42 Showstopping Holiday Dessert Recipes to End Your Meal With a Bang

Almond Frangipane Tart with Cranberries and Honeyed Pistachios

Chocolate Ganache Tart with Sea Salt Espresso Beans

Orange and Ginger Brownie Cookies

Syrup-Soaked Pastries with Hazelnuts, Pistachios, and Pine Nuts (Deblah)

Able to be assembled up to 2 days prior to baking, this multilayered pastry cake is stuffed with poppy seed, walnut, cottage cheese, and tart apple fillings. Get the recipe for Layered Strudel Cake (Prekmurska Gibanica) »

Lemon Meringue Tarts

This recipe, from Fore Street restaurant in Portland, Maine, calls for using six 4″ steel blini pans. But you can make a single cake in an 8″ cast-iron skillet, if you prefer. If fresh or frozen cranberries aren’t available, use reconstituted dried berries. Get the recipe for Apple and Cranberry Upside-Down Cakes »

Fresh and dried fruits steep in hazelnut liqueur for three days to make the filling for this holiday pie. Suet, a traditional mincemeat ingredient, adds moisture and richness, but vegetable shortening works just as well.

Fresh ginger gives the filling of this pear pie a warming kick of spice, balanced by the buttery crumble of sweet streusel.

Steeping the saffron in vodka helps boost the flavor of the spice throughout the cake.

The creaminess of this classic vanilla custard gains an edge with the addition of light rum.

Browned butter accentuates the flavor of earthy walnuts and a sour cream topping offsets the richness of the filling for a balanced, delectable dessert.

This rich, silky mousse brightened with tangy lemons makes an elegant end to a meal.

This decadent take on an iconic dessert, from Mat & Naddie’s Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, gilds the lily, pan-frying white chocolate-enriched bread pudding, and plating it with satiny caramel and sweet bananas.

Apples are roasted in wine and butter for this sweet and spicy dessert, a staple of holiday markets throughout Germany.

Baked Alaska first made its way into print in Fannie Farmer’s 1896_ Boston Cooking-School Cook Book,_ but the idea of baking ice cream inside cake and meringue had been around for much of the century. The way was paved in the early 1800s by that genius of thermodynamics Benjamin Thompson, with his work on the resistance of egg whites to heat.

Sweetened with white chocolate only, this rich, Middle Eastern-inspired panna cotta gets its distinctive floral aroma from an infusion of blistered cardamom.

This version of the traditional French Christmas cake is filled with coffee buttercream and covered in chocolate ganache. See the recipe for Buche de Noel »

This simple yet sophisticated, airy yet intense concoction has been a hit with home cooks in America at least since the New York Times published its first recipe for the dessert in 1955. Get the recipe for Chocolate Mousse »

This delicious and decorative holiday confection demonstrates the key to cooking with white chocolate: adding in a touch of water helps it keep its shape after cooling. See the recipe for White Chocolate Christmas Tree »

The trifle is a very old concoction—by some accounts, more than 300 years old—but twentieth century variations have turned it into a classic, occasion-ready centerpiece. Drenched in sherry and kirsch, our version features layer upon layer of ginger cake, custard, berries, chocolate, and cream.

A supremely moist, boozy Southern bundt cake fitting for any holiday spread.

This sweet-tart conserve is a luscious accompaniment to ice cream. It also adds a fruity dimension when stirred into champagne.

In this updated take on a classic French dessert, cream cheese adds stability and a pleasing tang, which balances the sweet white chocolate without overpowering it.

Lightly sweetened apricots are baked quickly in a simple short-bread crust for these rustic tarts, which are garnished with vibrant green pistachios and fleur de sel. Other stone fruits, like plums and peaches, will work just as well.

Also referred to as angel wings, these sugar-dusted fritters are both crunchy and pillowy. See the recipe for Krisciki »

Cooks in the Italian Alpine village of Oulx flavor this tart with red wine and cinnamon to honor the town’s patron saint, Sant’Antonio. Get the recipe for Torta di Sant’Antonio (Sant’Antonio Apple Tart) »

Serve this spiced ice cream on its own or scooped on top of warm fruit crisps, cobblers, or pies, particularly apple.

Creamy and spicy, these classic English custard tarts boast all the hallmarks of our favorite eggnogs.

While nutmeg adds a subtle note to many desserts, it claims center stage in this traditional spiced Armenian cake. See the recipe for Nutmeg Cake »

Although certainly sweet, the cake becomes less so thanks to the fruit, some heavy cream, and a hint each of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. While not necessarily traditional in this pudding, coffee extract available online adds some delicious roasty flavors. If desired, you can rewarm the pudding in a low oven before topping and serving. It’s just as good for breakfast as it is for dessert. Get the recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding with Dates »