Our Best Dessert Recipes & Ideas

This old-fashioned recipe takes an unexpected turn.

Nothing beats this classic.

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.If you love apple pie, you’ve got to make these salted caramel apple pie bars. With three impressive layers, plus a double dose of caramel sauce, they are the dessert of fall.

Determining a winner came down to tiny details.

Easier than apple pie.

Stay chill this spooky season.

Perfect for fall!

Apple crisp meets cheesecake.

Ooh la la.

They’re sweet and salty!

A thick layer of buttery, sweet crumbs crowns the top.

Easier than apple pie.

It's loaded with apple flavor.

No other recipe compares.

No zucchinis were squeezed in the making of this dessert.

It’s so good!

They have the most incredible soft, tender texture.

You don't even need any measuring cups for this recipe.

So rich and creamy.

It's a game-changer.

Should we all just agree that we really go apple picking for the warm cider donuts and freshly pressed apple cider? Eating those fried donuts is one of my fondest food memories from the two years I lived on the East Coast, but unfortunately they’re harder to find now that I’m back in California. The best solution was to head into my kitchen and make a batch myself.

It's ready in 20 minutes and doesn't require turning on the oven.

I can’t get enough!

Cinnamon rolls take on dessert.

If the hardest decision at your holiday table is choosing between desserts — be it a slice of pumpkin pie, a scoop of seasonal fruit crumble, or even a simple sugar cookie — these pumpkin pie bars are a sweet solution to your Thanksgiving troubles. These bars make use of smart grocery store shortcuts, like refrigerated sugar cookie dough and canned pumpkin pie mix. For the finishing touch, a buttery oat crumble is sprinkled over top.

I am an equal opportunity donut lover. I love them all, from the mass-produced to the artisanal. But if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the old-fashioned buttermilk bar, which boasts craggy edges and a glazed top that I can’t get enough of. Buttermilk bars rose to popularity in Los Angeles-based mom-and-pop donut shops in the 1960s. They are still the top seller at many LA donut shops today, including Primo’s.

Plus, there’s ice cream.

This old-school dessert is a classic for a reason.

We found the best cookie for the job.

Just when you thought cheesecake couldn’t get any better.

The cheesecake filling is dangerously good.

It tastes like fall in every bite.

These cookies win the gold!

It's like a cloud.

It’s giving sweater weather vibes.

Seriously, it’s that good.

No ice cream maker required.

Now that the weather is getting cooler and it’s peak apple season, it’s hard not to want to crank up the oven and bake something warm and cinnamon-spiced. Bringing an apple dessert to the table — whether it’s apple pie, apple cake, apple crisp, or something else entirely — is just about the very best way to usher in autumn and all the cozy, sweater-wearing vibes that come with it.

The no-bake cake that goes for the gold!

Use fresh or frozen peaches.

No one will miss the cake.

It's a must before summer's over.

Everyone will go back for more!

Do you love figs? Then you’ll love this easy dessert. But you’re that type. This dessert is really meant for people who can’t quite get the fuss over fresh figs — people who live in places where the only figs around are weak and watery, pale imitations of what they should be. This recipe will banish all that disappointment — these figs are caramelized, smoky, dark — and rich. The first time I tried a fresh fig I was disappointed.

It’s so good!

Here’s how to use up that bumper crop.

The cinnamon-walnut streusel is a game-changer.

So light and creamy.

So cool, so creamy.

The star of any summer celebration.

You’ll want to make them all summer long.

Worth breaking your ice cream machine out for.

Only 5 ingredients!

All that’s missing is the ocean breeze.

It only takes three ingredients to level up your iced coffee.

Deliciously dippable.

It’s dangerously delicious.

Puppy chow (also known as muddy buddies) is dangerous stuff. I had never even heard of the snack until my friend Beth, an Iowa native, left some at my house after a holiday gathering and I found myself eating handful after handful of the sweet, crunchy, nutty mixture. Why wasn’t there a warning label? It didn’t last the night.

I make it every summer.

I’ll be baking it all summer!

The Italian dessert might make you forget all about gelato.

Calling all banana bread lovers.

Meant to bee.

No-bake cookies — the kind made with oats, peanut butter, and chocolate — are a classic dessert and an easier option than homemade cookies from scratch. Mothers and grandmothers around the country regularly make this stovetop cookie, to varying results. I remember at least a few times eating failed no-bake cookies with a spoon because they never fully set. Here’s my secret to better no-bake cookies: Think of the process more like candy-making than cookie baking.

They’re so easy to make!

When you have a glut of fresh summer fruit, sorbets are the answer. You don’t need a recipe — just a basic template to follow and a little creativity. Strawberry-peach sorbet? Mint-infused watermelon sorbet? Raspberry-rosé sorbet? Yes, let’s make all of these this summer. All you need is chopped fruits, puree it, then add a little simple syrup and lemon juice, chill the base, churn the sorbet, and then freeze it.

Cooler than the original.