25 Easy Christmas Dessert Recipes That Look Holiday-Worthy
Looking for all the raves with minimal effort? These recipes offer shortcuts so you can enjoy the holidays, too!
If you've been inspired by the merriment of the holidays, pulled out your baking supplies, and then realized you have limited baking skills and even less time, read on. We compiled a list of easy Christmas dessert recipes that anyone can master, each with a limited list of ingredients, one or more store-bought shortcuts, and/or a procedure that gets you out of the kitchen in a jiff.
Yes, they're easy, yet each of our dessert picks looks good enough to deserve a spot on the holiday dessert table, and some are even gift-worthy. Choose one or more to make your holidays merry and bright.
Gingerbread Truffles
If you’re looking for homemade holiday gift ideas, look no further! Impress your friends and family with these fancy little chocolate, gingerbread-spiced gems. Consider starting with a double batch, because these no-bake confections don't last.
Gingerbread and Chocolate Sandwiches
When it comes to holiday cooking, time-saving recipes like this one are a welcome gift. With just three additional ingredients, it elevates store-bought cookies to homemade treats in minutes.
Plum Tart
This tart looks intricate, but it may be the easiest dessert you ever make. All you need is three ingredients—puff pastry, plums, and sugar—a baking sheet, and 30 minutes of baking time to make a dessert that's plum impressive.
Dark Chocolate Truffles
This recipe—actually seven recipes in one—delivers a unique dessert or a homemade holiday gift. It starts with decadent dark chocolate truffles and then offers six flavorful variations to mix and match. Before you know it, you'll be inventing your own variations.
Ice Cream Sundae Board
Move over charcuterie boards, and say "hello" to this fun, crowd-pleasing, dessert idea. Load up your snack board with bowls of ice cream and all the fun toppings you can think of, and invite guests to construct their own sundae.
Easy Chocolate Mousse With Croissant Crumbs
If you’re a chocolate fan, this is the sweet treat for you. I mean, what’s more satisfying than cold, creamy chocolate mousse topped with buttery, flaky croissant crumbs? The hardest part of this recipe is not eating croissants for 2 days, allowing them to get that perfect crumbly texture.
Marshmallow and Chocolate Shortbread Slices
Is there anything more delicious than the combination of silky chocolate and fluffy marshmallows? The answer is no, especially when they’re spread on a soft-yet-chewy shortbread cookie. It looks complicated, but this four-layer dessert is really quite easy to assemble.
Chocolate Caramel Ice Cream Pie
Maria Robledo
Skip the store-bought ice cream cake and follow this recipe from now on. It’s incredibly easy to put together—from its store-bought cookie crust to its store-bought caramel syrup drizzle on top—but your guests never have to know!
Chocolate Bar Fondue
Fondue is the perfect party dessert: fun and delicious for kids and adults, yet oh-so-easy to set up. The best part is you can customize your spread with fruit, cakes, cookies, pretzels, or all of the above for dipping.
Chocolate Rice Crispy Treats
Elevate your traditional rice crispy treats by adding chocolate and flaky sea salt to the mix. This four-ingredient dessert recipe is perfect for amateur bakers, or anyone in a time crunch over the holidays.
Vanilla Sweet Potato Cheesecake
This is the holiday dessert that you’ll want to make year after year. The brown butter adds an irresistible nuttiness to its graham cracker crust, and sweet potato gives the filling a creamy, rich texture. But that's not all: real vanilla bean, cream cheese, and caramel take this cheesecake to the next level.
Hugs and Kisses Chocolate Chunk Sheet Pan Cookie
Move over, sheet pan dinners, it’s all about sheet pan desserts. This recipe is basically a giant chocolate chip cookie, but better because it’s topped with Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses. For extra Christmas-ness, look for the limited-edition holiday kisses and, instead of slicing, use Christmas cookie cutouts.
Mixed Berry Biscuit Cobbler
Don't let on to the berries, but the biscuits are the real star of this dessert. This recipe mounds an easy homemade biscuit dough atop a mixed berry mixture and bakes it to a golden brown. For an even easier go, use a biscuit mix or refrigerated dough.
Lace Cookies
These aptly named cookies look intricate and hard to make, but they're really so easy. Use them as a tuile—a fancy garnish that elevates a plain bowl of ice cream—or stack and wrap them for a homemade gift.
Mint Chip Ice Cream Pie
A pie recipe with three ingredients: Is that easy enough? This one's chocolatey crispy rice cereal crust and mint chocolate chip filling will please any crowd of merrymakers. Switch out the ice cream for a limited-edition holiday flavor (peppermint bark, anyone?) for even more festive fun.
Cherry-Vanilla Bundt Cake
Antonis Achilleos
This dessert reveals a hidden present in every slice: a burst of cherries. Among other gifts from this Bundt recipe is that you can make it a day ahead, there's no icing to mess with—just a snow-like dusting of powdered sugar—and it makes a dramatic holiday-worthy presentation.
No-Bake Pumpkin Pie
Give your busy oven a break by adding this no-bake dessert to your holiday menu. A graham cracker crust holds a pumpkin-spiced filling bolstered with white chocolate chips and cream cheese. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon, because it's Christmas!
Heavenly Coconut Pound Cake
As cakes go, this recipe's as easy as they come. It calls for just five ingredients—sugar, butter, eggs, flour, and salt—plus coconut, which pulls triple duty: mixed into the batter, coated on the Bundt pan, and sprinkled on top for a snowy effect.
Sheet Pan Apple Crisp
Crowd-pleasing, decadent, and easy to make, this recipe is everything you want in a Christmas dessert. Assemble and bake it the day before and then warm up just before serving next to a scoop of ice cream.
Gingersnap Cherry Cheesecake
Prepare for twinkling eyes and gasps of awe as you present this dessert to your guests. The recipe is easier than it looks, calling for a simple gingersnap cookie crust, a jar of cherry preserves for the topping, and 20 minutes of hands-on prep, The only hard part is remembering where you stowed your 9-inch springform pan.
Gooey Chocolate Caramel Tart
It wouldn't be prudent to serve Twix bars for dessert on Christmas but, with just a little more effort, this no-bake, make-ahead tart is the next best thing. It's a chocolate cookie crust with a homemade caramel filling topped with chocolate drizzle and flaky salt. In other words, it's the stuff that dreams are made of.
Cherry Coconut Dump Cake
Blurring the line between a cherry cobbler and a coconut cake, this dump cake takes just 15 minutes to assemble and serves a crowd-and-a-half. There's no icing, no layers, and no decorating required for this dessert, although it does scream for a scoop of ice cream.
Cranberry Ricotta Cake
Cranberries epitomize the holidays, so this simple recipe fits right in. Light, buttery cake envelopes sugar-coated cranberries for a sweet-tart cake that's satisfying without icing and sensible enough to serve for breakfast the day after.
Holiday Brigadeiros
These little no-bake treats originated in Brazil but are taking the dessert world by storm. Roll these milk chocolate balls in crushed nuts or shredded coconut—or, for a holiday spin, Christmassy sprinkles or edible glitter—and serve in festive mini-muffin liners.
Pumpkin Bread Trifle With Pepita Streusel
Antonis Achilleos
If you need a finale to cap the pumpkin spice season (yes, it includes Christmas), let us suggest this showstopping dessert. While looking complicated, it simply layers chunks of pumpkin bread (homemade or store-bought) with a homemade whipped filling and a crunchy pumpkin-seed streusel. Ta-da!
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