Best dessert recipes: A roundup of our favourite sweet treats

Clockwise from top left: Double chocolate yogurt bark with red berries; Oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches; Fudgy and gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake; S’mores toffee cookie bars.

Desserts are always a good idea. In fact, we’re big fans of ending pretty much every meal or snacking session with a little something sweet.

To help guide your sweet tooth, we’ve rounded up a collection of some of our favourite recipes for sweet treats — from cookies to cakes, and pretty much everything in between.

Here is a roundup of some of our favourite dessert recipes:

Sweet and salty peanut butter balls.

Sweet and salty crispy peanut butter balls

If you are a peanut butter lover, you won’t be able to limit yourself to just one piece. This recipe for peanut butter balls are a delicious combination of sweet and salty, and creamy and crunchy. Made with just a handful of ingredients, they require no-baking and can be whipped up in under 45 minutes, including chilling time.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

The Colette x Soirette mooncake.

Vanilla bean snowskin mooncake from Soirette

The team at Soirette shared a recipe for one of their celebration mooncakes with us, so you can create a batch at home for your friends and family to enjoy. Or, just eat them all yourself. No judgment.

Read the full recipe here.

Spiced-just-right oatmeal cookies complement any flavour of ice cream or sorbet in these sensational sandwiches.

Oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches

These spiced-just-right cookies are the perfect texture for ice cream sandwiches — chewy and soft. They are also delicious on their own. Adapted from Desserts: More Than 140 of Our Most Beloved Recipes by the editors of Food & Wine, Oxmoor House.

Read Kasey Wilson’s full recipe here.

Holiday bark created by Nicholas Issel, executive chef at JW Marriott Parq Vancouver.

Holiday bark

The holidays are a time to indulge in the sweet stuff. This means quality time with loved ones, a little extra time off work — and, of course, something to satisfy one’s cravings for confections. Created by: Nicholas Issel, executive chef at JW Marriott Parq Vancouver.

Read the full recipe here.

A gooey, fudgy dessert with its own sauce that is rich and decadent, yet incredibly easy to make.

Chocolate pudding cake

Chocolate pudding cake is magical. Despite going into the oven as cake batter swimming in hot water, it comes out as a gooey, fudgy dessert with its own sauce. It is rich and decadent, yet incredibly easy to make. It is best served warm, right out of the oven, with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

This strawberry lemonade tart is sweet and bursting with flavour and just enough tartness from the freshly squeezed lemon juice.

Vegan strawberry lemonade tart

You will love this strawberry lemonade tart because it’s sweet yet not too sweet, it’s bursting with strawberry flavour and just enough tartness from the freshly squeezed lemon juice. The texture is creamy yet slightly jelly-ish.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

A dusting of icing sugar finishes these almond crescents, which owe their nutty richness to almond flour.

Almond crescents

Adapted from Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.

Read Kasey Wilson’s full recipe here.

Vegan-friendly Hazelnut banana ‘nice’ cream.

Vegan-friendly hazelnut banana ‘nice’ cream

This chill recipe from the team behind the Vancouver-based nut butter company Mumgry offers a healthy take on a cool, classic treat. Featuring frozen banana and a dollop of the brand’s recently released hazelnut butter, it’s the perfect sweet, vegan-friendly treat.

Read the full recipe here.

Lemon meringue pie should have a crust that’s slightly sweet, flaky, yet tender enough to slice with a fork.

Lemon meringue pie

The perfect lemon meringue pie is a sight to behold. It has a golden buttery crust that’s lightly sweet; firm enough to withstand the weight of the pie, yet tender enough to cut easily with a fork. Its smooth custard filling is bright yellow and tastes fresh, sweet yet tangy. And its crowning glory is a thick, swirly mound of fluffy, pillowy soft meringue that few can resist.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

Despite its name, buttercake looks nothing like a cake.

Buttercake

If you’ve never had buttercake, you’re in for a real treat. Despite its name, buttercake looks nothing like a cake. Its shallow profile consists of a dense crust like that of a blondie with crisp edges and a chewy middle. The top layer is creamy, almost custard like, achieved by beating cream cheese, eggs and confectioner’s sugar until light and fluffy. It’s baked in a hot oven until the top turns a light golden shade, yet the centre remains almost jiggly.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

Spaghetti squash pie.

