We have rounded up all of our favorite Thanksgiving dessert ideas that are sure to make your guests happy! From traditional recipes like pumpkin pie (ours has a twist!) to more unique recipes like our Cranberry Crostata, we have a lot of recipes for you to choose from to make your turkey day special and tasty.
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Thanksgiving Pies We Love
- Pumpkin Pie is one of our favorite pies to have for Thanksgiving. Our Pumpkin Pie with a Chocolate Crust recipe is a twist on the classic. We love the pumpkin chocolate flavor combo. We used a fluted pan because we love the way it looks, but you can use a regular pie dish no problem! You can also substitute the chocolate wafers in the recipe for gingersnap cookies to make a gingersnap crust if you prefer!
- Our Spiced Butternut Squash Pie is kind of like a pumpkin pie, but made with butternut squash which still has a very creamy silky texture, but just a little lighter and sweeter. A perfect addition to your Thanksgiving dessert table!
- Our Brown Butter Apple Pie with a Cheddar Crust is a unique take on a traditional apple pie. Think a cheddar pie dough is a little weird? Yea, that’s what we thought too, but actually this flavor combo is delicious and we wish we could take credit for it, but we can’t! The cheddar flaky pie crust for this recipe is so good and pairs so well with the tart apples.
- For all your chocolate lovers out there our French Silk Pie is just for you. It’s super creamy and a great Thanksgiving pie because you can make it ahead. Load the top with lots of whipped cream and some chocolate shavings and you have yourself a beautiful dessert! Bonus – easily convert this pie to gluten free by simply making sure the vanilla wafers in the crust are gluten free!
- This Creamy No Bake Peanut Butter Pie is the perfect recipe if you’re low on oven space. It’s no bake! And you can make ahead. It’s a really rich and delicious pie that is perfect for peanut butter lovers.
- This Candied Yam Pie recipe is a great alternative to a sweet potato pie. We piled this high with a meringue that we lightly toasted, so not only is this a yummy dessert but it looks quite impressive as well!
- Our Maple Pear and Ginger Pie is a fun and unique pie to add to your table if you’re tired of the same old. The pear flavor pairs so nice with the fresh ginger, and we added a kiss of maple which makes this pie to delicious and fun.
Crowd Pleasing Thanksgiving Cake Recipes
- Our German Apple Cake is a beautiful and delicious recipe that utilizes slices apples for a pretty display within the cake.
- This Almond and Honey Cornmeal Cake is the perfect accompaniment to traditional Thanksgiving pie recipes. We love the almond flavor in this cake, and how pretty all of the slivered almonds and rosemary look. It’s quite festive!
- If you’re looking for a recipe that has a little something extra visually, our Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars is the recipe! These cheesecake bars are marbled together with regular cheesecake filling and pumpkin cheesecake filling.
- These Streusel Topped Apple Pie Cheesecake Bars are a great option to make ahead. They are also a really great recipe for traveling. They are one of our favorite fall treats! We also love this recipe because we feel like it can go with almost any kind of food!
- Apple Cake with Chai Spiced Buttercream is an impressive (but super easy!) three layer cake with a buttercream frosting we flavored with chai spice. The chai spice compliments the cake flavor so well, and we love how unique the flavor combo is.
- How cute is this Apple Cranberry Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream? We made this cake extra festive by creating a simple wreath out of fresh sage leaves, and then dotted with some fresh cranberries.
- Another riff off apple cakes is our Apple and Thyme Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream. This of this like a caramel apple but in cake form. We have a delicious apple cake covered in a sweet and salty caramel buttercream. Yes please!
- This Pumpkin Cake with Pistachio Glaze is a truly delicious moist pumpkin cake. We love this pumpkin spice cake recipe for Thanksgiving, but we also think it’s perfect for holidays in general, and honestly quite exceptional to use as replacement for your regular coffee cake. This cake recipe plus coffee makes a wonderful holiday breakfast! If you want to jazz it up you can add some chocolate chips and make this a pumpkin chocolate chip cake!
Easy Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes If You’re Short On Time
- Our Cranberry Crostata is a great way to use all those delicious and fresh cranberries that come to the markets during this season. This recipe is super easy, and we love the play of the creamy filling with the tartness of the cranberries. A must if you are a cranberry sauce lover!
- This Banana Pudding recipe can be made completely ahead of time. You can even put out some extra toppings and have people make their own little banana pudding parfait!
- Our Mixed Berry Galette is delicious and made even better if you can serve this straight out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I love it when the ice cream gets a little melty and seeps into all the little crevices between the between the berries. So good! This is also one of our easy Thanksgiving desserts.
- This Strawberry Tart is a cinch to make. It uses store bought puff pastry. The filling comes together so quickly, and you can use other fruits instead of strawberries with this recipe if you prefer.
- Blueberry Cobbler is maybe a recipe you wouldn’t think about making for Thanksgiving, but it’s just so delicious that we had to include it. This recipe also gets a million times better if you serve it warm with ice cream on top.
- Pumpkin Bars are a great recipe to make ahead. We slather our pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting and a light dusting of cinnamon.
- If you love apple desserts our Honeycrisp Apple Tarte Tatin is a great alternative. This is also a very easy recipe once you have all your ingredients prepped out. A perfect fall Thanksgiving dessert idea if we do say so ourselves!
More Thanksgiving Dessert Ideas You Might Not Have Thought Of
- A cookie for Thanksgiving dessert? Why not? I mean, I am always down to dip a delicious cookie into some milk and call it a day, or even crush a cookie over a bowl of ice cream. Our Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the perfect cookie for that!
- Our Sticky Toffee Pudding recipe is quite possible one of my favorite dessert recipes we have on the blog. The pudding is a delicious moist cake made with dates, smothered in a rich caramel sauce and served with whipped cream. It’s to die for.
- Looking for a fun alternative dessert? Try our Chai Spiced Ruffle Milk Pie. If you love chai flavor this recipe is perfect! It has a delicious custard base and we love how the warming spices of the chai pair so well with the chopped walnuts. You can also substitute the walnuts with pecans, which works especially well if you’re a pecan pie lover!
- Creme Fraiche Panna Cotta is a great recipe to make for Thanksgiving because it can be made totally ahead. The creme fraiche in this panna cotta gives it a little tang that we love.
- Individual Apple Crisps are kind of a fall dessert staple, but something that we don’t necessarily think of when it comes to Thanksgiving. Serve this with some warm ice cream and we know everyone will be happy!
Check out our Holiday Drink section if you’re looking for some delicious librations to pair with your desserts, like our Honeycrisp and Bourbon Spiced Cider, or our Winter Spiced Old Fashioned.
Here are some more Thanksgiving posts you might like:
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