59 Thanksgiving Desserts That’ll Steal Your Turkey’s Thunder
There’s Thanksgiving dinner, and then there are Thanksgiving desserts. These are two separate events, and in between, it’s perfectly fine to take a disco nap. (In fact, we recommend it.) Once your energy is restored, it’s time to set the dessert table—this is its own event, remember?—and line it down the center with pumpkin cheesecake, pecan pie, caramel apples, Bundt cake, brownies, cupcakes with maple buttercream frosting, and whatever other fall flavors your heart and stomach desire. Whether you’re a die-hard traditionalist or here for fun twists on the classics, we’ve got all of our best Thanksgiving desserts in one place.
Alex Lau1/59Whiskey Sweet Potato Pie
We start with one of our best Thanksgiving desserts. Why the prime placement? 1. The spelt flour pie crust is amazingly flaky. 2. The custard is enriched with coconut cream and a generous pour of smokey whiskey. 3. Did you hear that we said whiskey?
- Photo by Alex Lau, styling by Rick Martinez2/59
Pumpkin Cheesecake
This cheesecake recipe is also very much a pumpkin dessert: Not only does it contain pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie spice, but also crispy pumpkin seeds. (Bonus points for the gingersnap cookie crust.)
- Photo by Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriot3/59
BA’s Best Apple Pie
Warning: Do not attempt this apple pie recipe in a standard pie plate. You’ll need a deep-dish pie plate to hold the four pounds—yes, four pounds—of fruit packed in here.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Judy Kim, Prop Styling by Stephanie De Luca4/59
Saffron Milk Cake
A floral, earthy saffron soak gives this sponge cake a pudding-like texture and its vibrant yellow color, while pistachios add nutty crunch.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Emilie Fosnocht5/59
BA’s Best Pecan Pie
Riffs are welcome, but sometimes, you want the all-time classic Thanksgiving pie. You won't see booze, chocolate, or hard-to-find ingredients in this pecan pie recipe—but do add vanilla ice cream on the side.
- Photograph by Alex Lau, food styling by Sue Li, prop styling by Sophie Strangio6/59
Sweet Potato Cake With Salted Cream Cheese Frosting
This may look like a pumpkin cake, but sweet potato is the star here. To balance the sweetness: salted cream cheese frosting.
- Photograph by Rana Duzyol, Food Styling by Jesse Szewczyk, Prop Styling by Marina Bevilacqua7/59
Easy-Fancy Pear Galette
Store-bought puff pastry and canned pears make this masterpiece. A quickly whisked-together almond cream means anyone can put it together, no matter your kitchen setup.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, food styling by Judy Kim, prop styling by Beth Pakradooni8/59
BA’s Best Pumpkin Pie
When it comes to the spices in pumpkin pie—cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg—volume and ratio are of the utmost importance. The balance in this recipe is—yes, we're going to say it—perfect.
- Photograph by Rana Duzyol, Food Styling by Jesse Szewczyk, Prop Styling by Marina Bevilacqua9/59
Cinnamon Crunch Crinkle Pie
Fold sheets of flaky, frilly phyllo pastry around a cinnamon- and orange-scented custard for an easy-to-assemble pie recipe with lots of wow factor.
- Photo by Alex Lau, Styling by Samantha Seneviratne, Rebecca Bartoshesky10/59
Mincemeat Pie
A lengthy list of dried fruits go into the filling for this pie, along with a generous pour of apple cider, rum, and bourbon or brandy. If you're not a fan of any particular fruit, swap it out for more of your favorites.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Liberty Fennell, Prop Styling by Suzie Myers11/59
Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake
A pumpkin roll can be fun, but it requires expert timing and patience to put together. The only thing this easy pumpkin cake requires? A baker who loves both streusel and big fall vibes.
