Gooey Desserts

You can use store-bought pralines to make the crust for this fluffy cheesecake, but this quick praline recipe is worth the extra effort, as is the buttery caramel sauce that gets pooled on top.

Baked Alaska is a layer of cake covered with ice cream and meringue and broiled. In this version, Grace Parisi skips the cake: Instead, she tops ice cream (preferably coconut) with pineapple chunks that have been sautéed with store-bought dulce de leche, then spoons a quick meringue over the fruit and broils until golden.

The pie can be prepared through Step 5 and frozen for up to 2 weeks. Cover once it’s frozen solid.

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

A fast and easy way to make the port caramel sauce is to reduce the port in a saucepan until it has the consistency of syrup, then add store-bought caramel sauce and warm through.

To make these layered, free-form sundaes quickly, use store-bought caramel or butterscotch sauce. As a variation, substitute ginger cookies for the chocolate wafers.

Gooey, rich and delicious.

The brownies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days or frozen for 1 month. Cut the brownies while frozen and let thaw at room temperature. If desired, rewarm the brownies in a 300° oven for 15 minutes.

These incredible brownies are filled with a layer of gooey salted caramel which can be made two weeks in advance.

The parfait can also be assembled in one large glass bowl.

This decadent-seeming pudding is low in fat and a good source of calcium.

One secret to pastry chef David Lebovitz's insanely addictive cream puffs is the salted butter he uses to make the perfect caramel custard filling.

Peggy Cullen, the owner of Lucky Star Sweets, fills her tender chocolate cupcakes with a creamy, salty peanut butter mixture; then she dips the tops twice in a rich, silky chocolate ganache frosting. "For some reason most bakers don't fill their cupcakes," says Cullen, "but taking that extra step is no big deal." All you need to do is poke a hole into the top and squeeze in the ultrasimple blend of peanut butter, sugar and butter.

This delicious whipped-cream-topped peanut butter pie offers the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavors.

For these super-simple, indulgent bars, two layers of chocolate chip cookie dough are sandwiched with a fudgy, three-ingredient filling and baked.

Valeri Lucks, the co-owner and self-titled "chief people wrangler" and "pie master" at Milwaukee's Honeypie Cafe, says this pie marries two of her best-selling pies: chocolate cream and banana cream.

Pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini of New York City's Jean Georges describes his home cooking as "lazy." For these splits, he marinates bananas in rum, coats them with sugar and grills them until the outsides get hard and crackly.

Michael's Genuine Food & Drink's pastry chef, Hedy Goldsmith, created this stupendous dessert, in which fudgy peanut butter brownies get topped with bananas caramelized in dulce de leche and served with scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and her house-made peanut brittle.

Grace Parisi has two shortcuts for these incredible faux sticky buns: using a biscuit dough instead of a yeast dough and baking it with maple syrup instead of homemade caramel.

In the winter, Individually Quick Frozen (IQF) fruit, like the kind sold by Cascadian Farm, is often a superior alternative to fresh fruit shipped to the US. IQF raspberries are terrific in these soft, puffy yeast rolls—a fun twist on a cinnamon bun.

"Over-the-top, sticky, gooey goodness—or, as I like to call it, 'love.' " That's how pastry chef Catherine Schimenti describes the thrilling moment she first dipped a warm sticky bun into sweet-salty butterscotch sauce. Schimenti flavors the sauce with a splash of Scotch. "I love adding glamour to old-school desserts," she says.

The honeyed glaze on these sticky, nutty breakfast rolls is luscious and soft when warm, then turns nicely chewy when cool.

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

This sweet and gooey pudding cake with crisp candied edges, a Maine favorite borrowed from neighboring Quebec, is known as pouding aux chômeurs—the unemployed guy's pudding. Hayward doesn't know how this dessert got its name, but the lavish use of maple syrup (a Maine staple) probably helped make it popular.

Rachel Thebault, owner of Tribeca Treats in New York City, has reimagined the humble Oreo as an indulgence that is spectacular as an afternoon snack or as the end to an elegant meal. She replaces the creamy center with gooey golden caramel and then dips the sandwich in rich dark chocolate.

This light, silky panna cotta tastes a lot like hot cocoa in custard form. The brittle is easy to make; heat sugar and water on the stove, swirl in butter and spiced pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), then let cool.