Recipes

41 Portable Desserts, Because You Need Sugar With You Always

When you need a sugar rush, you'll always have a dessert on hand.
Image may contain Confectionery Food Sweets Dessert Chocolate Bread and Fudge
Hirsheimer & Hamilton

You could make a cake—but it's also probable that by the time you get to your picnic, beach, or barbecue, it'll be damaged. You deserve better, and so do your desserts. Roll with one of these 41 portable desserts, from cookies to hand pies, because they travel as well as you do.

  • Bowls of Easy Sugar Cookie Icing in different colors with some decorated sugar cookies.
    Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne, Prop Styling by Carla Gonzalez-Hart
    29/39

    Ultimate Sugar Cookies

    These sugar cookies are crisp yet tender, keep their shape when baked, and yes, taste great, too.

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  • Image may contain Confectionery Food Sweets Sugar and Rug
    Alex Lau
    30/39

    Lemon Bars

    These lemon bars are crowd pleasers and they know it.

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  • A plate of classic crosshatched peanut butter cookies beside a glass of milk.
    Alex Lau
    35/39

    BA's Best Peanut Butter Cookies

    What makes these cookies The Best? Well, there’s a few reasons actually. We call for natural peanut butter so that you can dial the sugar and salt amounts exactly. Instead of just adding roasted peanuts from the can, we roast them a second time for even more peanutty flavor. And the pan of water in the oven creates a burst of steam that gives the finished cookies the perfect crunchy-chewy texture.

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  • Image may contain Food Sesame Seasoning Plant and Produce
    Peden & Munk
    36/39

    Black and White Sesame Seed Cookies

    The dramatic two-tone look takes a little frosting finesse but isn’t hard to achieve.

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  • A giant cookie in a skillet
    Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Mieko Takahashi, Prop Styling by Alex Massillon
    37/39

    Giant Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

    The batter for this large-format dreamboat of a cookie (crunchy on the edges, chewy in the middle) is made in one bowl with no special equipment, and can be baked in either a cast-iron or large skillet.

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  • Image may contain Food Bread Cracker Confectionery and Sweets
    Alex Lau
    38/39

    Semolina–Lemon Syrup Cakes

    Beating the butter and sugar properly (read thoroughly) gives these mini cakes lift, but they will still be moist and marzipan-y in the center.

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  • Image may contain Food Cookie Biscuit Dessert Chocolate Brownie and Plant
    Photo by Laura Murray, styling by Anna Bilingskog.
    39/39

    Cocoa Brownies

    The best—and easiest—brownies you'll ever make. =

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Associate Web Editor. When she’s not posted up at a café, reading and praying that sipping her cappuccino won’t mean sacrificing a night’s sleep, Elyssa writes about food culture and restaurant trends for bonappetit.com. The team’s unrelenting sweet tooth and beverage nerd, Elyssa can also be found refreshing the Wait-or-Buy ... Read More
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