If you're craving chocolate, this collection of our most craveable chocolate dessert recipes is for you. Perfect a simple Chocolate Cake, advance to brave the version from The Bear, opt for gooey Chocolate Chip Cookies, or take on homemade ice cream. Our collection of the best chocolate recipes showcases the versatility and deliciousness of chocolate, from brownies to black-cherry chocolate ice cream sandwiches to chocolate pudding, and so much more.
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Double Chocolate Layer Cake
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"This is the most fabulous chocolate cake that I've ever made," Ina Garten declared when we ran her recipe in 2007. The buttermilk keeps the cake moist and light, and the bit of coffee in the cake and frosting keeps the sweetness in check.
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Lee Lee's Double Chocolate Chunk Brownies
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Pastry chef Lee Lee Reid is a self-proclaimed brownie aficionado. "I'm always looking for that perfect chew," she says. Needless to say, the chocolate chunk brownie recipe she developed, which customers can find at her husband's bakeshop, Nathaniel Reid Bakery in St. Louis, is the ideal balance of cakey and fudgy — falling in line with Nathaniel's own baking philosophy.
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Vegan Chocolate-Chipotle Ice Cream
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This recipe is 100% vegan, but you would never know it: It's rich and decadent, like frozen ganache, with a bit of smoky tang from the chipotles. The finished product is as creamy as it gets for being made without dairy, and the flavor combination of chocolate and chipotle, which is smoky and a bit hot, adds personality.
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Chocolate Party Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Homemade Sprinkles
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Rich, chocolaty, and so very festive, this chocolate cake with ganache frosting is worthy of a party on its own. Ganache has many applications in pastry, and here Chef Paola Velez uses it to make the silky-smooth frosting to top her chocolate cake.
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Miso Chocolate Tart with Black Sesame–Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust
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This dessert is savory-sweet. The nutty, crunchy crust lays the foundation for a velvety-smooth filling and the addition of miso mixed with melted dark chocolate adds depth and umami, an almost buttery quality, and saltiness to balance the sweetness in the truffle-like ganache.
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Chocolate-and-Citrus Cassata
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This spectacular holiday dessert comes from chef Rebecca Wilcomb's New Orleans restaurant, Gianna. To decorate it, use an offset spatula, a bench scraper, and a cake turntable for the smoothest cake with straight sides. Prevent air bubbles from forming in the dark chocolate ganache glaze by using a spatula to stir the melting chocolate.
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Air Fryer Brownies
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With the help of an air fryer, these gooey, fudgy brownies — baked in ramekins and reminiscent of a molten chocolate cake — are less than an hour away.
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'The Bear' Chocolate Cake
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The famous chocolate cake from the television showThe Bearfeatures an airy chocolate mousse layered between a fudgy chocolate cake and topped with a rich chocolate frosting.
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German Chocolate Cake
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This classic dessert is a textural delight, pairing layers of tender chocolate cake with the sweet chew of coconut-pecan frosting.
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Brown-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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The butterscotch-tinged dough in this essential chocolate chip cookie recipe is a perfect complement to the dark chocolate.
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Molten Chocolate Cakes
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It seems as though every restaurant in America offers a version of this amazing cake created by master chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. But his supremely rich and chocolaty original is in a class by itself.
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Indulgent Hot Chocolate
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The ultimate chocolate lover’s hot chocolate, this drink is thick, rich in flavor and texture, and topped with an airy chocolate-infused whipped cream.
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Giant Chocolate Cookie with Cacao Nibs and Flaky Salt
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The only thing better than a dark cocoa cookie with a hint of chewiness and a generous sprinkle of flaky salt is this impressively oversized one that's designed to feed a crowd. Cut into wedges, the cookies resemble chocolate shortbread, but these treats — studded with chopped bittersweet chocolate and cacao nibs — are far more indulgent.