- Photograph by Rana Duzyol, Food Styling by Jesse Szewczyk, Prop Styling by Marina Bevilacqua12/59
Salted Coffee Custard Pie
This custard pie gets a press-in oat crust and a whipped mascarpone topping. It’s like your favorite cappuccino with a side of oatmeal cookie.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Pearl Jones13/59
Tres Leches Cake
Okay, we lied: This is really a cuatro leches cake. Whole milk is whipped into the cinnamon-tinged sponge, and after baking, it gets soaked with evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream, plus a shot of rum.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne14/59
Dutch Apple Pie
Apple crumble meets classic apple pie in this best-of-both-worlds dessert. Before heading out to the store, check out our list of the best apples for making pie.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata. Food Styling by Micah Morton. Prop Styling by Paige Hicks15/59
Jalebi
It only takes a handful of ingredients to bring this dazzling South Asian snack to life in your kitchen. These particular jalebi strike the perfect balance between crispy, chewy, and sweet.
- Photo by Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski16/59
Banana Cream Pie
There are crushed peanuts in the crust and more peanuts strewn across the top of this version of the holiday classic. It’s topped not with meringue, but with billowy, sky-high whipped cream.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata17/59
Extremadura Almond Pie
This Spanish almond pie sports a lofty, fudgy almond custard barely contained within a tender, flaky crust. It comes from Bocadillo Market in Chicago, one of our Best New Restaurants of 2022.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne, Prop Styling by Carla Gonzalez-Hart18/59
Coconut-Cardamom Doughnuts
We are here to tell you that these oh-so-pillowy baked doughnuts can be considered desserts for Thanksgiving. If that's not your vibe, then we're also here to tell you that they work for Thanksgiving brunch.
- Photo by Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski19/59
Cranberry Linzer Tart
If you love cranberries so much that you want them as a side dish at Thanksgiving dinner and later on for dessert, this recipe features a tart cranberry filling hiding inside two layers of buttery, crumbly walnut crust.
- Laura Murray20/59
BA’s Best Coconut Cream Pie
Think of this coconut cream pie recipe like a Samoa cookie in pie form, complete with a coconut graham cracker crust and caramel layer.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Thu Buser, Prop Styling by Paola Andrea21/59
Sweet Potato Pie With Marshmallow Whip
Amplify the standard Thanksgiving sweet potato pie recipe with fresh ginger, a trio of spices, and the coups de grâce: marshmallow-spiked whipped cream.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Liberty Fennell, Prop Styling by Suzie Myers22/59
Caramel Apple Snacking Cake
A cinnamon-spiced apple cake dripping in a brown butter caramel sauce is an ideal Thanksgiving dessert, but it'd be just as delicious at any festive fall gathering.
- Photograph by Isa Zapata, Food Styling by Taneka Morris, Prop Styling by Maya Rossi23/59
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
This peanut butter pie recipe gives off Reese’s vibes with its peanut butter mousse topping and dense chocolate bottom, all layered into a graham cracker crust.
- Photograph by Emma Fishman, food styling by Pearl Jones, prop styling by Summer Moore24/59
Chewy Date and Dark Chocolate Cookies
This treat is like an elevated peanut butter cookie and an elevated oatmeal-raisin cookie and an elevated chocolate chip cookie raised a child together. It gets tahini for nuttiness, dates for concentrated sweetness, big chunks of dark chocolate, and a combo of granulated and brown sugars for the perfect chew.
- Photo by Emma Fishman, food styling by Kat Boystova, prop styling by Allie Wist25/59
Classic Banana Pudding
This banana pudding is the real deal. Many recipes call for using instant pudding mix, but making it from scratch adds about five minutes and a creaminess and complexity you won’t get from the boxed stuff.
- Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott26/59
Chocolate Fudge With Bourbon Sugar
They may look like chocolate pie bars, but these glossy, exceptionally fudgy two-bite desserts for Thanksgiving are, well, fudge. (There's a reason they're so fudgy.)
- Photo by Chelsie Craig27/59
Buttery German Apple Cake
Have you ever seen a cake recipe that looks like this? There's a secret to getting that professional shingled look, and it doesn't involve having to layer each individual apple slice.
- Photograph by Guang Xu28/59
Chocolate Pecan Pie
All the gooey goodness that pecan pie lovers crave, but with a cocoa crust, bittersweet morsels baked right into the custard, and fluffy chocolate cream.
