Dessert
3848 recipes found
Pumpkin Panna Cotta
When you want a pumpkin dessert, but not the heft of a pie, this light and creamy make-ahead custard will do the trick. It's surprisingly simple to prepare; just combine the ingredients in a saucepan, heat, then strain through a sieve and chill for at least 3 hours. Divine.
The Fluffiest Royal Icing
Royal icing is the classic sweet glue that holds together gingerbread houses and provides a glossy medium for elaborate cookie decorations. Many recipes call for egg whites or cream of tartar or both, but meringue powder (available online or at specialty food stores) offers gloss, stability and creaminess without the use of raw eggs or other ingredients. This recipe was developed by Georganne Bell, a professional cookie-decorating teacher in Salt Lake City who doesn’t like traditional vanilla sugar cookies. The icing takes coloring easily, and pipes nicely from an icing bag or even a plastic bag with a corner snipped off.
Dirty Chai Earthquake Cookies
In case you’re wondering about the name of this cakey, chewy-edged cookie, which nearly explodes through its sugary crust, it’s a nod to a coffee bar creation in which a shot of espresso tops off a cup of masala chai, the Indian spiced tea. It’s right at home on a traditional holiday cookie plate, thanks to its festive cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves. Feel free to add a little freshly grated nutmeg, if you’re so inclined. A strong coffee flavor adds nuance; black pepper lends a spicy kick; and malted milk powder, browned butter and brown sugar all contribute toasty warm notes to this craveable treat.
Best Sugar Cookies
This easy sugar cookie dough is perfect for rolling and cutting and bakes into cookies ideal for frosting. It holds its shape well during baking, tastes great, and the flavor can be changed according to whim: Swap out the vanilla and try adding orange zest, lemon zest, finely chopped rosemary or almond extract. You can also give these cookies a radical makeover by decorating them with icing. A few drops of gel food coloring turn them into Color-Field Cookies; red stripes transform them into Peppermint Stripe Cookies; or a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds and pistachios create Abstract Art Cookies. Rubber spacers on your rolling pin are especially helpful here: They’ll help you roll the dough to an even thickness, resulting in beautiful, uniform cookies.
Peppermint Stripe Cookies
Inspired by a series of brushstroke paintings by Ellsworth Kelly, these sugar cookies are meant to be lined up in a tight grid, painted with bold red stripes and arranged randomly. To paint on cookies, they must be first coated with royal icing and allowed to dry, preferably overnight. Luster dust and petal dust, colored powders used in cake decorating, are mixed with peppermint extract (or lemon extract, if you prefer) as a medium. (The dusts are available from cake-decorating stores, craft stores or online.) Make sure the peppermint extract you use is primarily alcohol, which evaporates immediately, leaving the pigment behind, and not primarily peppermint oil, which might stain the cookies. Flat, soft art brushes work best to apply the color, and a plastic paint tray with wells is best for mixing them.
The Easiest Lemon Curd
Using a microwave to cook lemon curd streamlines the entire process, and eliminates the need to stand over the stove whisking constantly. The result is silky-smooth and as tart as you like. Use the smaller amount of sugar for a puckery curd, and more for something with greater balance. Once you get the technique down (and it may take some finessing since everyone’s microwave is a bit different), you can vary the citrus, substituting lime or grapefruit for lemon, and seasoning it with makrut lime leaves or Campari (see Tips). Curd will keep in the fridge for at least five days; serve it with cookies or fruit, fold it into whipped cream to make lemon mousse or spoon it into a tart shell for a glossy lemon tart.
Brown Sugar-Anise Cookies
This big, irresistible cookie takes almost no time to make, and is great for those occasions when you want a delicious treat, fast. If you think you don’t like anise seeds, you might enjoy their fragrant notes in this recipe, but you can always use sesame seeds instead. Or leave them out altogether — these cookies are still good with just sugar (use turbinado if you don’t have sanding or sparkling sugar). You can keep the rolled-out dough in the freezer, and throw it in the oven for a dinner party. With a little sorbet or ice cream, you have a dessert ready for company.
