The 39 Best Desserts For Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner is probably the most epic meal of the year for many living in the U.S. Not only is the main course absolutely enormous (What other entrée would be considered on the small side weighing in at 10 pounds?), but it's accompanied by side dishes galore, many of these rather over the top themselves like those marshmallow-topped yams and soup-smothered green beans. After such a meal, how could anyone possibly have room left for dessert?

And yet, somehow we find a way, year after year, to get a few sweets in. After all, what Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without some pumpkin or pecan pie? Doesn't that poor lonely slice look kind of forlorn sitting out there all by itself on that big table? And you know what would really go good with that pie? Some homemade ice cream, perhaps. Plus you might as well add a few more pies, some cakes, cookies, donuts, and turnovers ... After all, it is a celebration! Here are 39 sweet ways for you to celebrate.

The Thanksgiving celebration itself dates back to our nation's earliest days, so it's no wonder many of us like our meals to be pretty traditional. Still, others don't want to be stuck in the same old holiday rut year after year. This cherry pecan bread pudding is the perfect compromise between the traditional and the new, since bread pudding is a sweetly old-fashioned dessert, yet the salty-sweet, dried cherry-spiked flavor of this dish is something that will surely appeal to the most modern of palates.

Recipe: Cherry Pecan Bread Pudding Recipe

Another way to have your pie and eat it, too, involves using apple pie flavors and ingredients to make your own homemade ice cream. To make things easier, there's no pie crust involved –- crushed graham crackers will instead be stepping in to take its flaky place.

It is worth noting, however, that this ice cream recipe does require the use of an ice cream maker. Don't own one or are short on time? Simply mix the (cooled) sautéed apples, cinnamon, and graham crackers into a quart of slightly thawed vanilla ice cream.

Recipe: Apple Pie Ice Cream Recipe

Pumpkin cream puffs! Just those three words say it all — this is bound to be the one dessert that all your Thanksgiving guests ooh and ahh over. They'll probably assume you bought them from a high-end bakery, though. It may take a little convincing, and in fact, you may never be able to get everyone to believe that you actually managed to make these beauties from scratch. 

Believe it or not, while impressive, homemade cream puffs aren't nearly as difficult nor as time-consuming as you might think. If you take your time and follow the directions to a T, you'll end up with a picture-perfect dessert.

Recipe: Pumpkin Cream Puffs Recipe

While there are zillions of Christmas cookie recipes floating around, the concept of Thanksgiving cookies has never really seemed to catch on. Still, why be bound by custom?

These apple cookies, which are pretty similar to mini hand pies, are absolutely perfect for a late-night, after-the-dishes-are-finally-done Thanksgiving snack. Perhaps with a cup of pumpkin-flavored coffee? (Decaf, of course, unless you're planning to get a really early start on those Black Friday sales.)

Recipe: Easy Apple Pie Cookies Recipe

While we toss around the phrase "easy as pie," it really doesn't make any more sense than other old idioms like "raining cats and dogs." Cute little furballs don't really fall from the sky, nor are most pies all that easy to make. Turnovers, on the other hand, really are pretty simple, at least if you start with frozen puff pastry.

Thaw the pastry and cut it into squares, then just fill it with cooked apples and fold into a triangle to make your turnover. Glaze it with egg wash, bake it, and you have a super easy, not-too-sweet addition to your Thanksgiving dessert buffet.

Recipe: Easy Apple Turnovers Recipe

Lemon meringue may not be the most Thanksgiving-y of pie flavors, since lemons tend to be thought of as more of a summertime fruit; but as we all know, lemons are readily available year-round. What's more, we think that any season or reason to serve up this sweet and tangy pie is one your guests will appreciate.

This particular recipe uses a cookie crumb crust and pre-made lemon curd filling to cut down on the prep work, but it tastes every bit as good as a more time-consuming pie.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

Sure, pecan pie is just about perfect in its original form, but who says that you can't improve upon perfection? And the best way to do this in most cases (at least as far as desserts are concerned), is to add some chocolate.

This easy-to-make pie (Shh! The secret lies in using a frozen crust!) will allow you to honor Thanksgiving tradition while making all of the chocolate lovers at your table over-the-moon happy.

Recipe: Chocolate Pecan Pie Recipe

Who doesn't love a caramel apple? They're probably one the all-time greatest foods on a stick. What they're not, though, is the kind of thing you probably want to serve at Thanksgiving — unless you plan to enjoy your holiday dessert at a picnic table outdoors. Foods on a stick, after all, tend to be too messy to play nicely with white tablecloths and fine china. Instead, you can take both the apples and the caramel from this classic treat and use them to top a brown sugar bar cookie for a less-messy version of the fall favorite.

Recipe: Caramel Apple Pie Bar Recipe

Fall isn't just the season for pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice lattes, but also for pumpkin donuts! While the ones at Starbucks and Dunkin are great, and the ones you get at pumpkin patches and farm stands are even better, the very best donuts are always the freshest — and nothing is fresher than something you make yourself.

These pumpkin donuts, as their name implies, are baked rather than fried, so you'll need a donut pan to make them.

