16 Easy Thanksgiving Desserts That Take Less Than 30 Minutes

By Food & Wine
Updated November 12, 2018
Credit: © Stephanie Foley
From a quick apple crumble to dulce de leche bread pudding, try these fabulous fast Thanksgiving dessert recipes.
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Quick Apple Crumble with Lebneh

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The blend of flavors and textures here—crunchy, smooth, nutty, sweet, tart—makes this simple dessert irresistible. Opt for lebneh or another soft fresh cheese that won't melt quickly underneath the warm apples topped with a quick granola crumble.

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Sweet Wine Sabayon with Berries

Credit: © Frances Janisch
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Dulce de Leche Bread Pudding

Credit: © Deirdre Rooney
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This gooey bread pudding made with caramel-like dulce de leche from Latin America is so much more than the sum of its five parts. To add even more flavor, throw in a handful of fresh or frozen raspberries or blueberries before baking.

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Mini Cassata Cakes

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Pastry chef Ghaya Oliveira makes a version of cassata, the ornate Sicilian dessert with layers of sponge cake, sweetened ricotta, candied fruit, dark chocolate and marzipan. The easy recipe here is Grace Parisi's own interpretation.

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Panforte with Pears and Vanilla Cream

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Fruitcake can be substituted for the panforte, a chewy Italian confection.

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Plum Compote with Star Anise

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Plums and star anise form a brilliant and novel pairing. Although you don't eat it, we like to leave the star anise in the syrup because it looks so beautiful; you can remove it if you prefer. Serve the compote with pound cake or butter cookies.

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Gale Gand's Sugar-Dusted Vanilla Ricotta Fritters

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Gale Gand got this recipe from her mother-in-law, Vita Seidita; the fritters are also good sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or dipped in jelly.

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Chocolate-Bread Parfaits

Credit: © Antonis Achilleos
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Gingered Orange Gratin

Credit: © Stephanie Foley
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Grace Parisi mixes cold whipped crème fraîche with candied ginger, then spoons it over warm, sweet orange slices. The combination of flavors, textures and temperatures is magnificent.

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Corn Cakes and Spiced Cranberries

Credit: © Tina Rupp
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Peter Ireland serves this delicately spiced, sweet-tart fruit compote with incredibly tender corn cakes.

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Chocolate Wafers with Ginger, Fennel and Sea Salt

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Grace Parisi coats wafer-thin crispbreads in dark chocolate so that they seem like candy bars studded with flaky Maldon sea salt, chewy crystallized ginger and candied fennel seeds.

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Honey-Baked Figs with Ice Cream

Credit: © Bobbi Lin
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Use purplish-black Mission figs, green-skinned Calimyrnas, or both for this great-tasting dessert. Give the figs a gentle squeeze to check for ripeness; they should be quite soft.

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Molten Chocolate Cake

Credit: © James Baigrie
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File this easy-peasy molten chocolate cake under: things you never knew were so easy to make.

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Chewy Black Licorice Chocolate Brownies

Credit: John Kernick
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In one dessert, Gail Simmons’ black licorice brownies bring on the salt, the sweet, the fudge, and the chew.

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Crispy Quinoa Brittle

Credit: © Christina Holmes
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Not quite the gluttonous dessert you might think of when you think of Thanksgiving, this crispy quinoa brittle makes a nice addition to the pies and tarts--and the leftovers can be stored for a week.

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Caramelized-Pineapple Baked Alaskas

Credit: © Stephanie Foley
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Baked Alaska is an unexpected Thanksgiving dessert, especially when there are caramelized pineapples involved, but it’s definitely as show-stopping as any pie.

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