26 Festive Christmas Desserts to Make This Season

This trifle is three desserts in one: mousse, gingerbread, and caramel. Each part is delicious on its own, too.

There are only seven ingredients in this luscious pie. The caramel filling is rich and thick and delicious with a sprinkle of flaky fleur de sel.

Pastry chef Dominique Ansel's version of bûche de noël is lighter than many, thanks to the beaten egg whites in the batter and the use of whipped cream in place of buttercream as frosting.

These rich peppermint brownies topped with crushed candy canes are from London's cult-favorite bakery Violet. If you can't find candy canes, use striped peppermint candies.

Hearty rye flour paired with three types of ginger—powdered, candied, and fresh—lends an earthy, lightly spicy flavor to these holiday cookies.

Swapping graham flour and hazelnut meal for the all-purpose flour and almond meal gives these linzer-inspired cookies the flavor of s'mores. With marshmallow creme sandwiched between them and a drizzle of melted bittersweet chocolate on top, they're a festive reminder of the campfire classic.

Wow your loved ones with this stunning tower of cream puffs, which seems more challenging to make than it actually is (seriously—only one hour of active time on your part).

Pichet Ong's riff on a proper British trifle retains the classic form while reinventing the components. Cheesecake stands in for egg custard; pound cake replaces ladyfingers. Rather than sherry, Ong's trifle uses saba, a syrup made from cooking down grape must, which has a flavor similar to balsamic vinegar.

These gingerbread cookies have a tender and cakey texture, yet they're sturdy enough to decorate. The recipe yields about two dozen large cookies—you can keep them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.

These luscious sticky toffee puddings are all about the honeyed sweetness of plump dates and creamy caramel. A touch of corn syrup ensures that the caramel stays silky smooth, while a bit of vanilla in the cake complements its richness. Serve them with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream for contrast.

To League of Kitchens cooking instructor Shandra Woworuntu, baking comes naturally. Her grandmother owned a baking supply and snack company in East Java, Indonesia, and Woworuntu and her mother ran a homemade cookie business in Jakarta in the late 1980s. Traditionally in Indonesia, Putri Salju ("Snow White" or "Snow Princess") cookies are made with almonds, peanuts, or cashews inside and are popular during the holidays, including Christmas, Ramadan, and Chinese New Year. Her mother's version, and now the recipe Woworuntu makes, adds pandan flavoring and omits the nuts, making them more cakey than crispy. Pandan, a tropical plant with fragrant leaves that's a popular flavoring in Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia, imparts a vanilla-citrusy flavor and a naturally vivid green color to these cookies.

Pastry chef Paola Velez's stunning mendiants are surprisingly easy to make with her simple method for tempering chocolate in the microwave. Piped into rounds, the chocolates are topped with a colorful mix of tropical fruit, toasted nuts, and seeds. Like mini, open-faced chocolate candy bars, the mendiants can be made ahead and served right from the fridge.

Crowned with candied pistachios and draped in tart, glistening cranberry gelée, pastry chef Claudia Fleming's holiday cheesecake is extra creamy thanks to a combination of tangy goat cheese and mascarpone. Be sure to beat in the mascarpone at low speed to preserve its extra-smooth texture. Don't skip straining the cranberry mixture after adding the gelatin; removing the foam is key to a clear, glossy gelée.

The first Christmas Food & Wine editor Melanie Hansche celebrated in Bavaria with her Australian husband, he made her family a classic Australian pavlova. Even though Bavarians don't tend to eat dessert at the end of a Christmas meal, the lightness and freshness of the fruit and meringue in the pavlova, which balanced the rich, savory dinner that had come before, was a winner. These individual pavlovas represent a mash-up of Hansche's Bavarian and Australian upbringing. In it, the aromas and ingredients of a Bavarian Christmas market—glühwein, toasted almonds, spiced cookies—are infused into the components of the classic Australian dessert: a base of sweet, cinnamon-spiced meringue is topped with fresh, tangy quark, and crowned with bright citrus and intense mulled wine caramel.

