Top 3 Desserts (from 2022)

... aaaaand just because it felt right, here are the top three desserts I made last year listed in reverse order.

I picked these in 2023, but I'm seriously questioning whether it's the recency effect that makes these guys stick out in my mind, or if my taste buds were under a holiday spell because all three of these were baked in November and December. But that's the best time for desserts after all, right?

Butter Pecan Bars from Half Baked Harvest: Super Simple - Once these cooled completely, they were addicting as promised in the recipe. I made the mistake of being a bit overeager and eating them a mere hour after they came out of the oven. Friends, there was chocolate DRIPPING all over us, which made these a hard sell to my husband who already doesn't like chocolate. My bad. We kept a few at home and sent the rest to work with him where they were also a big hit.

I had a couple qualms with the sweetness, but this was largely my fault. I only had sweetened coconut and I refused to go to the store for unsweetened, so that was a dumb deviation - but what the heck, it was Christmas time, what's an extra 1,000g of sugar? Also I accidentally used white sugar instead of brown sugar in the shortbread. I will behave next year when these come out again.

Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake from Magnolia Table - Admittedly this didn't taste that good to me the first time I made it, but I'm willing to accept that it might have been more psychological than anything else. First of all, it was massive and I made it for a dinner of four people who are not nuts about sugar, so I was a little self-conscious about that. There is also the possibility, though, that the flavors needed an extra day to meld or something because I spent the whole next week eating it, like, in place of meals................ The icing (which I halved the sugar on) was thin and understated, a perfect complement to the cake which just seemed to be getting better and better with each passing day. I'm considering this cake dangerous. But I will definitely be making it again.

Dulce de Leche Apple Pie from Magnolia Table - This one absolutely transfixed the crowd though I had major reservations about how it would turn out. I made it for Holiday Dinner (yearly tradition in my friend group; it really just means 'we have dinner around the holidays' - not necessarily a beef tenderloin [although one year it was one, at the height of pandemic shortages, and cost a WHOLE HUNDRED DOLLARS so we made everyone lick their plates]).

Anyway, about the pie. I got home with the ten pounds of apples the recipe called for. Fun fact, the scales at the grocery store feature the Kilos more prominently than the Pounds, so I almost bought 10 Kilos of apples. Actually, I walked away from the store thinking I underbought apples because of the scale kerfuffle but had so many apples in hand that I thought that if this wasn't enough apples, this recipe was just ridiculous.

Anyway, about the pie. I couldn't find my pie dish and got extremely stressed out, since now I had this ungodly amount of apples that I would still be stuck with if I punted on the plan and picked up brownies instead. Google said I could use a 9-inch baking round instead, which I did, and it was perfect. I think if I had used the pie dish there would have been an overflow of apples (HOW was it that this many apples were needed?)

Next time, I will use more dulce de leche (like, a lot more) and cut the sugar in the filling down a bit. This didn't matter though. It was delicious, we all inhaled it with vanilla ice cream. Highly recommend.

P.S. I have a confession about the pie dish, I actually knew where it was deep down in my subconscious but refused to accept that I would need to get on my hands and knees and pull out that drawer underneath the oven behind which it inevitably had gotten trapped. I did this two weeks later. All's well that ends well.

Here were my (non-dessert) top six recipes for 2022.