34 holiday dessert recipes

Little fruit cake squares packed with chopped dates, candied cherries, and pecans, baked in a 9-inch pan and rolled in powdered sugar. Bite-sized holiday treats.

Holiday fruit cake bakes candied pineapple, red and green cherries, golden and dark raisins, pecans, and oats into a nutmeg-mace spiced loaf. Wraps and keeps for weeks.

Homemade golden peach butter with cinnamon, cloves, and lemon zest. Slow-simmered from ripe peaches and water bath canned for pantry storage. A beautiful holiday gift or toast topper.

Viennese chocolate torte for Passover uses ground walnuts, cake meal, and potato starch in place of flour. A flourless-style torte split and filled with apricot-orange preserves and finished with a chocolate-orange glaze.

Hungarian tarts with a cream cheese pastry shell and five filling options: almond, pecan, walnut, coconut, and farmer's cheese. A traditional holiday baking project.

Steamed cranberry pudding with molasses and a warm vanilla butter sauce. A dense, tart-sweet holiday dessert with jewel-red cranberry halves throughout, steamed for 90 minutes in a mold.

Pumpkin pecan cheesecake with a graham cracker crust, spiced pumpkin filling, and a brown sugar pecan streusel topping. A fall dessert that combines two holiday favorites in one.

Plums in Port preserves whole plums in a cinnamon-orange syrup spiked with tawny port wine. A stunning canned fruit for cheese boards, desserts, and holiday gifts.

Kutia, a traditional Polish Christmas pudding made with wheat berries, ground poppy seeds, honey, walnuts, almonds, figs, dates, and rum-soaked currants. A treasured holiday dessert.

Showstopper cheesecake with a pecan shortbread crust, cranberry glaze layer, white chocolate orange filling, and candied orange slice topping. A stunning holiday dessert that requires overnight chilling.

Chocolate lovers beware, this dessert is sure to satisfy your tastebuds and keep you in the holiday spirit with a minty taste.

Cranberry orange tart with a buttery almond shortbread crust and glistening marmalade-glazed cranberry filling. A stunning make-ahead holiday dessert that chills overnight.

Brandy-spiked pumpkin cheesecake on a buttery pecan crust with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and mace. A rich, spiced holiday dessert worth the overnight chill.

Cranberry upside-down cake with fresh cranberries in a brown sugar butter base, topped with a light egg white-folded butter cake. A stunning holiday dessert flipped to reveal jewel-red fruit.

Cranberry cheesecake pie with a tart cranberry-pecan layer beneath a creamy cream cheese filling, finished with a vanilla sour cream topping. A holiday dessert in a pie shell.

Tofu pumpkin pie: vegan pumpkin pie made with silky firm tofu instead of eggs and dairy. Warming spices and crystallized ginger top for a dairy-free holiday dessert.