100 Best Recipes Ever: Desserts

By swirling chunks of white, milk and bittersweet chocolate into a batter made with unsweetened chocolate, then melting and drizzling more all over the top, Michael Recchiuti says this sweet has “all the chocolates I like in one brownie.”

Peggy Cullen 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.

This amazing cake from author Alice Medrich is rich and chocolaty but also ethereal and soufflélike.

Pastry chef Mathew Rice grew up loving an Oreo-like sandwich cookie called Murray Chocolate Cremes. In this homage, he creates a malty filling for milk-chocolate wafers by mixing butter and sugar with Ovaltine.

“This is the most fabulous chocolate cake that I’ve ever made,” says Ina Garten. “It’s so easy and so moist and light. There’s buttermilk and a cup of coffee in the batter! The frosting is just buttercream and a little coffee.”

This recipe is based on an American-style streusel-topped coffee cake. Han Feng gives this homey dessert a Chinese twist by adding roasted chestnuts. She bakes the cakes in oversize teacups, but ramekins are perfect substitutes.

When pastry chef Lara Atkins was little, her mother made this cake for her bridge club; Atkins remembers how she and her brothers would have to wait (and wait and wait) for their slices until all the ladies of the club had served themselves. Atkins now makes the cake for her son, who never has to wait for his piece.

Kate Neumann often showcases rich, nutty, fragrant browned butter in her desserts. Here, she adds it to a sweet custard loaded with caramelized apples and baked in a buttery tart shell.

Mary Odson’s sister Cathy came up with these bars, which have a nutty, streusel-like topping and a crisp shortbread crust.