- At Cookie Madness, Anna is telling me that it should be the year of the kolache. This Czech baked good is a soft pastry with a dollop of fruit or other filling inside. They’re fun to make and very versatile, since you can fill them with almost anything you can think of. Her Cream Cheese Filled Kolaches are a good place to start if you want to give this type of pastry a try. The lightly sweetened cream cheese filling goes well with the tender dough, and a buttery crumb topping gives it a little crunch. This would be a great breakfast treat and a nice change of pace from the usual coffee cake.
- Hungry Couple NYC also used a crumb topping on their Cinnamon Streusel Banana Bread. I am a big banana bread fan and it is always nice to see variations on the basic recipe – and this one sounds even more tempting than most. The buttery, cinnamon and sugar crumb topping adds a lot of texture and an extra layer of sweetness to the moist banana bread beneath it. The topping is easy to make, too, so you won’t hesitate to make it again and again to dress up your favorite banana bread recipe, even if you don’t start with the same cinnamon-spiced banana bread base that they used here.
- Pot de cremes are elegant little cups of custard that are a lovely way to end a meal. This Caramello Pot de Creme from The Krooked Spoon is rich and decadent. It is full of chocolate, caramel and sea salt so that you get that perfect blend of sweet and savory in every bite. This particular recipe also happens to be a no-bake pot de creme, which means that it is much easier to make than you would ever guess from looking at the finished dish and it is the perfect dessert to serve at your next dinner party.
- Why bake another batch of chocolate chip cookies when you can put them into a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with Hot Fudge Sauce instead? This indulgent looking cheesecake from Bake at 350 is a very good way to put your chocolate chips to good use. The rich cheesecake is made with plenty of cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk and it is loaded with mini chocolate chips. The mini chips are easier to distribute throughout the batter than full sized chips, ensuring that you get some in every bite. The cheesecake sits on top of a chocolate crumb crust and is served with a generous drizzle of homemade chocolate fudge sauce (which you could also make simply to serve with ice cream) on the side.
- Lemon meringue pies are beautiful to look at, but they’re also one of the most delicious lemon desserts to eat because the sweet, pillowy meringue is the perfect contrast for a tart lemon filling. Brown Eyed Baker‘s Lemon Meringue Pie Bars are a bar cookie version of this popular pie, topped with a sky-high layer of meringue that you won’t see on just any lemon bar. The fluffy meringue is piled so high that this dessert makes a very dramatic statement – and even though it’s a bar cookie, it is a showstopper that wouldn’t be out of place on any dessert table. Don’t forget to serve these bars with a fork, since that layer of meringue makes them a little difficult to eat out of hand, though you’ll probably be tempted to try to put as much into your mouth at once as you can when you see it!