Recipe: Baked Pumpkin Donuts Recipe

While Thanksgiving is all about abundance, we still need to make time to savor the little things in life ... little things like these perfect mini apple pies. They look super-cute and are really fun to eat, particularly when you think you can't manage much more than a bite or two of dessert. They're surprisingly easy to make, too, since they start with store-bought pie crust you'll fill with maple-sweetened apples before baking in muffin tins.

Recipe: Mini Apple Pies Recipe

If you want to lay out a truly impressive Thanksgiving spread this year, you can go about it in one of two ways — either by going totally over-the-top with everything or by opting for a slightly more restrained, yet elegant approach.

This French apple tart fits into the latter category, as it is both simple and sophisticated. The fact that it's actually quite easy (thanks to the use of pre-made pie crust) can remain our little secret.

Recipe: Classic French Apple Tart Recipe

What, pray tell, is a banoffee pie? If you are asking this question, you're probably not from the U.K., since it's been a popular dessert there for the past half-century or so. If you're a fan of portmanteau words, you may be able to decipher the main ingredients by picking apart the name, as this pie gets its flavor from ban[anas] and [tof]fee. Or caramel, as we actually use in this recipe. Perhaps if this pie ever catches on in the U.S., we could consider changing the name to "banarmel," though we'd rather just enjoy it with whipped cream instead of getting into semantic squabbles with our friends across the pond.

Recipe: Best Banoffee Pie Recipe

Bar cookies are a favorite item on any buffet table: they're compact, easy to eat, and their shape lends itself to layers that add more depth of flavor than is possible in a typical drop or rolled cookie. Also, bar cookies are much easier to make, since you simply add the ingredients to a pan or baking dish and bake them all in one batch. These pumpkin bars are extra- extra-easy, since they are made from cake mix and topped with pumpkin pie filling for a perfect Thanksgiving dessert with only five ingredients.

Recipe: Easy Pumpkin Bars Recipe

As any parent knows, caramel apples are yummy, but messy. Luckily for us, there's a way around that — simply turn them into turnovers! These compact treats are fit to grace your Thanksgiving table without getting sticky stuff all over the good linens.

How do you do accomplish this sweet assignment, you may ask, and we may answer: it's easy, all you need to do is fill frozen puff pastry squares with sweetened sautéed apples. Fold each square over into a triangle, and voilà! It's a turnover, or it will be once you bake it.

Recipe: Caramel Apple Turnovers Recipe

An annual rite of fall for many involves a trip to the local DQ as soon as the pumpkin pie Blizzards come out. Who can resist a slice of that classic Thanksgiving dessert whirled in the blender with soft-serve ice cream? If you think your Thanksgiving guests might enjoy this treat as well, there's no need to order out. (Would DQ even deliver on Thanksgiving day?) Instead, this copycat recipe will enable you to whip up a reasonable facsimile in your own blender in just a few minutes' time.

Oh, and there's no need to sacrifice so much as a single slice of your precious pumpkin pie! This recipe calls for pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice, but uses vanilla wafers in place of the crust, so you can indulge in both treats without sacrificing too much oven space.

Recipe: Copycat Dairy Queen Pumpkin Pie Blizzard Recipe

Pumpkin pie is great on its own, and even better with a dollop of whipped cream, but have you tried it à la mode?

If you really, really love pumpkin pie, why not double down on fall's favorite flavor by topping your slices with a scoop of pumpkin ice cream? This homemade ice cream is flavored with pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree. The recipe is so simple and easy to make — you don't even need an ice cream maker!

Recipe: Homemade Pumpkin Ice Cream Recipe

Snickerdoodles were once among the first things everyone learned to cook in middle school home economics class, teaching kids such necessary life skills like baking cookies and darning socks. As such, this dessert has a certain charm for people who fondly remember "homec," but it's popular with younger folks too, since just about everybody loves cinnamon. This recipe, however, takes your standard snickerdoodle and dresses it up for Thanksgiving with the addition of pumpkin puree. This ingredient not only adds to the flavor, but tints the cookies a festive orange hue.

Recipe: Best Pumpkin Snickerdoodles Recipe

Brown butter is one of those specialty baking ingredients that you can, and definitely should, make at home. Browning butter is not at all difficult, but does require you to pay attention since there's a fine line between butter that's browned to the point of acquiring a rich, nutty flavor and butter that's just plain burnt. Once you've mastered the art of butter-browning, though, what should you do with this ingredient? We suggest this simple, yet elegant, apple tart to wow your Thanksgiving guests.

Recipe: Brown Butter Apple Tart Recipe

Galette aux pommes sounds so much more élégante than plain old apple pie, non? Strange though it may seem, this dessert très sophistiqué is actually easier to make than your standard pie. It involves the same type of crust (our recipe starts from scratch, but you can use store-bought dough if you're pressed for time) and the same sugar-sprinkled, butter-dotted sliced apple filling, but when it comes to the construction, that's where we see la différence. Simply roll out the pie dough — raggedy edges and all — top it with the apples, then fold up the crust. The resulting freeform tart will bring a touch of boho chic to your Thanksgiving table.

Recipe: Apple Galette Recipe