207 holiday dessert recipes

Instead of rice, this Christmas pudding is made with pearl barley, cinnamon and sugar. Pearly barley makes the pudding taste delicious and creamy while provides lots of goodness. Serve it with some chopped nuts and rose water if needed.

Chocolate butter cookie dough adds melted unsweetened and semi-sweet chocolate to a master holiday butter cookie recipe. Roll, cut, and shape it into pinwheels, classic cut-outs, Linzer sandwiches, or sugar-coated crescents.

Patriotic layered parfaits with red gelatin, creamy vanilla pudding, and fresh blueberries. These make-ahead Fourth of July desserts look stunning in clear glasses.

Piped kiss-shaped meringues dried overnight in the oven, then dipped in melted semisweet chocolate. Light as a snowflake and stunning on a holiday cookie tray.

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Light almond sponge cake layers stack with blueberry ricotta filling and whipped cream, then get crowned with fresh berries for a patriotic red, white, and blue celebration dessert.

Spiced cranberry hazelnut bread with cinnamon, cloves, and orange juice baked into mini loaves. Wrapped in brandy-soaked cheesecloth, this holiday quick bread deepens in flavor for weeks.

Very beautiful ice cream, definitly will make it again.

These truffle tarts are so smooth, creamy and full of chocolate flavor, they are so handy, and melt in your mouth.

Pear and cranberry tart with a buttery oat crumble topping. Tart cranberries burst in a sweet corn syrup sauce with tender sliced pears underneath the crisp.

No-bake holiday chocolate cake layered with orange juice-soaked macaroons, bittersweet ganache, chopped prunes, and toasted almonds. Dusted with cocoa and chilled overnight for deep, complex flavor.

Cindy Schweitzer of Muskego offered this cherry twist on melt-in-your-mouth finger cookies.

Pat Korth of Muskego offered a coconut variation on the peanut butter kiss cookie.

Macaroon meets chocolate chip cookie in this co-winner in the drop cookie category, with a twist of cinnamon, nutmeg and mint; it's from Jessica Wall-Valadez of Milwaukee.

Pretzel and peanut butter truffles roll crunchy peanut butter and chopped salted pretzels into bites, freeze them firm, and dip in melted milk chocolate. Three ingredients and no baking required.

It seems odd that thyme is connected with dessert, but this recipe actually works out in this way, and these elegant looking bars are amazingly delicious!