Try using milk or cream in place of water when mixing the batter.

This will still check the liquid off the ingredient list while creating a richer, fudgier, moister brownie.

A plain brownie batter is calling for mix-ins, and the possibilities are endless. Consider adding chocolate chips or dark-chocolate chunks.

Crushed Oreo cookies, M&M's, Reese's Pieces, chopped walnuts or hazelnuts are excellent options as well.

Fold them in once the batter is prepped, and then transfer to the baking pan to bake as directed.

Switch up the flavor of boxed brownies with just a few drops of an extract. Even just a teaspoon of vanilla extract can go a long way in enhancing the flavor of this treat.

You can also play around — adding peppermint extract will offer a chocolate-mint combo that's wonderful for the holiday season.

Coconut extract is another great pairing to try, maybe even paired with shredded coconut folded into the batter.

Most brownie mixes call for a few tablespoons of water on the back of the box. To enhance your brownies, swap that water out for strong brewed coffee. This can add a more complex depth of flavor.

For an even more pronounced coffee flavor, add a teaspoon of instant espresso powder to the dry ingredients as well.

Once the brownies are baked, the sky's the limit.

You could serve them as-is, or dress them up further. Consider adding frosting to the top, whether you want double-chocolate brownies with mint frosting or peanut-butter icing.

Chocolate ganache or salted-caramel sauce are excellent toppers, too.

To upgrade your brownies and curb their sweetness, try adding some of your other favorite snack foods to them.

Opt for salty mix-ins, like crushed pretzels or salted peanuts. You can also crumble up ridged potato chips or kettle chips and sprinkle them over the batter before baking.

Combine two beloved desserts in one with this trick.

Make the brownie batter according to the instructions on the box. Then, combine one block of softened cream cheese, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, one egg, and one teaspoon of vanilla extract. For best results, use a hand mixer or stand mixer.

Dollop the cream-cheese mixture over the brownie butter and use the back of a spoon or a butter knife to swirl the top. Bake the brownies as directed, and you'll end up with dreamy cheesecake brownies.

This sounds wildly simple, but it can make a huge difference. Just a touch of flaky sea salt will not make brownies look pretty and enhance their flavor tenfold.

Before the brownies go into the oven, sprinkle flaked sea salt on top. Then, bake as directed.

These three-ingredient sugar cookies by BellyFull take 15 minutes to whip up and use things that you probably already have in your kitchen: unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and all-purpose flour.

However, if you want to make your sugar cookies even more special, you can also use a few extra ingredients like vanilla, a quick and easy icing like this one from Betty Crocker, and festive red, green, or blue sprinkles.

This recipe by SweetPhi uses baking soda, sugar, light corn syrup, dry roasted peanuts, and flaky sea salt to create a rich holiday treat. You won't even need a candy thermometer to make this dessert — just a saucepan, measuring spoons, and parchment paper.

To make sweet-and-spicy chocolate bark, you'll need hazelnuts, two bars of dark chocolate, dried cranberries, sea salt, and cayenne pepper.

One of the best parts about making chocolate bark is that not only can you customize the toppings, but you also don't even need to bake it. Melt the chocolate, add your toppings, and stick it in the fridge until it is hardened and ready to break apart.

If you enjoy peppermint mochas, you'll love this four-ingredient dessert. To make white-chocolate peppermint bark, you'll need candy canes or hard peppermint candies, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and peppermint extract.

It's perfect for making with kids and keeps up to three weeks in the refrigerator, meaning you can enjoy it all holiday season long. 

The Stay at Home Chef's recipe for five-ingredient peanut-butter cookies is gluten-free and includes creamy peanut butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, one egg, and vanilla extract. 

Whether you're a peanut-butter fanatic or simply an inexperienced baker, this easy recipe by Kitchen Fun calls for four ingredients that you might already have in your pantry: creamy peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Make the peanut-butter dough, dip the balls into the melted chocolate, and refrigerate them until the chocolate has hardened. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also top the balls with festive-colored sprinkles or nuts for added flavor and texture.

Gimme Some Oven's recipe for five-ingredient whiskey dark chocolate truffles uses dark chocolate, heavy cream, butter, sea salt, and your choice of whiskey.

Be warned: These sweet treats aren't intended for kids. Since the truffles aren't baked, none of the alcohol gets a chance to "burn off."

To make Gimme Some Oven's lemon bars, you'll need all-purpose flour, butter, powdered sugar, eggs, and lemons. Or, if you're looking to make life even easier, you can buy store-bought lemon curd.

Dip your strawberries into melted semisweet chocolate, set the strawberries down onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, and wait until the chocolate has set.

To make your chocolate-covered strawberries even more show-stopping, you can also melt some white chocolate and drizzle it over the top of the strawberries before setting them aside to harden.

Taste of Home's recipe for five-ingredient chocolate fudge relies on pantry staples: butter, semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract.

It only takes 10 minutes to prepare, meaning you can have a sweet treat ready to serve faster than you can say "mistletoe."

First, I tried the beloved berry Chantilly cake.

This treat has had a longtime cult following and is probably the most popular bakery item at Whole Foods.

According to its ingredients list, it consists of vanilla cake, Chantilly icing and frosting, cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, raspberry syrup and puree, and a mixture of fresh berries — including strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

I got a 6-inch round of it for $30.

I've tried this cake before, and now for a second time, I still don't feel like it lives up to the hype.

Is it better than many other grocery-store-bakery cakes? Yes. It's also wonderful that there is real, fresh fruit in the cake. But I was still longing for something a bit more for it to live up to its fame.

