Desserts Recipes

Dalgona Tiramisu (Korean Whipped Coffee Cream Layered Tiramisu)

Instead of sitting on top as whipped coffee foam, the dalgona syrup goes straight into the mascarpone, so the coffee-sugar flavor runs through all of the cream. Left in the fridge for a full day before serving, the coffee and dalgona flavors settle into each other.

Prep 25min 0 4 servings

Prep 25min Cook 40min 10 servings

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Made with vegetable oil rather than butter, this cake stays soft even straight out of the fridge. Finely grated carrot gives off moisture as it bakes and keeps the crumb moist, alongside cinnamon, nutmeg and coarsely chopped walnuts. A tangy cream cheese frosting goes on top.

Prep 40min Cook 25min 8 servings

Dasik (Korean Honey-Pressed Roasted Grain Confection)

Roasted soybean powder, black sesame and pine nut powder are bound with honey alone and pressed into a carved dasik mold. No heat is used at any point. A piece holds firm for a moment, then loosens as it warms in the mouth, releasing a nutty, toasty smell, and its mild sweetness sits well beside bitter green tea.

⚡ 20-Minute Recipes

Prep 20min 0 4 servings

Baking Hard

Cassata Siciliana (Sicilian Ricotta Marzipan Layer Cake)

Ricotta sweetened and studded with dark chocolate chips and candied fruit fills a liqueur-soaked sponge shell in this Sicilian celebration cake. Traditional cassata is wrapped in marzipan and a sugar glaze, while this version keeps things simpler with a thin coat of stiffly whipped cream. It is made the day before: an overnight rest in the fridge lets the sponge soak up moisture from the filling so the layers hold together, and thin, cold slices show flecks of fruit through the white cream.

Prep 10min Cook 25min 16 servings

Decchi Yokan (Soft Red Bean Jelly)

With 1000ml of water to 500g of smooth bean paste, this yokan sets soft and moist, and a knife slides through easily. It is a winter sweet from northern Settsu in Osaka, remembered as a cheap treat tied to shop apprentices back when sugar was expensive. Unlike firm yokan that keeps at room temperature, it lives in the fridge and is served cold.

Prep 20min Cook 45min 4 servings

Castella Cake (Japanese Honey Egg Sponge Cake)

Portuguese missionaries brought this sponge to Nagasaki in the 16th century, and Japan turned it into a cake of its own. There is no baking powder: the rise comes entirely from eggs whipped for a long time, which gives a fine, even crumb that springs back slowly when pressed.

Desserts Hard

Divinity Candy

Divinity sets from hot syrup beaten into whipped egg white, not from time in the oven like a meringue cookie. The syrup temperature measures sugar concentration, not whether the white is safely cooked, so the recipe calls for pasteurized whites rated for whipping and no-cook use.

Prep 760min Cook 25min 24 servings

Prep 20min Cook 45min 8 servings

Chess Pie

Sugar, butter and eggs make up nearly all of the filling in this Southern pie, yet the oven turns them into two textures: a thin, crackly top over a dense, caramel-tasting custard. As it cools the center firms to an almost fudge-like density, and it comes to the table at room temperature with a little unsweetened whipped cream.

Prep 620min Cook 25min 6 servings

Dondurma (Turkish Ice Cream with Pure Salep)

Pure salep powder thickens the milk, and seven rounds of freezing and folding build the dense, stretchy body of Turkish dondurma. Instant salep drink mixes often contain sugar or starch and cannot stand in for the pure powder at this amount. The stove work is short, but cooling, the 30-minute freeze-and-scrape rounds and a long final freeze add up to more than half a day, so it is best started on a day spent at home.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 4 servings

Chestnut Madeleines

Added in a lump, chestnut paste leaves dense streaks through the crumb, so it is loosened with a little milk first and then mixed evenly through the batter. Any bite of the moist center tastes of chestnut and honey. The batter is chilled before baking, and when it meets a hot oven the middle shoots up into the signature hump.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 4 servings

Dorayaki (Sweet Red Bean Pancake Sandwich)

Honey in the batter keeps these small Japanese pancakes soft and pliable for hours after they cool, and their mild sweetness leaves the red bean paste in charge. Only one side touches the pan, so each round has an evenly browned face and a smooth, pale back.

Baking Hard

Chestnut Mont Blanc Cupcakes

Chestnut paste folded with whipped cream is piped in thin strands over small butter cupcakes until each one looks like a tiny Mont Blanc. In Japan the Mont Blanc is closely tied to autumn, and the cupcake format makes it easy to serve one per person rather than cutting a whole cake.

Prep 35min Cook 22min 4 servings

Prep 10min Cook 15min 2 servings

Douhua (Silky Tofu Pudding Dessert)

Douhua is traditionally set with a coagulant such as gypsum, but this home version uses gelatin to set the soy milk into a pudding. It wobbles on the spoon, and goes under a cooled syrup of brown sugar simmered with ginger.

Prep 15min Cook 25min 4 servings

Chestnut Sweet Potato Muffins

Two Korean autumn staples go in, each with its own job. The sweet potato is mashed smooth and loosened with milk so it spreads through the whole batter, while the chestnuts are chopped coarsely and folded in last, leaving starchy, nutty pieces to bite into. The sweet potato's moisture keeps the muffins from drying out once cool.

Prep 25min Cook 10min 4 servings

English Trifle (Layered Cake, Custard & Cream Dessert)

Through the sides of a glass bowl you can see the bands: sponge cake, strawberries and blueberries, custard and cream. Soaked in sherry or juice, the sponge turns soft as pudding, and the custard and whipped cream above it meet in the same spoonful. Fruit that goes in without being patted dry thins the custard and blurs the lines between layers.

Prep 40min Cook 20min 4 servings

Chewy Potato Bread

Rolled in roasted soybean powder or black sesame powder and poked with a chopstick for eyes, these buns come out looking like potatoes fresh from the dirt. The dough is tapioca starch and glutinous rice flour, so it stays chewy even cold, and it holds a sweet mashed potato filling mixed with mayonnaise.

Prep 15min Cook 60min 4 servings

Eton Mess (Crushed Meringue, Cream & Strawberry Mix)

From Eton College in England, this dessert is named for what it looks like: a mess. Meringue broken by hand into big and small pieces is folded with strawberries and whipped cream just two or three times, and half the berries are crushed with lemon juice first so their red juice runs through the cream. Meringue left to sit goes soft, so it is served the moment it is mixed.

Prep 25min Cook 50min 8 servings

Chiffon Cake (Oil Meringue Airy American Tube Cake)

The light, springy crumb that bounces back like a sponge when pressed comes from stiffly whipped egg whites. Oil instead of butter means it stays soft straight from the fridge, the main difference from a butter cake. The chiffon pan is left ungreased, and the cake is turned upside down as soon as it leaves the oven; cooled right side up, it sinks under its own weight.

Prep 90min Cook 25min 10 servings

Fıstıklı Sarma (Pistachio Phyllo Rolls)

The thin phyllo shatters at the edges, while the ground pistachio rolled up inside soaks up cool syrup and stays moist and green. The syrup is made first, because it has to be completely cool before it goes over the baked rolls.

Prep 15min Cook 12min 24 servings

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Measured in cups the American home-baking way, this dough uses equal amounts of white and brown sugar, landing between crisp and chewy. Shift the balance toward brown sugar and the cookies turn softer and chewier, since it holds moisture; more white sugar makes them spread wider and bake crisper.