frozen dessert is the perfect blank canvas to show off that fancy Italian balsamic vinegar in your cabinet. Natasha Pickowicz, the pastry chef at Café Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar in New York, developed this easy yet sophisticated recipe for the 2019 NYT Food Festival. Ms. Pickowicz also likes this semifreddo with a spoonful of jam, or a drizzle of maple syrup, chocolate syrup or honey. (The photo shows a tart-sweet combination of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup.) Everything seems to shine against the backdrop of this parfait. If you’d like, you can substitute mascarpone for the cream cheese, although the final result might be a bit softer.
Almond Saffron Cake
This cake was adapted from Kim Sunée, the Korean-born author of “Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home” (Grand Central, 2008).
Coconut Pound Cake
Coconut oil and coconut milk add a tasty tropical essence to this moist pound cake. Be sure to buy unrefined virgin coconut oil, as it has the best coconut flavor and aroma. Coconut oil is much easier to measure and incorporate when it has been softened than at room temperature, when it is firmer. Try popping it into the microwave for very short bursts, about 5 seconds each, until it is roughly the same consistency as softened butter.
Ginger Mango Cream Tart
Festive enough for a holiday party or a summer cookout, this bright and creamy mango tart has a crisp gingersnap crust and is topped with candied ginger, pistachios and toasted coconut. The no-bake crust, which is made from store bought gingersnaps, butter and light brown sugar, comes together in the food processor with the press of a button. For the filling, fresh or frozen mango is cooked with ginger and turmeric to deepen its flavor and brighten the color of the finished dessert.
Guinness Brownies
The earthy flavors of stout beer pair perfectly with three kinds of chocolate in these dense, fudgy brownies. You can use bittersweet or semisweet, bars or chips, depending on what you have on hand, but this recipe is at its best using bar chocolate because of its meltability. A sprinkling of milk chocolate chips before baking is a sweet counterpoint to the rich, complex brownies. Do not overbake them: When the brownies are done, they will appear just set in the center and on the verge of underbaked. They’ll set further as they cool. Chilling the brownies makes them easier to cut, but allow them to come to room temperature before serving for the best flavor.
Fried Apple Pies
These little pies are filled to the brim with juicy caramel apple filling, fried, then tossed in cinnamon sugar. You may need to adjust the temperature as you fry them: If the oil is too hot, they’ll look golden on the outside, but the dough may not fully cook through. If the oil is too cool, they may be greasy. If you don’t have a thermometer, use a piece of scrap dough to test the oil for frying; it should rise to the top immediately.
Chocolate Rice Pudding
For undiluted, deep chocolate flavor, this creamy pudding uses cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate. The type of cocoa powder you choose will affect the final flavor of the pudding: Dutch-processed cocoa powder has been treated with an alkali, which neutralizes its natural acidity, while natural cocoa powder has not. Natural cocoa powder has a fruity chocolate flavor, while Dutch-processed cocoa is more mellow and smooth — and will result in a darker pudding. The custard will still look loose when the rice has cooked but it will continue to thicken as it cools. Once cool, you can stir in a little bit of milk or cream to loosen it as necessary.
Strawberry Icebox Pie
If you adore creamy strawberry desserts, this deluxe icebox pie topped with glossy, springy homemade strawberry gelatin is a treat you won’t want to miss. The recipe, from Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream in New York, updates a classic strawberry icebox pie with two major tweaks. Instead of using frozen whipped topping and a box of strawberry gelatin, it calls for freshly whipped heavy cream and the juice drained from an entire pound of macerated berries. The recipe does take some time to put together, but results in the richest, silkiest and most deeply strawberry flavored pie imaginable. You’ll need to start this at least one day before you want to serve it, but it keeps well for up to three days in the fridge. The wafer cookies get softer and more cakelike as they sit.
Small-Batch Blueberry Muffins
Michelle Lopez, the author of “Weeknight Baking: Recipes to Fit Your Schedule” (Simon & Schuster, 2019), was inspired by the oversize muffins at Levain Bakery when she developed this recipe. The keys to the loftiest muffins? Plenty of batter and a high oven temperature, which ensures that they rise quickly and bake with a beautiful top and a tender interior. For the best results, rest your batter before baking. One very important tip: Spray the muffin pan and its edges generously with nonstick cooking spray. When the muffins come out of the oven, immediately use a small offset spatula to gently release their edges from the pan, then let them cool completely before removing them. You can use frozen blueberries instead of fresh, but be sure to thaw and drain them, then let them come to room temperature before adding them to the batter.
Cheesecake-Chocolate Pudding Bars
You may know it as chocolate delight or chocolate lush, but while this dessert has many names, the recipe rarely varies. Traditionally, it starts with a salty nut base, followed by a mixture of cream cheese and Cool Whip, a layer of boxed-mix chocolate pudding, and then even more Cool Whip. This from-scratch version starts with a crumbly pecan shortbread, which adds texture and salt. The homemade pudding tastes of deep, dark chocolate and serves as the perfect contrast to the simple no-bake cheesecake layer. Gilding the lily with freshly whipped cream and chocolate shavings isn’t imperative, but it certainly takes it to another level.
Salted Caramel Cookies
These soft and buttery cookies get dressed up with a thin layer of salted caramel and a dusting of flaky sea salt for good measure. Using store-bought caramels makes the process especially easy and ensures that the coating has some satisfying chew to it. Be sure to err on the side of under-baking the cookies, so they remain soft and tender.
Strawberry and Ice Cream Sandwiches
This summertime snack is a spin on the Italian treat, brioche con gelato, which is typically served in hotter months for breakfast. This ice cream sandwich is made with actual bread — rather than cookies — landing this dessert in the not-too-sweet category. Griddling or grilling the buns with a butter-sugar finish adds a bit of caramelized sweetness. These are best eaten immediately, so have guests at the ready for assembling. The combination of still-warm bread, melting ice cream and strawberries is bliss.
Blackout Cake
This absurdly rich chocolate cake came to The Times in a 1991 article by Molly O’Neill about Ebinger’s, the legendary chain of Brooklyn bakeries that closed its doors in 1972 after 74 years in business. Their wildly popular blackout cake, a three layer devil’s food cake filled with dark chocolate pudding, slathered with chocolate frosting and covered with chocolate cake crumbs, had a cult-like following in its day. This recipe isn’t authentic (the Ebinger family never shared the original recipe with the public), but Ms. O’Neill claims in her book, “The New York Cookbook: From Pelham Bay to Park Avenue, Firehouses to Four-Star Restaurants,” that this version got the thumbs-up from “a panel of twelve Ebingerites.” That’s enough for us.