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Chocolate French Crullers with Dried Raspberries and Fudge Glaze
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Made with a classic choux dough, these French crullers are full of personality, featuring a crunchy crust, an airy center, and a colorful topping of dried raspberries and fudge.
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Spiced Chocolate Fondue
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The chocolate holds its silky texture at room temperature, which makes it great for making ahead of your Valentine's day dinner. Serve this fondue with pieces of pound cake, gingerbread, apples, pears, strawberries, bananas, and/or marshmallows, for dunking. If you like, offer a few pretzels or salt-topped cookies for a sweet-salty dessert experience.
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Double-Chocolate Rye Cookies
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A mix of unsweetened cocoa and bittersweet chocolate bars gives these fudgy cookies a deep chocolate flavor. Dark rye flour adds a lightly savory note that balances the sweet intensity of dark chocolate well and plays off the crunchy sea salt garnish. The addition of light brown sugar makes these cookies extra chewy and helps to extend their shelf life.
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Black Cherry–Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches
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Homemade chocolate cookies encase store-bought black cherry ice cream for the ultimate ice cream sandwiches. Plus, wrapped in wax paper or parchment paper, sandwiches will keep in freezer up to 1 month.
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Chocolate-Raspberry Icebox Cake
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Crushed cookies, fresh raspberries, and layers of tart raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream transform into a gorgeous marbled layer cake in about 15 minutes — no frosting required. The raspberries sink into the milky, sweet layers of ice cream, adding a tart flavor and pops of color to the cake, and crunchy chocolate cookie crumble layers are the perfect sweet and salty counterpoint, adding satisfying texture and a hint of bittersweet flavor.
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Chocolate and Fig Cake
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You've got options: The large range of figs called for in this cake recipe leaves the decoration and texture of this dense and fudgy chocolate dessert up to you. Four ounces of figs creates two small rings around the cake, while the full 12 ounces of fruit will cover the entire top with a jammy layer.
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Chocolate Cardamom Cream Tart with Pistachio-Sesame Brittle
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This recipe adds creaminess from milk chocolate and plenty of richness from heavy cream. A touch of cardamom in the custard and the whipped-cream topping, plus the contrasting crunch of homemade nut brittle, elevate this dessert.
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Peanut Butter–Chocolate Pie
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With the smooth, nutty peanut butter filling, glistening ganache, and salty roasted peanuts on top, this pie evokes all the sweetness of a childhood memory, delivered in the form of an elegant, nuanced dessert that adults will want to savor.
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Bûche de Noël with Mascarpone Cream and Dark Chocolate Ganache
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Butter and corn syrup in the ganache keep it smooth and glossy. Stirring slivered toasted almonds into the ganache frosting gives it a "tree bark" look and adds contrasting texture to the silky filling and tender cake.
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Black and Ruby Cookies
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Paola Velez adds her own spin to the iconic New York City treat of her youth: the Black and White cookie. She starts by going all-chocolate with the topping: one side gets piped with dark chocolate ganache and the other with ruby chocolate, a fruity chocolate with a pink hue.
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Cocoa Cola Bundt Cake
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In her modern-day version of the Coca-Cola cake, cookbook author Vallery Lomas flips tradition on its head by making a cola-flavored cake with cola-flavored icing. The batter is splashed with a bit of cola, sometimes for flavor but mostly for fluff; the soda's carbonation acts as a leavening agent, similar to baking soda or baking powder, helping the cake rise and come out light and airy.
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Salted Tahini Chocolate Shortbread
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These buttery, nutty, salty shortbread cookies have enough structure to hold together when you pick them up, but when you take a bite, they are meltingly tender. The salt compliments the tanginess of the chocolate, and brings out the nuttiness from the tahini.
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Chocolate Puddings with Miso Caramel
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Miso-enriched caramel intensifies the deep, chocolaty flavor of these silky puddings from pastry chef Clarice Lam. A touch of cornstarch in the custard base helps thicken the puddings and keeps them from curdling or breaking. Be sure to bring the leftover caramel to the table; its savory, bitter, and sweet flavor will have guests reaching for more.
