Our Best Dessert Recipes & Ideas

Fruit cobbler meets banana pudding.

There’s nothing trashy about it.

Homemade takes the cake.

Serve a la mode.

Chewy, nutty, chocolaty perfection.

Nothing could be better.

It’s like an Orange Julius you can eat with a spoon.

Unless you’re from Pennsylvania, you’ve probably never heard of Irish potato candy. I didn’t know what they were, but assumed they were candy made from potatoes. Wrong! Irish potato candies may look like adorable little potatoes, but they’re no-cook coconut and cream cheese candies with a coating of ground cinnamon — essentially the coconut equivalent of chocolate truffles. They’re the perfect St.

It's impossible to eat just one.

A must for any chocolate-lover.

King cakes are made around the world as part of the festival of the Epiphany, but in New Orleans, king cakes have truly taken on a life of their own. From the start of Carnival on January 6 through Mardi Gras at the beginning of February, you’ll find one of these sweet, color-splashed king cakes just about everywhere. Did you get “the baby”? That means you bring the next cake — and we have just the cake you’ll want to bring.

This one’s for all the chocolate-lovers out there.

I love everything about chocolate-covered strawberries. I love the crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth shell and the cool, sweet strawberry beneath. I love giving them as homemade food gifts, and I love receiving them equally as much (especially for Valentine’s Day dessert!). But what I love most is how easy they are to make at home. It’s an afternoon fun cooking project with a result that looks fancy no matter your candy-making skills (or lack thereof)!

It's hands-down the best I've ever had.

Whether you prefer dark and rich or smooth and creamy, there is almost no other ingredient as intrinsically linked to romance as chocolate. While Valentine’s Day marketing helped drive this association home (and still does), the relationship between love and chocolate has been around for much longer than Valentine’s Day. Throughout history, chocolate and cocoa were consumed as a tonic for health and vitality — which, of course, fed romances too.

A bowl of chocolate mousse is a decadent treat, but a layered chocolate mousse cake with a cookie crust is next-level. There are many varieties of chocolate mousse cake. Some have chocolate cake crusts rather than the cookie crust; others are chocolate cake layered with a mousse frosting. But we think our double-layered chocolate mousse cake is one of the best. This mousse cake is set in the refrigerator rather than baked and is served cold.

And go back for seconds!

And good fortune!

There are plenty of days when we’re fired up and eager to begin a baking project. Unfortunately, those moments don’t always line up with when our chocolate dessert cravings hit. More often than not, we start wanting a warm, fudgy homemade brownie right as we sit down to relax in front of the television, perfectly content to not move for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, we can’t just snap our fingers and have a brownie appear.

The ice cream isn’t really optional.

The recipe only needs five ingredients!

I promise you.

All the cooking happens in the oven, so you barely need to stand in front of the stove.

The Mediterranean diet is all about moderation, which means dessert is hardly out of the question. Ingredients such as fresh fruit, olive oil, and yogurt are staples when it comes to sweets, resulting in desserts that are light, fresh, and full of flavor. Like so much of Mediterranean cooking, desserts are rarely complicated, often coming together in one bowl with just a few ingredients. Here are 15 of our favorite Mediterranean dessert recipes.

Oh, and they're ready in under 30 minutes.

Grab a spoon.

Bake a showstopping cake with minimal effort.

Three words: crescent roll crust.

Dessert recipes for everyone.

And they’re a breeze to make.

New year, new dessert.

Let’s talk caramels. The candy kind. The chewy, melt-in-your-mouth, deeply sweet, and insanely addictive kind. These make some of the best gifts ever, whether the event is Christmas, a birthday, a thank you for a favor, or a thoughtful hostess gift. Or no reason at all. You probably already have the ingredients in your pantry, and if you haven’t made caramels recently, you probably don’t know how easy they can be. Grab a bag of sugar and your candy thermometer, folks!

Number 13 is a total crowd-pleaser.

Just when you thought you didn't need another chocolate chip cookie, you do.

They’re soft and delicious.

It was the year of the dump cake!

How did I not know about these?

In my world, fondue is just another word for fun with food. I mean, poking food onto sticks and dipping it into something melty suddenly makes the meal way more interesting. Proof of this is how much my daughter’s eyes light up whenever I mention chocolate fondue. While a smooth pot of melted chocolate surrounded by a full spread of dippers may look fancy, it’s way, way easier than making a cake, pie, or cookies — and everyone gets to choose their own dessert adventure.

Think Pocky stick, but peanut butter.

It's perfectly retro.

They're a new tradition.

OK, we get why she thinks they're so special.

Every year as the holidays approach, I eagerly anticipate holiday baking and decorating sugar cookies. And every year, they don’t exactly turn out as planned. That’s because decorating cookies is a lot easier said than done — especially if you’re a perfectionist like me who likes straight lines and clean edges. But this year, I’m prepared. I recently got to work developing a simple royal icing recipe that makes cookie decorating as stress-free (and mess-free!

Over my years of writing for The Kitchn, I’ve shared almost all of my favorite holiday cookies, from my mother’s famous peppermint cream-filled butter cookies (followed by the much less finicky peppermint cream squares the following year) to rugelach and gingerbread cookies. I’ve saved one of my most beloved cookies for last. These candy cane cookies are the best.

Looking for an exciting holiday showstopper desert or no-bake summer stunner that’s ridiculously easy to make? Let us talk you into making trifle. In case you’re new to the dessert, trifle is a classic English dessert that usually consists of layered sponge cake, fruit, and custard, but there’s a lot of room for creativity. Serve it in a traditional glass trifle bowl to display the layers and you will be thankful trifle is so deceivingly impressive.

You'll make it on repeat.

Get baking!

It's ridiculously good — and surprisingly easy to make.

No mixer required.

They’re a classic for a reason.

It's unreal.

It calls for pantry staples.

Everything we love about cowboy cookies in a chewy bar!

There’s nothing better than freshly baked cookies on Christmas. But do you need an occasion to bake them? Of course you don’t! A lazy Saturday or a rainy weeknight is absolutely reason enough. After all, it doesn’t get any more satisfying than biting into a warm cookie fresh from the oven — and we could all use a little extra cozy right now. Everyone has their own cookie preferences, be it chocolate chip or shortbread.

It’s so easy.

A buttery classic.