Baking

My criteria when it comes to recipes are these: Is it tasty enough that I will crave it over and over? Is it easy? And does it look pretty? This recipe hits those marks. It is moistest, richest, most flavorful pound cake I have ever made.

This showstopping dessert has a few components and requires some chilling time, but it's surprisingly easy to put together and can be done well ahead of time. Making the caramel layer is the only involved step, and if you want to skip this step, just use a good jar of dulce de leche instead.

Valrhona chocolate pearls give these cookies great crunch, but you can also swap them out in favor of an equal amount of malted milk balls—or skip both and simply double the chocolate chunks. For cookies with a super-gooey middle, skip the refrigerating step and simply scoop the dough onto baking sheets and freeze. You can bake the cookies straight from frozen (you may need to add a few minutes to the baking time). Store frozen dough balls in a resealable freezer bag in the freezer for up to 1 month.

I've done some crazy, unconventional things in baking, but using avocados in place of butter may just be the craziest. Believe it or not, it works! For these chewy cookies made with chunks of chocolate and walnuts in every bite, I use absolutely no butter. They taste too good to be light—and you can't detect the taste of avocados at all. I tested these out on many unsuspecting adults, children, and teens, and everyone loved them. Karina, my college-age daughter, was the ultimate test—she's a true chocoholic. She thinks they're pretty awesome!

Shortening makes for the flakiest pie crust. But you won't miss the buttery flavor-there's plenty in the filling.

Though this recipe calls for a raspberry garnish, feel free to swap in caramelized apples or toasted pistachios. When working with phyllo dough, make sure to keep the unused phyllo sheets covered as much as possible, as they tend to dry out quickly.

This recipe is a favorite among my mom's circle of friends, and everyone I know who has tried it raves about it. It gets its name from the fact that the cake is very moist and has a crisp top, much like brownies. Plus, it's baked in a brownie pan and gets cut into bars. But the texture is much lighter than that of chocolate brownies, and the flavor is all fruit and cinnamon. This is such an easy recipe to make: a great standby for those days when you want a sweet treat without a lot of fuss, or when you remember at 9 p.m. that you volunteered to make dessert for tomorrow's bake sale.

Our ultimate version of this breakfast classic combines a rich, buttery dough with the warming flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg and the crunch of pecans.

No need to fear this layer cake: It's made with a simple stir-together method using just two pans. The frosting is dead easy, and the whole thing keeps well. A go-to cake for birthdays, Easter (with chocolate eggs on top), or any time you need a nice piece of good old gooey chocolate cake.

Although this sweet-tart cheesecake is great with a homemade graham cracker crust, which you can whip up pretty quickly, to make this easy cheesecake even easier, use a 9-inch ready-to-use all-natural graham cracker piecrust. If you like a limier flavor, add a teaspoon of lime zest to the batter (which you can sample before cooking because, thanks to chia, there are no raw eggs to worry about).

Gently spiced pecans and a salty caramel topping give this morning treat a savory dimension.

Shredded, sweetened coconut acts as both flavoring agent and lone sweetener in this baked custard pie.

We make the shells for these tarts with packaged graham cracker crumbs to save time. If your brown sugar contains hard lumps, force it through a sieve before using. Otherwise, it won't dissolve in the filling.

This quintessential spring pie has the perfect combination of strawberries, rhubarb, cinnamon, and a delicate, flaky crust.

Straight talk: This is the greatest sandwich bread a person could ever hope for. And you absolutely need a stand mixer to make it.

Says Headley of these crisp, buttery-sweet biscuits, "Serving them hot is all that matters."

Cakey on top, pudding-y on the bottom, tart all the way through.