Classic butterscotch pudding is enhanced with tangy whipped crème fraîche and warm, spicy gingersnap crumble to make a beautiful parfait.

Layers of delicate flavors from lemon, honey, and extra-virgin olive oi­l—which helps keep the cake moist and imparts mild fruitiness—come together in this one-bowl batter. Stacked with a fluffy and rich lemon-cream cheese frosting, this easy layer cake is a keeper.

This elegant tart gets complex depth from a combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate, and plenty of richness from heavy cream. A touch of cardamom in the custard and the whipped-cream topping, plus the contrasting crunch of homemade nut brittle, takes this dessert to the next-level.

2020 Best New Chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph bakes a perfectly creamy cheesecake, minus a water bath or risk of a cracked or sunken top, by incorporating whipped cream cheese with heavy cream to make the batter.

Extra-thick dulce de leche between two buttery cookies rolled in shredded coconut all add up to the perfect bite in these alfajores de maizena. Argentinian League of Kitchens instructor Mirta Rinaldi learned how to make these melt-in-your-mouth sandwich cookies from her mom. Because of the generous amount of cornstarch in the dough, the cookies remain tender and soft after baking. Seek out dulce de leche repostero, which is made for pastry and baking, for this recipe; it's extra thick, with a firm body that won't squeeze out past the edges of the cookies in between bites.

Lightly sweetened coconut rice pudding provides a custardy contrast to the tender masa in these dreamy dessert tamales. Drizzled with sweet and buttery goat's milk caramel, they also make a festive holiday breakfast.

Traditional Coca-Cola cake, a staple of the American South, usually comes in the form of a chocolate sheet cake that's doused in a gooey glaze. The batter is splashed with a bit of cola, sometimes for flavor but mostly for fluff; the soda's carbonation acts as a leavening agent, similar to baking soda or baking powder, helping the cake rise and come out light and airy. In her modern-day version, cookbook author Vallery Lomas flips tradition on its head by making a cola-flavored cake with cola-flavored icing. The key to Lomas' Cocoa Cola Bundt Cake is in the Coca-Cola syrup. Lomas concentrates the cola by reducing it with sugar and adding a bit of lemon juice, and then she mixes the resulting syrup into both the cake and the icing for a more concentrated taste.

To decorate this spectacular holiday dessert, use an offset spatula, a bench scraper, and a cake turntable for the smoothest cake with straight sides. Prevent air bubbles from forming in the dark chocolate ganache glaze by using a spatula to stir the melting chocolate.

For these ginger- and chile-spiked caramels, plant-based fat from coconut replaces the typical butter, resulting in creamy, chewy caramels that are perfect for anyone on your gift list. Thai chile brings complex, fruity heat to these fragrant caramels; substitute a pinch of crushed red pepper, if desired. To package them to give as gifts, individually wrap caramels in parchment paper.

Blanched and toasted almond pieces bring a lovely crunch to these crumbly, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth Greek Christmas cookies. Some versions of kourampiedes add orange zest, but League of Kitchens Greek cooking instructor Despina Economou prefers the simple flavors of butter, sugar, almonds, and vanilla. This recipe can easily be doubled.

A few smart moves make this Bûche de Noël a cut above the rest. Allowing the cake to cool while still rolled helps prevent cracking. Mascarpone stabilizes the whipped cream filling so that it can be chilled overnight without weeping. Butter and corn syrup in the ganache keep it smooth and glossy. And stirring slivered toasted almonds into the ganache frosting gives it a "tree bark" look and adds contrasting texture to the silky filling and tender cake. If you'd like to make Meringue Mushrooms to decorate the cake, feel free to bake them up to three days ahead.

Nigella Lawson's chestnut pavlova recipe is fabulously festive: an exuberant, rich, and luxurious treat for the holidays. The meringue base is crisp on the outside with a soft marshmallowy interior, topped with sweetened chestnut puree followed by swaths of softly whipped cream and splinters of bitter chocolate.