Recipes with vanilla extract

Apricot squares with a buttery shortbread base and a chewy brown sugar layer studded with simmered apricots and chopped almonds. Dusted with powdered sugar for a classic finish.

Mint Surprise Cookies hide a melty chocolate mint wafer inside soft brown-sugar dough, each one crowned with a toasted walnut. Chill the dough so it seals the surprise neatly before baking.

Buttery macadamia nut biscotti with half the nuts ground into the dough and half left whole. Twice-baked for a crisp, crunchy cookie with rich tropical flavor.

Make-ahead slice and bake sugar cookies with lemon extract. Shape the dough into logs, freeze for up to 6 months, and bake fresh cookies in 10 minutes whenever the craving hits.

Rigo Jancsi, the classic Hungarian chocolate cake with two layers of rich sponge filled with rum-spiked chocolate cream and topped with a glossy chocolate glaze. An elegant European pastry.

Lighter pumpkin cream cheese pie with fat-free cream cheese, egg whites, and maple syrup in a phyllo pastry crust. All the fall flavor with less guilt per slice.

Whoopie pies sandwich two soft chocolate cake-cookies around a fluffy vanilla cream filling. Maine and Pennsylvania Dutch dessert with a cult following.

Easy cranberry cheesecake with tart cranberries and bright orange zest folded into a creamy filling and baked in a graham-dusted pie plate. A festive, holiday-ready dessert with a sweet-tart balance.

These delicious and melted in your mouth cookies don't last long.

Coffee coffeecake baked in a bundt pan with a marbled espresso swirl through sour cream batter, topped with a pourable espresso glaze.

Chocolate maple cake with unsweetened chocolate, folded egg whites, and a maple walnut buttercream frosting. Split into four layers for an impressive celebration cake.

A decadent cake that is buttery, moist, rich and delicious.

Low-fat oatmeal muffins packed with warm spices, dried cranberries, and pecans. Made with maple syrup, orange juice, and egg whites for 12 healthy muffins.

Norwegian krumkaker are crisp cardamom-scented waffle cookies pressed thin in a special iron and rolled into cones while still hot. A traditional Scandinavian Christmas treat.

Zesty fig and date pastry bars with walnuts, orange juice, and lemon zest on a buttery shortbread crust with a crisscross lattice top. A bright, old-school cookie bar.

Krumkake are crisp Norwegian waffle cookies pressed in a decorative iron and shaped while warm into cones or cookie bowls. Six ingredients for an elegant Scandinavian dessert vessel.