Dessert
3903 recipes found
Lemon Mousse for a Crowd
Apple Pie Filling
Many apple pies call for simply tossing cut apples with sugar, adding a thickening agent and some spices, and plopping it all into a crust. But precooking the apples has multiple advantages: First, it draws out some of their juices, to ensure consistency. (No undercooked apples or runny filling here!) And, second, it prevents the filling from sinking away from the crust as it cools, leaving a pocket of air between filling and crust. Use this all-purpose filling in a traditional pie, tiny hand-held pies, or in a cobbler. It can be made several days ahead, leaving just assembling and baking.
Brigadeiros
The Brazilian sweets known as brigadeiros are a classic treat at birthday parties and family get-togethers, where the fudgy, chocolate-milk caramels are often rolled in sprinkles. The chef Natalia Pereira of Woodspoon in Los Angeles also makes more grownup, bittersweet brigadeiros by rolling them in cocoa powder or shredded coconut. Try her recipe, which she learned from her mother in Minas Gerais, Brazil, using either canned condensed milk or a homemade version. Either way, the candies will be tender and delicious.
Chocolate Truffle Tart
This special occasion dessert takes a little time to put together, but it's much easier to make than it looks. It starts with a simple press-in chocolate cookie crust that doesn’t require a rolling pin or chilling. The crust is filled with dark chocolate ganache and a layer of milk chocolate truffles. The truffles can be finished simply with cocoa powder, or coated in finely chopped nuts, powdered sugar or a colorful, tart powder made by crushing freeze-dried fruit. (Or you can skip the truffle recipe entirely and instead use store-bought truffles.) This is the moment to splurge on high-quality chocolate, as you’ll taste it in the final result. Don’t be tempted to use chocolate chips, as the added stabilizers make it difficult to achieve a shiny, creamy ganache. For picture-perfect slices, dip your knife in warm water before each cut and wipe it dry after.
Vegan Pie Crust
Shortening replaces butter in this vegan version of traditional pie dough. Because shortening has a higher melting temperature than butter, you can prepare the dough without any sticky disasters. It also bakes into a beautifully tender and not-at-all-soggy crust. When shopping for a shortening, look for one made with coconut oil, palm oil or a combination of the two.
Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Almond flour is the only special ingredient needed to make these cookies, and it can be found in the baking aisle or the health food section of the grocery store. It provides the protein and structure of a classic wheat flour, while keeping the cookie perfectly chewy in the center. If you want a stronger almond flavor, toast the almond flour in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until golden and fragrant, and cool before using. This recipe was adapted from the Times’s famous chocolate chip cookie recipe, but unlike that recipe, this dough does not require 36 hours of refrigeration before baking. Chopped chocolate or feves make for a gooier cookie, but classic chocolate chips work here, too. This recipe makes huge, bakery-style cookies, but if you want smaller cookies, use 1/4-cup mounds of dough and bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or a 2-tablespoon scoops and bake for for 10 to 12 minutes.
Blueberry Pie Filling
The scent of blueberry pie bubbling away in the oven is comforting and familiar, especially in high summer, when pie baking can become a daily event. But just imagine that summery smell, and taste, in deepest winter. This pie filling, which uses cornstarch as a thickener, has a shelf life of about nine months, so the best of summer can be yours in the winter, too.
Mocha Chocolate Chip Cake
Alice’s Tea Cup, which is owned by the sisters Haley Fox and Lauren Fox, is known for its scones, but the chainlet of teahouses in New York also makes pastries, cakes and other treats. This recipe is an adaptation of a chocolate chip cake with mocha frosting that originated with the Fox sisters’ mother. The cake has a tender crumb, and the frosting is silky and rich.
Easy Baklava
Einat Admony, the chef at Balaboosta, Taïm and Bar Bolonat, came up with a simplified version of baklava that was featured in “Food52 Genius Desserts: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Bake.” Instead of stacking individual layers of phyllo dough, Ms. Admony calls for rolling up the nut filling in the phyllo and slicing it into discs as you would cinnamon rolls, then baking and drizzling the slices with syrup. Like traditional baklava, they are shatteringly crisp, gooey and sweet in all the right places, but much less work. Her original recipe calls for raw peanuts, but roasted work just fine.
Irish Cream Poundcake
This classic poundcake has a boozy twist that’s perfect for parties, St. Patrick’s Day and beyond. Irish cream liqueur — a rich blend of Irish whiskey, cream, sugar, vanilla and other flavorings — is added to both the batter and the glaze, which yields doubly flavorful results. The alcohol in the cake burns off during baking, but if you’d like to mute the hint of alcohol in the glaze, simply bring the Irish cream to a simmer and let it cool before whisking it with the confectioners’ sugar. Serve the cake alone, with a scoop of coffee ice cream or a hot cup of coffee (spiked with Irish cream, perhaps). The cake keeps well at room temperature, tightly wrapped, for up to 4 days.
Maida Heatter’s Chocolate Mousse Torte
Maida Heatter, the legendary dessert-cookbook author, tested this recipe 20 times before deeming it good enough for publication in The Times in May 1972. Her toil was worth the trouble: Eight months later, it was named the paper’s most requested dessert recipe of the year. This is an adaptation of the version that appears in Ms. Heatter’s book “Happiness is Baking” (Little, Brown, 2019). It begins with a big batch of chocolate mousse, half of which is baked in a pie plate. As it cools, it sinks in the middle, creating a dense, fudgy cake with a bit of an elevated edge. The remaining mousse is piled in the center, then topped with snowy whipped cream and chocolate shavings. One note: Like most traditional mousses, this one contains raw eggs. Use the best pasteurized eggs you can find. If that worries you, try another Maida Heatter dessert instead.
