20 Fan Favorite Dessert Recipes

This cookie is a huge reader favorite! These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are over the top: big and chewy, with nutty brown butter, chocolate chunks, topped with flaky sea salt. Our friends and family agree, this is one outrageously delicious cookie!

This Vanilla Mug Cake recipe comes out moist and 100% delicious! The hardest part? Waiting for it to cool until you can dig in. Here’s our tutorial: all you need to know about how to make a mug cake – and some variations for making it your own!

Here’s a cozy baked good that’s calling your name: this easy apple cobbler recipe! The topping is a meld of a biscuit and a sugar cookie, chewy, sweet and baked into golden-brown dollops. It covers a sweetly-spiced apple layer that’s flavored with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and lemon zest for a little pop. Top it with melty vanilla ice cream and there’s really nothing more we want.

Everyone loves a good chocolate cookie. But here’s something we think is even better: these soft, gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars! They’ve got an irresistibly chewy texture, featuring a luxurious dough with loads of dark chocolate chips. A bit of oatmeal gives it a nostalgic heartiness, and the edges get perfectly golden. 

Here’s an iconic dessert that’s the pure definition of decadence: Molten Chocolate Lava Cake! It gets its name from its liquid “lava” center, which flows like a volcano when you dig into it with a fork. Are you a chocolate lover licks the batter off spatulas when baking? (Guilty.) Then you’ll be head over heels for this one.

Bliss bites are one of our most popular dessert recipes of all time! They’re basically a homemade peanut butter cup combined with a no bake cookie, and people all over the world make and love them! Made with maple syrup, coconut oil, and oats, they’re naturally sweet, vegan, and gluten-free.

We included this recipe in our cookbook Pretty Simple Cooking because it was so popular!

Next up in our favorite dessert recipes: cookie cake! This chocolate chip cookie cake is 100% more delicious than a store bought cookie cake. (We think, at least!) The rich chocolate chunks and a hint of orange zest make it seriously irresistible: the flavor is oh so real. The texture is perfectly soft and chewy.

Meet another favorite dessert recipe: this easiest applesauce cake! It’s moist, scented with cinnamon, and perfectly fluffy. It’s got a healthy spin with olive oil and Greek yogurt, and instead of calorie-rich icing there’s a sprinkle of powdered sugar. And the best part? It’s so easy: simply mix all the ingredients together in the baking pan. No mixing bowls required!

Are you ready for a supremely delicious dessert recipe? Because have we got one for you! This chocolate zucchini cake is rich, chocolaty, and irresistibly good. It’s an inventive way to eat real, whole foods in dessert form, pairing zucchini and almond butter with chocolate chips. This cake is gluten free and dairy free and made it to family favorite status in our household. The zucchini makes it ultra moist, and it’s gooey and just sweet enough. It’s truly a stunner!

Here’s a favorite dessert recipe that’s simple, healthy, and ultra delicious: chocolate covered bananas! Now, this concept it not new or revolutionary: but it's perfect for a sweet treat craving! The crunch of a crisp dark chocolate coating around an icy banana makes magic. Store this healthy treat in the freezer anytime a chocolate craving hits. 

What's a better decadent dessert recipe than cookie dough? Not sure about you, we'd always pick dough over a baked cookie 100% of the time. This cookie dough is perfectly safe to eat with a few tricks. Make the standard dough which has various diet options, or try our popular Chickpea Cookie Dough, an option that's a tad healthier without sacrificing on flavor.

Ever made homemade peanut butter cups? These have just the right crisp snap when you bite the chocolate, just the right gooey peanut butter interior, and a little hint of sea salt for savory sweet action. They're way, way better than the store bought version and the perfect sweet treat for after a meal. (Or you might find yourself sneaking one as a snack!)

There’s no need to run out to the bakery if you’ve got a donut craving. Try Baked Donuts! They’re irresistibly tender, sweet with a moist crumb, and pure perfection topped with a rich chocolate glaze. Add a bit of confetti sprinkles, and what could be more fun? All you need is a donut baking pan and a hankering for a project.

This apple crisp recipe with oats is absolutely classic, harnessing all that cozy nostalgia of the season. The crumble topping is the ideal texture: crispy but not crunchy, and buttery but not soft. The fruit layer below will make your heart sing: cinnamon, a hint of ginger and allspice set off just a hint of orange and lemon zest.

Get ready for the ultimate celebration dessert recipe for a chocolate lover: flourless chocolate cake! This decadent flourless chocolate cake is meant for that occasional celebration. Rich and fudgy, dense and dark chocolaty, it’s a chocolate lover’s dream cake. Top it with this easy raspberry compote for a sweet tart pairing that cuts the sweetness of the cake perfectly.

Here’s a classic dessert recipe that’s one of the top ways to enjoy zingy citrus: this easy lemon bars recipe! This one is my Grandma’s recipe, done up with a few small tweaks to coax out even more flavor. A zingy lemon custard topping layers over a thick shortbread layer, making the best textural contrast of gooey versus crunchy. It’s got just the right burst of lemon and hint of vanilla in the shortbread. 

Why make shortcake with store-bought mix if it’s 100% more delicious homemade? The last in our favorite dessert recipes is this most classic strawberry shortcake! It’s got tender, biscuit-like shortcakes, juicy sweet berries, and fluffy, homemade whipped cream. It’s so ridiculously good, it’s perfect for special occasions of all kinds: cookouts, patio parties, birthdays, and anytime you come across a load of ripe, beautiful berries.

Are you a mint chocolate chip fan? Then let us introduce you to…the best homemade Mint Chocolate Chip recipe! This one’s pretty darn perfect, in our opinion. The flavor is fresh and beautifully minty, the texture is beautifully creamy and scoopable, and it’s studded with bittersweet chocolate chunks perfectly dispersed into every bite. 

Here’s a nostalgic dessert that’s easy to whip up and full of bold flavor: this Peach Crumble recipe! Imagine: a layer of juicy, tender peaches seasoned with vanilla and lemon juice. It’s topped with a golden crumble layer spiced with cinnamon and ginger that’s got just the right amount of crispness and irregular crumble pieces. 

This crowd-pleasing dessert won over our family and friends recently, so we’re excited to share it today. Try this Old fashioned blackberry cobbler recipe! The topping is sweet and fluffy with a crunchy sugar coating on the top, and it covers a zingy berry layer that’s scented with vanilla and cinnamon.