Fast Chocolate Desserts

Autumn Martin makes grilled chocolate sandwiches that are crisp, gooey and deliciously messy, especially when they’re dipped in a warm caramel sauce.

This recipe from the late, great cookbook author Richard Sax has everything one could ask for in a chocolate pudding—an intense flavor and a silky texture that’s still firm enough to stand a spoon in. For the best possible pudding, use top-quality cocoa powder and chocolate.

It seems as though every restaurant in America offers a version of this amazing cake created by master chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. But his supremely rich and chocolaty original is in a class by itself.

This supersilky chocolate custard appears regularly on the dessert menu at Rubicon in San Francisco. Nicole Krasinski suggests serving it slightly chilled.

Grace Parisi breaks up whole, cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies in a food processor with hazelnuts and butter to create a supercrunchy crust for these delectable little cheesecakes. The cream filling in the cookies both sweetens the crust and prevents it from becoming too crumbly.

In his riff on Black Forest cake, a favorite dessert of his father’s, Hosea Rosenberg tops individual cakes with mascarpone cream instead of whipped cream and luscious brandied cherries instead of jarred.

“For me, ginger should be everywhere,” says Jean-Georges Vongerichten. “It’s as good in marinades and vinaigrettes as it is in dessert.“ Here, candied ginger garnishes dark-chocolate pudding.

Caroline Yeh, owner of the eight-month-old Temper Chocolates in Boston, sells extraordinary candies from small European and American producers. She’s also an excellent home cook and baker with a passion for chocolate. Fragrant with cinnamon, clove, cardamom and ginger, her fondue holds up remarkably well at room temperature, which makes it good for parties—especially when it’s served with gingerbread, apples or shortbread for dunking.

Although this deep, dark chocolate pudding is easily made in ramekins, it’s fun to bake and serve in small glass jars. Pim Techamuanvivit likes using old, mismatched jam jars.

“I’m more addicted to chocolate than I am to sugar,” says chocolatier Jacques Torres. A small piece of this super-chunky dark-chocolate bark staves off his intense cravings.

Folding apple butter into vanilla ice cream is a great way to add elegance. Adam Erace also adds grated ginger to melted chocolate to make a fast sundae topping; for a more caramel-like sauce, substitute dulce de leche for the melted chocolate.

New York pastry chef François Payard's divinely gooey chocolate cookies are flourless.

More decadent than molten chocolate cake: one filled with warm raspberry, reveals F&W's Grace Parisi.

Pastry chef Nicole Plue was intrigued by a recipe she discovered for matzo covered in toffee and chocolate. But she knew she could improve it by using crackers instead of matzo for a hit of salt. Now the saltines, slathered with buttery toffee and bittersweet chocolate, are a favorite on her petit four tray.

Like many pastry chefs, Ghaya Oliveira loves taking classic desserts, breaking them down into their components and reconfiguring them. This approach inspired Grace Parisi to transform a traditional recipe for German chocolate cake into an elegant and incredibly delicious ice cream sundae.

These bars were inspired by the candy and cookies you’d mail to a homesick kid at summer camp.

Nothing could be easier than slapping a piece of chocolate on a slice of bread: Spanish children do it all the time as an after-school snack. But by sprinkling the melted chocolate with sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil, Ferran Adrià turns kid food into something parents will want to try.

Grace Parisi’s crumbly, ultra-peanutty cookies require only four ingredients: puffed-corn cereal, peanut butter cups, peanut butter and chocolate sprinkles. The powdery texture of the ground cereal prevents the cookies from feeling sticky.