Simple dessert recipes

Strawberry pie

This popular dessert consists of a moderately sweet buttermilk crust and lightly sweetened whipped cream. The pie is best served slightly chilled: after removing it from the refrigerator, let it warm up while you whip the cream for the topping.

Recipe: Strawberry pie

Cookies with sweet dipping sauce

This recipe will bring back childhood memories of mom baking a cake and us sneaking our fingers into the delicious batter. Cardea Brown has created a sweet, batter-flavored dip with colorful sprinkles that pairs perfectly with shortbread cookies.

Recipe: Cookies with sweet dipping sauce

Pan-fried sundae

Bake these giant chocolate chip cookies in a cast iron skillet for crispy edges and melt-in-your-mouth centers. Top with your favorite ice cream, hot chocolate sauce, and maraschino cherries.

Recipe: Melt-a-dish ice cream sundae with homemade chocolate chip muffin

Pizza with fruit

To make this summer fruit pizza, you can use any seasonal fruit and berries you can find: raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, or apricots. The pizza crust is a giant sugar cookie, which you can bake a day ahead and wrap tightly in plastic wrap until ready to top with the cream cheese frosting.

Recipe: Pizza with fruit

Brownie cookies

Ree's recipe combines the best of both desserts. The finishing touch is powdered sugar, which is added after the cookies have cooled.

Recipe: Brownie cookies

Flourless chocolate cake

This gluten-free dessert can be eaten at room temperature, but refrigerating it will give the cake a wonderfully dense texture.

Recipe: Flourless chocolate cake

Cherry Cupcakes with Alcoholic Soda

These unique party cupcakes feature your favorite drink.

Recipe: Cherry Hard Seltzer Cupcakes

Cake pops

Make this your go-to recipe for cake pops. The sponge and frosting can be customized to suit your tastes. Follow this simple technique, and you'll have the perfect party treat.

Recipe: Homemade cake pops

Chocolate chip cookies

Here are versatile chocolate chip cookies. This quick and popular recipe requires no special equipment, and the dough can be used in other baked goods (like Rocky Road cookies).

Recipe: American cookies

Banana pudding with cream

Tyler infuses his sophisticated pudding with vanilla, bourbon, and banana liqueur. Top it with homemade whipped cream, and it's a real show-stopper.

Recipe: American Banana Pudding with Cookies

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

There are several desserts in American cuisine that proudly bear the name "salad," but strawberry pretzel salad is the most unlikeable of them all! It's more like a cake made of three distinct layers: a bottom layer of salted pretzels, a middle layer of cream cheese frosting, and a top layer of strawberry jelly with berries frozen inside.

Recipe: Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Peanut butter cookies

Save time in the kitchen with this quick recipe. Mix the ingredients, roll in sugar, press down the center with a fork to create stripes, and bake!

Recipe: Peanut butter cookies

Irish Cream Pie

This rich, aromatic dessert for adults is infused with the flavor of Irish coffee.

Recipe: Irish cream flavored cake

Tres Leches Cake

It's everything we love about traditional tres leches (three milks) cake—a sweet, creamy cake topped with homemade whipped cream and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Recipe: Classic Three Milk Cake

Chocolate chip cookie bars

Lovers of both crispy and soft cookies will be smitten with this delicacy. The edges are crispy, but the center is chewy and rich.

Recipe: Soft bars with chocolate pieces

Salted Caramel Pretzel Brownies

This easy recipe is perhaps the best way to make sweet and salty brownies from a ready-made mix.

Recipe: Soft brownie with salted caramel and pretzels

Bread pudding in a slow cooker

A pressure cooker will enhance the creamy, smooth texture of this classic pudding. If you prefer a crispy crust for contrast, place the dish in the oven over high heat, sprinkled with sugar.

Recipe: Simple bread pudding with cream

Low-calorie cheesecake

The secret to a lighter cheesecake that retains the same rich, creamy flavor? A combination of Neufchâtel cheese (a low-fat French cheese), light sour cream, and low-fat cream cheese.

Recipe: Reduced Fat Cheesecake

No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

What could be better than a delicious dessert made with ingredients you already have in your kitchen? No-bake cookies take just a few minutes to make; most of the time, you're just waiting for them to harden, transforming into a rich, chocolatey, nutty dessert.

Recipe: No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

A classic crispy breakfast cereal dessert

This unique dessert is made with melted, chewy marshmallows and puffed rice cereal. We added a splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt for a richer flavor.

Recipe: A classic crispy breakfast cereal dessert

Blueberry Lemon Sandwich Cookies

Sandwich lemon cream cheese filling between two blueberry cookies for a sweet treat everyone will love.