- Photograph by Jenny Huang, Food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Martha Bernabe29/59
Milk Tea Bread Pudding With Crème Anglaise
Perhaps one of our more unexpected Thanksgiving dessert recipes, milk tea makes for an irresistibly sweet and creamy base for this bread pudding. (And, now that we think of it, why shouldn't bread pudding be considered one of the best desserts for Thanksgiving?)
- Photograph by Alex Lau, food styling by Sue Li, prop styling by Sophie Strangio30/59
Flaky Cranberry Hand Pies
These tart and sweet individual cranberry pies could be placed on a platter—and easily wrapped up for folks to take them home as leftovers.
- Photograph by Rana Duzyol, Food Styling by Jesse Szewczyk, Prop Styling by Marina Bevilacqua31/59
Hazelnut Butter Cup Tart
This chocolate-enveloped tart is filled with sweetened hazelnut butter that’s studded with crushed ice cream cones. A sprinkling of flaky salt keeps things from getting too sweet.
- Photo by Laura Murray, Food Styling by Pearl Jones, Prop Styling by Nicole Louie32/59
Cheesecake-Cake
This cheesecake has a vanilla pound cake base for extra luxury. Bake the cheesecake first, then the pound cake on top, and finally flip the whole thing over before decorating and serving.
- Photograph by Alex Lau, food styling by Sue Li, prop styling by Sophie Strangio33/59
Pecan Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies
Affectionately known as the Holiday Triple Threat Cookie, this is at its root a chocolate chip cookie, but it's spiked with homemade pumpkin spice, crunchy pecans, and pumpkin puree.
- Christopher Testani34/59
Pomegranate Sorbet Parfait
If you're not a fan of cranberry sauce, but still want some red on the table, then invite this ruby-colored holiday dessert to do its colorful work.
- Photograph by Laura Murray, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Sophie Strangio35/59
Milk and Honey Pie
This custard pie is inspired by the milk- and honey-based desserts across India, Bangladesh, and the Middle East. Milk powder in the meringue makes it almost creamy in the middle and chewy on the outside. In other words, yum.
- Photograph by Laura Murray, food styling by Sue Li36/59
Tahini Linzer Torte Bars
Combine childhood favorite Fig Newtons with a more elegant jam-filled linzer torte—and you get these fruity dessert bars.
- Photographs by Jenny Huang, food styling by Sue Li, prop styling by Sophie Strangio37/59
Chocolate Buckwheat Cake
This dessert is gluten-free, deeply chocolatey, and sweet and moist all over. It will be one of the richest desserts at your Thanksgiving table.
- Photo by Emma Fishman, food styling by D'Myrtrek Brown38/59
Chocolate-Biscoff Banoffee Pie
While this pie involves a combination of chocolate, bananas, and butterscotch, it isn’t your traditional British banoffee pie. The twist? Gingerbread-like speculoos cookies, which add a hint of spice and bitter chocolate to the crust.
- Photograph by Heami Lee, food styling by Frances Boswell, prop styling by Sophie Strangio39/59
Beet Halwa With Pistachios
If you're not someone who bakes and you need an easy Thanksgiving dessert, then—ding ding ding—you've found it. This recipe requires grating beets, cooking them in milk, folding in pistachios, and letting it all set.
- Photograph by Emma Fishman, food styling by D’mytrek Brown, prop styling by Elizabeth Jaime40/59
Flourless Chocolate Cake With Café de Olla Ganache
Consider this the sweet treat that will fuel you through the days of prep work leading up to Thanksgiving: The cake gets better throughout the week, whether warmed up or still cold from the fridge.
- Photo by Emma Fishman, food styling by D'mytrek Brown41/59
Pumpkin-Tahini Mousse Pie
Store-bought chocolate wafer cookies form the crust for this pie, which is filled with a no-bake, whipped pumpkin-cream cheese filling enhanced by nutty tahini.
- Photo by Emma Fishman, Food Styling by Frances Boswell42/59
Apple-Hazelnut Rye Cake
This rich apple cake features chunks of apples, toasted hazelnuts, and dates. If you're here for apple flavor, use a particularly tart baking apple like a Granny Smith.
- Photo by Chelsie Craig, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich43/59
Apple-Walnut Upside-Down Cake
This nutty upside-down cake—studded with caramel-glazed apple halves—uses a cast-iron skillet for a caramelized bottom.
- Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Susie Theodorou, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski44/59
Pecan-Rye Pumpkin Pie
Imagine a pumpkin pie with pecan pie’s best feature—obviously, the candied nut topping. Now spike the custard with rye whiskey, up the flavor of the crust with rye flour, and voilà: pecan-rye pumpkin pie.
- Photo by Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski45/59
Chocolate Pudding Pie
Here's a truly dazzling chocolate pudding pie topped with voluminous whipped cream. They key to that height: Setting it with gelatin, so it won’t deflate when chilled.
- 46/59
Apple Pandowdy
Who needs apple crisp or apple cobbler when apple pandowdy exists? The topping for this dessert is made of irregular cuts of store-bought puff pastry.
- Photo by Michael Graydon + Nikole Herriott, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski47/59
Butternut Squash Tarte Tatin
Hold the apples, sub in butternut squash, and watch out for the jaws dropping to the Thanksgiving table for this fall dessert.
- Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott48/59
Caramel Ice Cream
Don't be scared when your caramel turns mahogany in color: That's what you want. A dark caramel has the necessary bitter edge to balance the sweet richness of the custard.
- Alex Lau49/59
Pumpkin Spice Icebox Cake
Some things are better from a can or a box. Pumpkin purée and graham crackers are two of those things, and both are in this killer make-ahead dessert recipe.
- Alex Lau50/59
Margaret’s Maple Sugar Pie
There’s no maple syrup in this pie recipe (not a mistake), but the finished product will remind you of maple-sugar candies thanks to the caramel notes in the brown sugar.
- Photograph by Emma Fishman. Food styling by Pearl Jones.51/59
Thandai Shortbread Cookies
Buttery, floral, heavily spiced, and dipped in white chocolate, these shortbread cookies are a great gift for your Thanksgiving dinner guests to take home.
- Alex Lau52/59
Salted Caramel–Chocolate Tart
A generous sprinkling of flaky sea salt before serving not only brings out the flavor of the chocolate but also tempers the sweetness of the caramel in this tart.
- Photo by Chelsie Craig, Food Styling by Kate Buckens53/59
Pumpkin Bread With Salted Maple Butter
Pumpkin spice bread gets all grown up thanks to the addition of fresh ginger in this super-moist, no-fuss loaf with a crunchy pumpkin seed topping.
- Photo by Alex Lau, food styling by Susan Spungen, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski54/59
Double Pecan Thumbprints
These buttery frangipane-filled pecan buttons are decadent without being fragile, and they make excellent cookies for boxing up and giving as gifts.
- Christopher Testani55/59
Pumpkin-Caramel Tart With Toasted-Hazelnut Crust
This may look like a pumpkin-chocolate pie, but it's actually a deep amber caramel that gives this dessert its rich color.
- Photo by Ted + Chelsea Cavanaugh, food styling by Rebecca Jurkevich, prop styling by Kalen Kaminski56/59
Lemon Meringue Pie
Developed to rival the turkey on Thanksgiving, this lemon meringue pie is a showstopper any day of the year. The recipe makes enough pie dough for two single-crust pies, so why not pop one into the freezer for your future self?
- Chelsie Craig57/59
Pumpkin Sheet Cake With Toasted Marshmallows
We know it’s that gooey, toasted marshmallow topping that got you in the door, but you’ll stay for the tender, moist, not-too-sweet pumpkin cake underneath.
- Photo by Alex Lau, styling by Sean Dooley58/59
BA’s Best Snickerdoodles
You may look at these cookies and think, "As a Thanksgiving dessert? Really?" First, yes, these chewy Snickerdoodles would be worthy, but allow us to set our true intentions: This is your post-dessert dessert. Thanksgiving is not a time for restraint.
- Christopher Testani59/59
No-Bake Chocolate Cream Pie With Toasted Meringue
The swirly meringue topping on this pie is stable enough to make a day ahead and keep chilled—even if you’ve brûléed it. (You didn't think we'd get through a list of our best Thanksgiving desserts without giving you an opportunity to use a kitchen torch, did you?)