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Chocolate Ganache Sandwich Cookies
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Pastry chef Paola Velez's recipe for these chocolate sandwich cookies creates crisp, buttery cookies filled with rich, fluffy milk chocolate ganache. The creamy filling is made with chocolate and butter instead of the usual heavy cream, resulting in a softer ganache.
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Classic Chocolate Cake
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This is a real old-fashioned American chocolate layer cake. It's very moist, very chocolatey, a snap to make and best baked the day before serving. Marcia Kiesel acquired the recipe from her friend Joyce Cole, who got it from her mother.
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Chocolate-Peppermint Brownies
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These rich peppermint brownies topped with crushed candy canes are from London's renowned bakery Violet. No candy canes? Use striped peppermint candies.
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Ultimate Chocolate Mousse
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A legendary food writer shares his definitive recipe for the richest and fluffiest chocolate mousse we have ever tasted.
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Icebox Chocolate Cheesecake
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Grace Parisi brilliantly layers chocolate cookies with a quick mix of cream cheese, chocolate syrup and a little water. The cookies soften as the cake chills overnight for a perfectly moist, chocolate cheesecake.
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Chocolate Truffle Layer Cake
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This superfudgy cake is layered with dark chocolate and white chocolate ganache, then covered in dark chocolate frosting.
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Crunchy Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Layer Cake
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The genius of this layer cake is its extraordinarily crunchy filling, made with almonds, salted peanuts, creamy peanut butter, chocolate and Rice Krispies. The silky milk-chocolate ganache frosting almost pushes the recipe over the top.
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Milk Chocolate–Peanut Custards
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These clusters are built with low-fat chocolate milk and silken tofu for texture. Plus, roasted peanuts add terrific flavor and a little crunch.
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Chocolate Brownie Cookies
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Dana Cowin, a cookie connoisseur and former F&W editor in chief, declares these double-chocolate ones the most delicious she’s ever had. They’re like crispy-chewy brownies in cookie form.
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Chocolate Fudge Loaf
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This rich and fudgy cake is topped with a thick blanket of dark chocolate ganache and sprinkled with cacao nibs and flaky sea salt. Ingredients like coffee, rye flour, and crème fraîche enhance the robust, nutty, and slightly sweet aroma of Dutch-process cocoa. However, the real secret ingredient here is salt. A generous dose of salt acts as a flavor enhancer and balances the brown sugar for a decadent, not overly sweet loaf.
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Warm Chocolate Cakes with Mascarpone Cream
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In his riff on Black Forest cake, a favorite dessert of his father's, Hosea Rosenberg tops individual cakes with mascarpone cream instead of whipped cream and luscious brandied cherries instead of jarred.
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Salty-Sweet Chocolate Pretzel Bars
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There are only a handful of ingredients in these simple but outrageously decadent and fun dessert bars from Food & Wine's Justin Chapple. If big pieces of hard pretzels aren't your thing, feel free to swap in thinner pretzels.
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Chocolate-Buttermilk Snack Cakes
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In her update of the classic chocolate Hostess cupcake, Chicago pastry chef Mindy Segal uses mascarpone to make the rich and creamy filling.
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Chocolate Panna Cotta with Spiced Pepita Brittle
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This light, silky panna cotta tastes a lot like hot cocoa in custard form. The brittle is easy to make; heat sugar and water on the stove, swirl in butter and spiced pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), then let cool.
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Chocolate-Cookie Crunch Trifle
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Any kind of cookie works as a layer in this decadent and super-chocolaty trifle from Washington, DC, pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac.
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Gianduja Mousse
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As if the chocolate-hazelnut spread gianduja isn't delicious enough straight off the spoon, Grace Parisi has folded in whipped cream and crème fraîche to create a truly decadent (and ridiculously easy) mousse. For a supereasy ice cream sandwich, spoon the mousse between chocolate wafers and freeze overnight.