Recipe: Blueberry Lemon Whoopie Pie Cookies

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes

Butter is replaced with vegetable oil, which makes the cupcakes less greasy but still pleasantly moist. The frosting is made with sweetened low-fat cream cheese: simple, yet delicious.

Recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Sweet lasagna with berries

Despite its unusual name, this cold berry trifle is a simple dessert with a bold flavor perfect for a crowd. Use frozen sponge cake: it's easier to cut into lasagna sheets.

Recipe: Berry Lasagna Cake

Key lime pie

Ree's adorable lime dessert consists of three simple layers. Layer homemade lime curd on a buttery graham cracker crust, then top with fresh whipped cream and garnish with lime zest.

Recipe: Key lime pie

Mini cheesecake on a stick

Frozen cheesecake and lollipop sticks are all you need for a delicious bite-sized treat. Dip in chocolate and roll in sprinkles, coconut flakes, or crushed candies.

Recipe: Mini chocolate-covered cheesecakes on a stick

Dark Roots Blonde Cakes

Guy's brownies are a surprising addition to any cookie tray. The secret is to mix hazelnuts, coconut, and chocolate chips into the dough!

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Blondie Cakes

Strawberry Shortcake

A lighter version of the dessert is infused with citrus flavor: the shortbread base contains lemon zest, and orange zest is added to the macerated strawberries. Greek yogurt makes a great substitute for whipped cream.

Recipe: Low-calorie strawberry shortcake

Banana and Peanut Butter Milkshake

Jeff's creamy peanut butter milkshake only requires six ingredients. Blend ice cream, peanut butter, whole milk, and banana in a blender, then top with whipped cream and honey-roasted peanuts.

Recipe: Milkshake with ice cream and banana

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

These soft sandwich cookies will transport you back to childhood—but with a rich, red velvet twist.

Recipe: Red Velvet Whoopie Pie

Sponge roll with jam

The sponge cake for this roll can be baked on a regular baking sheet with sides. It's important to roll it up without the filling while it's hot, so it cools and "remembers" its shape. Once it's completely cool, unroll it, spread the filling—any jam will do!—and roll it up again.

Recipe: Sponge roll with jam

All-purpose cake dough

This recipe is a must-have for every home cook: a versatile vanilla cake that will please any crowd and can easily be transformed into something new. The flavor variations are endless. At the end of the recipe, there are some wonderful ideas: chocolate cake, lemon poppy seed cake, coffee cake, confetti cake, and raspberry jam pie. Simply add the suggested ingredients to the basic batter to create a new flavor without making any significant substitutions. Could anything be simpler?!

Recipe: All-purpose cake dough

Basic crust on a baking sheet

Take note of this versatile crust dough, which can be used for any dessert, from cakes and sponge rolls to berry trifles. The recipe is incredibly simple, and the crust turns out porous, soft, and pliable.

Recipe: Basic crust on a baking sheet

Monkey bread in a slow cooker

You'd never guess that this classic sweet bread is made in a slow cooker rather than an oven. A couple of tricks ensure a fresh-baked taste: brown butter imparts a nutty aroma, and turbinado sugar dissolves into the dough, leaving a caramelized note.

Recipe: Monkey bread in a slow cooker

Crumbly shortbread cookies "Day and Night"

Light, buttery, and soft, shortbread cookies—the foundation of holiday baking—contain just a few basic ingredients: butter, flour, sugar, and vanilla extract. Ina Garten's crumbly "Day and Night" cookies are made even more delicious with a melted chocolate glaze.

Recipe: Crumbly shortbread cookies "Day and Night"

Simple Blueberry Pie

If you suddenly decide to bake a blueberry pie, you don't need to defrost the frozen berries: the sweet, thick filling is ready in just a few minutes.

Recipe: Simple Blueberry Pie

Carrot cake

Alton tops carrot cake with rich cream cheese frosting—a classic crowd-pleaser!

Recipe: Carrot cake with cottage cheese glaze

Turonian

"Turon (banana lumpia) is a popular sweet and crispy fried roll made from dough and filled with jackfruit and saba bananas, popular in the Philippines. When I was little, my grandfather used to make them with plantains, which are more readily available in the States," recalls recipe author Maya Ferrante.

Recipe: Turonian

Mochi with butter

Butter mochi is a popular Hawaiian party treat. Made with Japanese glutinous rice flour and coconut milk, the dessert is loved for its sweet, buttery flavor and dense, chewy texture.

Recipe: Mochi with butter