The cake layers are pretty dry. However, the addition of the smooth Chantilly cream helps to make up for that. Though the ingredients list mentions raspberry syrup and puree, I couldn't seem to taste or find any of it.

A few berries were added to the layers, with a thin layer of cream between each. Before owning my own bakery, I was a grocery-store cake decorator, and I can certainly understand how tricky these layers would be to stack with chunks of fresh fruit.

Overall, the flavor is excellent, without the cake being too sweet — I just wish the texture of the actual cake layers were a bit more moist.

Whole Foods sells whole New York cheesecakes in its bakery case, but individual slices are also available in the cold case.

I grabbed a slice for $5.

To me, a good cheesecake should have a flavorful, textured crust balanced by a smooth, rich filling.

This cheesecake slice was almost there but had a few shortcomings. The crust was soggy and reminded me of a sugar cookie. I'm a graham-cracker-crust fan, so this was a bit of a drawback for me.

The texture of the cheesecake filling was wonderfully smooth and rich, and the flavor wasn't too sweet. However, it was pretty overwhelming. It had a very robust cheese flavor, and I wished for a bit more balance.

I only tried one bite because I found it too overpowering, but I could see it being an excellent choice paired with a fruit sauce or fresh berries.

A store employee told me that the chocolate-eruption cake is another customer-favorite dessert (alongside the berry Chantilly cake, of course).

I had a 6-inch cake boxed up from the bakery display cake for $27.

I'm still thinking of this chocolate cake, which means it was a top winner for me.

The cake itself was stunning with a ganache drip, piped details, and chocolate curls to spruce it up even further. The three layers of chocolate cake were wonderfully moist and tender — and pairing them with a chocolate-mousse filling made it even much better.

As the name suggests, it was incredibly chocolaty, but it wasn't too rich. It was well-balanced for a chocolate lover to enjoy every bite.

Packaged up and ready to grab out of the cold case, the family pack of tres leches looked quite unassuming.

The plain-looking piece cost me $14.

What this dessert lacks in appearance, it certainly makes up for in flavor. Talk about finding a hidden gem!

The simple cake-layer base is soaked in cream and sweetened condensed milk and finished with a whipped topping. The texture was incredible with an excellent balanced flavor.

Every bite contained subtle notes of coconut and caramel that weren't too sweet or overpowering.

It's perfect on its own, but there's certainly room to dress it up at home if you plan to serve it for a special occasion. A few sliced strawberries on top will go a long way.

There are plenty of cookie options in the Whole Foods bakery, but I chose something classic with a slightly elevated twist.

I picked up a pack of four brown-butter chocolate-chunk cookies for $7.50

Perfectly chewy and packed with flavor is the best way to describe these tasty cookies. I loved that they had chocolate chunks rather than chips — and there were plenty of them!

Thanks to the brown butter and vanilla extract, the flavor of this cookie was slightly enhanced compared to a typical chocolate-chip cookie.

Overall, excellent in every bite.

I found several flavors of Parisian macarons in the bakery display case. I chose one vanilla, one chocolate, and one salted caramel.

Each macaron was $2.

I will always get macarons if they're offered at a bakery. I'm a forever fan, and I had high hopes for these offerings.

I tried three different flavors, and although each tasted decent (especially salted caramel), their textures were a bit off.

The interiors of the macarons were chewy, but the exteriors were far too crunchy and dry to me.

Brownies are a classic, and every bakery should offer a great version of this treat.

Whole Foods sells brownies in packs of four, or you can grab individually-wrapped ones for $2.75 each.

It's hard for me to believe that a grocery-store bakery would produce a lackluster brownie, but I think Whole Foods has.

The top of the brownie was surprisingly dry and crackly, yet underneath there was actually a wonderful cakey-meets-fudgy balance.

Unfortunately, the dry top detracted from that.

In terms of flavor, I expected a wonderfully balanced, chocolaty brownie — but I thought it was relatively bland and disappointing.

The Whole Foods bakery had several flavors of pie, from pecan to four-berry to apple.

To get a taste for the crust and fruit filling, I chose a 9-inch cherry pie for $15.

Even for seasoned bakers, putting together a homemade pie can feel like a lot of work. For $15, this is a decent option if you aren't up to the task of making your own.

The not-too-sweet flavor was excellent. However, the crust wasn't one bit flaky or buttery and seemed a bit soggy, like it had been pulled out of the oven a few minutes too early. Still, I may have just gotten a dud.

Overall, I wished for a better pie crust, but it's a decent option in a pinch.

Among the bakery's cookie selection, I found shortbread shaped like little Scottie dogs that were partially dunked in a chocolate coating.

The cookie four-pack cost me $5.50.

I hoped for an adorable cookie that also tasted fantastic, but I ended up disappointed.

These were definitely an impulse buy based on the cute shape and design of the cookie, but biting into one let me down.

The texture was fine, but the flavor was oddly artificial to me. I don't think they tasted balanced or buttery, and the hint of vanilla I was expecting didn't come through.

Whole Foods sells tiramisu dessert cups, but there's also a whole tiramisu cake available in the bakery display case.

I got a pretty 6-inch tiramisu cake for $27.

Making tiramisu isn't necessarily difficult, but it requires a few steps. If you want to skip them and buy it premade as a cake, this one from Whole Foods is a worthy option.

The two-layer dessert had terrific flavor thanks to the vanilla cake paired with a creamy, coffee-flavored filling. The top was dressed up nicely with even more piped cream, a dusting of cocoa powder, and chocolate curls.

I think it's a bit pricey for what it is, but a good option if you need to pick up a showstopping dessert for a special occasion.