Semlor (Cardamom Cream Buns)
Following the Christian tradition of exhausting supplies of animal products, such as butter and eggs, before Lent, many Swedes enjoy cream-filled, cardamom-scented semlor on the final day before fasting. “We Swedes call Mardi Gras ‘Semmeldagen’ or ‘Semlor Day,’” explained Ingrid Schatz, who serves this recipe at her Swedish-focused Axelsdotter Bakery, in Richmond, Va. She uses a blend of both fine and coarsely ground cardamom, which gives more concentrated bursts of cardamom flavor, but you can simply use finely ground cardamom. A word of advice: Before filling the buns with almond cream, set one aside and slather its soft interior with butter for an irresistible snack.
Tiny, Salty, Chocolaty Cookies
You do not have to be a chocolate person to love this perfect, unfussy, snacky dessert, which is like the edge of a chewy brownie but in cookie form. Adapted from "Nothing Fancy" by Alison Roman (Clarkson Potter, 2019), these cookies require no special equipment, fancy techniques or chilling time, which means that even if you bake only once a year, you can still make these. Lightly sweet and definitely salty, it's ideal for the end of a meal.
Dolester Miles’s Lemon Meringue Tart
The celebrated pastry chef Dolester Miles learned to bake in a small town called Bessemer, outside Birmingham, Ala. She took the tastes of desserts passed down from her mother and her aunt, and re-worked them with the techniques she has picked up in her more than 30 years at the Birmingham restaurants Highlands Bar & Grill, Chez Fonfon and Bottega. This lemon meringue tart, reminiscent of a Southern icebox cake but with a French feel, is a perfect example. She stirs in white chocolate to give the curd a luscious mouth feel, and finishes it with a drift of soft Swiss meringue toasted with a blowtorch. A few seconds under the broiler will work, too. She cautions cooks never to take their eyes off the tart during that final step. “It’ll get away from you fast,” she said.
Pecan Tarts
Pecan pastries are synonymous with the American South; this recipe is a handheld compendium of community. The flavor profile mirrors its larger cousin — the full-sized pecan pie — but tarts serve just as ably as a crowd-pleaser. This pastry dough comes together easily, but be sure to chill it for at least an hour and a half before forming your tart shells in the pan. And resist the urge to overfill each pastry cup: the sweet, sticky pecan mixture should come only three-quarters of the way up the side because it will rise as it bakes. These pecan tarts can hold at room temperature for several days, if you have any left by then.
Brown-Butter Poundcake
This rich and nutty loaf is deeply flavorful and incredibly tender owing to plenty of brown butter and toasty hazelnuts. A thin layer of crackly lemon icing lightens and brightens it. Enjoy this cake with a cup of tea in the afternoon, or top it with cream and berries for a delicious dessert. Either way, you may find yourself sneaking a little slice every time you walk by the plate.
Coconut Cream Cake With Peaches
In this trifle-like dessert, a tender coconut macaroon cake is layered with whipped cream and juicy ripe peaches. It’s allowed to rest in the refrigerator so the cake can absorb the cream and peach juices, and the whole thing turns into an almost puddinglike confection. If you’d rather serve it trifle-style from a large glass bowl, feel free. This is best after 24 to 48 hours in the fridge, when the cake has absorbed the maximum amount of cream. You can garnish the top with strawberries or more peach slices if you like, or leave it plain.
Brown-Edge Cookies
These one-bowl cookies, sometimes known as crispies, are buttery like the Danish cookies in blue tins, tender in the middle like snickerdoodles and snappy like Scottish shortbread. But there’s nothing else quite like them, and they go with everything. No one knows the exact provenance of the recipe, but Nabisco sold a similar cookie called brown-edge wafers until they discontinued production in 1996. This all-butter version is adapted from Millie Shea of Traverse City, Mich., who learned it from her mother in the 1930s. For best results, be sure to cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, and don’t overbake.
Caramelized Apple King Cake
Though there are many versions of king cake — the pastry eaten from Twelfth Night through Mardi Gras — many New Orleanians trace their best memories back to their local bakery. Such is the case for the Creole chef and New Orleans native Dominick Lee. His recipe was inspired by childhood memories of king cakes with apple filling served in the city’s Gentilly neighborhood. Mr. Lee retains that filling in his cake and takes inspiration from global influences, adding a fragrant orange blossom cream-cheese frosting. True to tradition, a plastic baby is hidden within the cake. The person who finds and eats the slice with the baby is promised luck and prosperity, and — fair warning — is also responsible for providing the next cake.