Lemon-Raspberry Danish With Mascarpone
This braiding technique looks fancy, but it couldn’t be easier to achieve. The lemon-raspberry-mascarpone filling is pudding-like, which makes it important to weave the dough as tightly as possible to prevent too much leakage (though a little is to be expected). Let the pastry cool completely before glazing and serving. This allows the glaze and the filling to set properly; impatient slicers will be met with a sloppy filling rather than a creamy one.
Deluxe Cheesecake
Craig Claiborne brought this version of the classic dessert to The Times in September 1963, and it quickly became one of the paper's most requested recipes. It makes an excellent backdrop for almost any ripe and sweet fruit. Feel free to play around with flavorings like vanilla, and spices like cinnamon or crystallized ginger.
Apple Cider-Caramel Dumplings
This may not be the dish you think of when you see the words “apple dumplings,” but this delicious dessert couldn’t be simpler to make, or more comforting to eat. It starts with a basic dumpling batter. Just stir together the ingredients, then cook them in liquid on the stovetop until they become fluffy all the way through. Poaching the dumplings in a combination of apple cider, brown sugar and cinnamon means they take on a jammy exterior and absorb some of sweetness in the process. As the dumplings cook, they release some starch into the liquid, which thickens the poaching liquid into a sauce. It’s topped with a lightly whipped vanilla cream, which has a consistency similar to melted ice cream and coats each and every bite.
Cream Cheese Swirl Tart With Chocolate Crust
This eye-catching tart nods to a classic fruit-topped cheesecake, but is far easier to put together and starts with a cocoa-and-oat streusel press-in crust, instead of traditional graham crackers. Fruit preserves are folded into the tangy no-bake filling to create swirls. You can serve the tart immediately, or keep it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. Using a pan with a removable base allows you to unmold the tart and serve it on a platter, but you could also use a glass or ceramic pan and serve the dish directly from the pan. Serve alone, or top with fresh berries.
Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake
Nutty whole-wheat flour and semisweet chocolate are a winning pair in this easy-to-make one-bowl loaf cake. Whole-wheat flour gives this cake depth and a nubbly texture that is tastier than that of your average all-purpose flour, and semisweet chocolate makes it a special treat. You can use whatever type of chocolate chips you prefer, and chopped chocolate works, too, if that’s what you have on hand. You can also use a greater proportion of whole-wheat flour if you like — up to about 1 cup/128 grams of the total 1½ cups flour works well — but the cake will be a bit more dense. It will still be delicious, but it will have a slightly different texture.
Giant Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cookie
This shortbread is like a huge, sliceable Girl Scout cookie. (You’re welcome!) An easy shortbread is topped with a layer of peanut butter frosting, blanketed with a thick chocolate glaze, then chilled until set. Brown sugar helps keep the shortbread soft, and coconut oil does the same for the chocolate coating, so the whole thing is easy to cut with a knife and eat with a fork. Be sure to use bar chocolate, not chips — which don’t melt as evenly — so your chocolate glaze ends up shiny and smooth.
Coffee and Cream Coffee Cake
In most classic coffee cakes, cinnamon plays a starring role, but this recipe puts coffee flavor front and center thanks to the addition of brewed coffee and espresso powder (or instant espresso). Espresso powder adds strong flavor, and it’s fine enough to dissolve completely so you don’t get any crunchy bits. A ribbon of cream cheese runs through the center of the cake, complementing the coffee flavor like a splash of cream in a cup of coffee.
Mini Gingerbread Houses
If you’re looking for the sturdiest of gingerbread houses, this recipe will get you there. (Here's a printable cut-out template.) A high quantity of shortening is the secret to a strong house that will last for weeks (or more). If you like to nibble on your gingerbread house, use unsalted butter in place of shortening for a tastier and more cookie-like flavor. Whichever you choose, be sure to bake the cookies until they’re very crisp; doing so will reduce the moisture in the dough, which is important for the house’s stability. This recipe will produce more dough than you need for one large house or three small houses. Re-roll the scraps and make an extra small house, or create decorative elements like a door, window ledges, shutters, a chimney, or gingerbread people to snack on while you decorate.
Double Dip of Chocolate Pudding
Charlotte Nesselrode
Salted Chocolate Pudding With Whipped Sour Cream
A classic, old-fashioned chocolate pudding, this dessert is made a bit more interesting by layering with whipped sour cream (for a little tang) and crushed cookies of your choosing (for texture). While you can absolutely make and serve chocolate pudding in individual cups, there is something delightfully communal about sharing it from one giant vessel, which can be nearly anything you want: Mixing bowls, trifle bowls or baking dishes all work, just aim for something tall and deep so you can build as many layers as possible.
Black-and-White Sundae Bar
This is less a recipe for a sundae bar, and more a recipe for for the two sauces that accompany, crunchy bittersweet chocolate (essentially a homemade chocolate shell) and salty tahini caramel. Both can be made and stored for at least a month (for whenever the craving strikes). It’s hard to beat the creamy subtlety of vanilla ice cream to pair with them, but any ice cream of your choosing will work.
Cuban Buñuelos With Anise Syrup
For many Cubans, the Christmas season means that frying buñuelos for dessert is almost as important as serving roast pork for dinner. Buñuelos have roots in Spain, particularly a Spain once under Muslim rule, but the Cuban version, spiced with anise and shaped into figure eights, highlights the island’s abundance of root vegetables like yuca, boniato, malanga, ñame and calabaza. They can be found in many Latino grocery stores, and they give the buñuelos a pillowy, doughnutlike texture inside and crisp up when deep-fried. This recipe is adapted from “The Cuban Table: A Celebration of Food, Flavors and History” by Ana Sofía Peláez.