Spaghetti squash pie

This veggie-forward recipe is perfect for plating on a chilly fall evening. Created and shared by the team at Mutti, the recipe subs in pasta or dough for healthy spaghetti squash.

Read the full recipe here.

Tarte citron from Betty Hung of Beaucoup Bakery

Beaucoup Bakery’s tarte citron

In her cookbook, French Pastry 101, Betty Hung of Beaucoup Bakery shares a variety of French bakery staples. Among them is this sweet-and-tart tarte citron. Boasting lots of butter, this delicious dessert item is “silky smooth and rich,” according to Hung. The trick, she says, is incorporating the butter with a blender.

Read the full recipe here.

Double chocolate yogurt bark with red berries.

Double chocolate yogurt bark with red berries

What’s yogurt bark, you ask? It’s similar to chocolate bark in the sense that it’s a sweet treat you pick up and eat with your fingers. But unlike chocolate bark, yogurt bark is healthy, guilt-free, gluten-free, loaded with fresh fruit and a little chocolate or caramel for good measure.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

Chocolate icing and homemade lemon sprinkles crown these vegan doughnuts, which are baked rather than fried.

Cartems vegan doughnuts with chocolate icing and lemon sprinkles

This delicious vegan-friendly recipe appeals to everyone. You’ll need a special doughnut pan, which is available in kitchen supply stores, but you can also use this batter to make cupcakes instead. Make sprinkles a day in advance — or, if you prefer, just use store-bought sprinkles. Adapted from Vancouver Eats: Signature Recipes from the City’s Best Restaurants, by Joanne Sasvari, Figure 1 Publishing.

Read Kasey Wilson’s full recipe here.

S’mores toffee cookie bars.

S’mores toffee cookie bars

Finely ground Biscoff cookie crumbs are mixed into the cookie dough, creating an undeniably rich, caramelly flavour. Sandwiched between the two layers of toffee-flavoured cookie is a thick layer of marshmallow fluff, a layer of roughly crushed Biscoff cookies and a generous amount of dark chocolate chips.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

Peach galette is essentially fruit wrapped in pastry. It’s easy and everyone makes a beautiful galette.

Peach galette

Looking for a recipe to make using all those juicy, freshly picked berries or stone fruits? How about making a summer fruit galette? A galette is a French pastry, like a pie or tart, but baked without a pie pan. It’s a rustic-looking, slapped-together pie without the fuss of pie-making. If pastries were like undergarments, then a pie would be like a pair of Spanx — fully encased in pastry dough and crimped to perfection, while the galette would be its hippie cousin; open, free-form and imperfect.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

White chocolate brownie with pistachios and raspberries created by the team at Five Sails.

White chocolate brownie with pistachios and raspberries

Created by the team at Five Sails restaurant, this baked creation pairs toasted pistachios with fresh raspberries and white chocolate for a truly decadent treat.

Read the full recipe here.

Take a bite out of these blueberry cheesecake bars.

Blueberry cream cheese bars

Blueberry cream cheese bars, with their luscious layers of tangy cream cheese and juicy blueberries, offer a delectable fusion of flavours and textures that will leave your tastebuds dancing with delight. Whether you’re a seasoned baker or a novice in the kitchen, these bars are surprisingly easy to make and are perfect for any occasion.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

Blueberry white chocolate scuffins.

Blueberry white chocolate scuffins

Scuffins are a delightful confection that combines the qualities of muffins and scones, resulting in a truly delectable treat. These delicious pastries possess the tender, moist crumb of a traditional muffin, while also featuring the slightly crispy outer layer and buttery richness that are characteristic of a scone.

Read Karen Gordon’s full recipe here.

Rhubarb Crumble.

Rhubarb Crumble

This sweet, seasonal recipe shared by Railtown Catering features fresh or frozen rhubarb in a slightly spiced filling. Topped with an oven-crisped oat crumble, it’s a deliciously easy dessert.

Read the full recipe here.