16 Easy Thanksgiving Desserts That Take Less Than 30 Minutes

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Peter Ireland serves this delicately spiced, sweet-tart fruit compote with incredibly tender corn cakes.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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