Ladyfingers
Frozen Melon With Crushed Raspberries and Lime
Inspired by packed cups of Italian ice, this frozen melon dessert is the best way to enjoy melon (besides eating it fresh). Be sure to season it with enough citrus juice to give some dimension to the melon, which tends to read as simply sweet. Frozen melon can be made two weeks ahead, either scraped or unscraped. (If scraped, store in a resealable plastic container and re-fluff before serving.)
Biscotti
These classic Italian cookies get their signature crispness from being twice-baked: First, the dough is cooked in logs, cut into slices, then baked again. Because they travel and keep well, a pile of them makes an excellent gift wrapped in a cellophane bag and tied with a ribbon. Feel free to experiment with add-ins: Sub in hazelnuts or pistachios for the almonds. Add mini chocolate chips or dried cranberries, or a teaspoon of citrus zest. Or take the cookies over the top by drizzling with melted chocolate, glazing with icing or dusting with sprinkles. You do you.
Frosty Lime Pie
This frozen dessert delivers cold, tart relief on a hot summer day. Pearl Byrd Foster served this pie on her menu at Mr. and Mrs. Foster’s Place, her 15-table restaurant on the Upper East Side. Ms. Foster opened the restaurant after a 30-year career in hotel, department store and food magazine kitchens. Raymond Sokolov, a former food editor of The New York Times, wrote about this recipe in 1971. The real secret to making this pie, he said, is in how you handle the egg yolks. Heat them too much and they scramble, or too little and they won’t thicken. When the yolks get too hot for your finger, around 165 degrees, they’re hot enough.
Ebony’s Rose Petal Pudding
Freda DeKnight introduced many signature dishes to Ebony magazine in the mid-20th century. One was her rose petal pudding, which was beloved by Ebony staffers and readers alike. Although its origin story is unclear, it’s likely that Ms. DeKnight, the magazine’s food editor and a frequent traveler, created the dessert from her research and willingness to incorporate international flavors into her cooking. This warm pudding provides a sweet taste of one of the most significant culinary periods in the nation. The rose icing is divine, and the aromatic pudding, which resembles bread pudding, is really lovely. The original recipe calls for 1/4 cup of rose water, which will give the pudding a very pronounced floral flavor, so you can choose an amount that is pleasing to you.
‘Twin Peaks’ Cherry Pie
This is a composite sketch of the perfect cherry pie. The buttery, well-seasoned crust is adapted from the Cherry Pie That’ll Kill Ya at Butter and Scotch, a bar and bakery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that holds an occasional Twin Peaks Tuesday, with cocktails and diner foods named after the characters in David Lynch’s quirky 1990s television show. It uses a mock buttermilk crust, meaning that you curdle regular whole milk with apple cider vinegar instead of having to buy buttermilk. Instructions are given for a lattice top, but you could make it with a double crust or the chevron shown here, depending on your mood. The filling is all about maximizing the flavor of pure sour cherries (sometimes labeled pie cherries). This is the pie to make at the height of sour-cherry season, or using a bounty you freeze yourself (see the tip below). Frozen sour cherries are also available online. The pie will keep for up to five days, refrigerated and wrapped in plastic.
Cutout Sugar Cookies
This recipe is adapted from a 1981 Mimi Sheraton recipe for Murbeteig, a pie and sugar-cookie dough from Germany. This buttery cookie isn’t too sweet, which makes it an excellent canvas for sugary holiday adornments, like Royal Icing. The dough warms quickly because of the high butter content, so work fast to roll, cut out and transfer the dough to the baking sheets to get the best results.
Shoofly Pie
Shoofly pie is often thought of as the cake baked in a pie shell, or so wrote Jean Hewitt, The New York Times food writer who offered this recipe in the paper in 1965. This pie was served at a Pennsylvania Dutch luncheon hosted by the International Cuisine Group of the College Woman’s Club of Westfield, N.J., in the spring of that year. One of the organizers dug up the recipe from her mother’s “Housekeeper’s Scrap Book, 1896.” There were four versions of the pie in the book; this was the one marked: “We like this one better.”
Bakewell Tart With Cranberry Sauce
A layer of cranberry sauce below orange-scented almond frangipane is the perfect balance of tart and sweet. It’s a holiday play on Britain’s beloved Cherry Bakewell tart that gives you a reason to make extra sauce — or a good excuse to use up leftovers. Temperatures are key to the result: The cranberry sauce needs to be slightly warm to spread over the prebaked pie crust, and the frangipane must be fridge-cold to prevent it from splitting in the oven.