One-Bowl Mocha Brownies
If you’re going to splurge on brownies, you may as well, you know, SPLURGE on brownies. But not in terms of effort or expense. Just taste. These brownies handle it splendidly.
Desserts
Bacon Fat Peanut Butter Cookies
Using bacon drippings in place of butter makes these can’t-stop-at-just-one cookies both frugal and indulgent at the same time. And let’s not overlook their salty, smoky, sweetly lovely taste.
Maple Syrup Snow
Indulge your inner Laura Ingalls Wilder with this charming caramel-like candy made by drizzling maple syrup onto fresh snow. Its provenance may be outdated but its appeal transcends time.
Banana Muffins
If something looks like banana bread and tastes like banana bread, chances are it’s banana bread. Unless it’s these cute little banana muffins that are crammed full of chocolate and coconut.
Homemade Thin Mints
Can’t wait for your boxes of Girl Scout Thin Mints to arrive? No worries. We got you with this trusty gluten free recipe.
Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake
The combination of tart, citrusy orange with not-too-dark chocolate was a smashing success at the Barefoot Contessa. It’s just as much a hit at home.
Homemade Vanilla Extract
If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. This rich, complex, boozy vanilla extract is no exception.
Homemade Snickers Bars
Know what really satisfies? Making your own gooey, peanutty, caramel-y, milk chocolate-y Snickers candy bars at home.
Catalan Custard ~ Crèma Catalana
This Spanish custard, called crema, is rich, creamy, and simple to make. The custard is made with milk, so it’s lighter. Serve the crema warm.
Oatmeal Cake
Oatmeal cake, to us, is synonymous with breakfast, seeing as there’s wholesome oatmeal beneath all that coconut and old-fashioned boiled frosting.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Seductive in that way that only butter and sugar can be, this satiny smooth Swiss meringue buttercream may make you swear off every other frosting recipe. And it’s easy to make. We show you how.
White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
What exactly does white chocolate cream cheese frosting taste like? You’re about to find out, you indescribably lucky thing, you.
Kouign Amann
Don’t worry, we can’t pronounce the name either. As if it matters, seeing as we’re too busy cramming the pastry into our pieholes to say anything.
Coconut Blondies
Sweet! Gooey! Easy! Yum! Those are just a few of the lovely things we’re hearing about these coconutty blonde beauties. Taste for yourself.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Expect a slightly ginormous, squat, thin cookie that’s chewy in the center, crisp at the edges, and uncommonly good through and through.
Care Package Brownies
Designed to maintain their just-out-of-the-oven loveliness for days, these are ideal for sharing something sweet with the ones you care, whether via the USPS or porch delivery. Or save ’em all for yourself.
Oat and Pecan Brittle Cookies
Crisp edges. Chewy center. Caramelized awesomeness that defies words. And a marginal healthfulness from oats that makes it entirely too easy to justify having another one.
Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake
Watch out, pumpkin pie. Someone wants your job. Badly. This wonderfully luxuriant pumpkin cheesecake from Rose Levy Beranbaum is a terribly enticing alternative to tradition.
Lemon Pull-Apart Coffee Cake
“Absolutely the best thing I’ve put in my mouth in a long time!” That’s what we’re hearing about this buttery, citrusy, playfully easy-to-eat coffee cake. We’re not arguing with that sentiment.
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Stunning enough for special occasions. Easy enough for weekday breakfasts. Marvelous enough to make you want it every damn day.
Chocolate Bark, Cardamom, Dried Fruits, and Nuts
There’s chocolate bark and then there’s chocolate bark. This bark is the latter sort, a sort that intrigues and surprises, that both starts and stops conversations, a bark that knows no boundaries.
How To Decorate With Melted Chocolate
Whether you want a distraction for the kids or a decorative element for dessert, you’ll find your solution in these how-tos for drizzling and decorating with chocolate.
Chocolate Ginger Crinkle Cookies
The classic cookie benefits enormously from a hit of ginger here with these surprise sleeper hits of your Christmas season.
Espresso Cake
This simple yet spectacular riff on coffee cake—there’s actually coffee in the cake—is rich and robust and rousing in that way only espresso can be.
Pecan Pie Bread Pudding
When you’ve got leftover bread, sure, you could make bread crumbs. Or you could make this Southern melding of pie and pudding that’s obscenely indulgent. Tough decision, eh?