Recipes Holidays + Events Thanksgiving 17 Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Desserts By Food & Wine Editors Updated on November 9, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Photo: Tara Donne For a big Thanksgiving feast, make-ahead options are the name of the game. It makes sense that dessert should be calmly chilling in the fridge or contentedly tucked away from the whir of a pre-meal kitchen as the more time-sensitive dinner components are being prepared. To help you maximize your time and precious kitchen space, we've put together this collection of fantastic make-ahead dessert recipes. Choose from Nutty Baklava Pie, Three-Layer Thanksgiving Cake, and many more. 01 of 17 Nutty Baklava Pie Photo: Victor Protasio / Food Stylist Torie Cox / Prop Stylist Claire Spollen This hybrid of pecan pie and baklava is crunchy, sticky, and sweet with a hint of orange and spice from Grand Marnier and cardamom. Coconut milk replaces heavy cream in the caramel filling for a velvety, rich vegan version. A garland of crispy phyllo adds a wow factor and delicate crunch that shatters with every bite. Get the Recipe 02 of 17 Fiadone (Corsican Cheesecake) with Chestnut Honey and Figs Photo by Cedric Angeles / Prop Styling by Stephanie Bohn Fiadone, a slightly sweet Corsican cheesecake, is traditionally made with brocciu, a fresh goat or sheep's milk cheese, which gives it a crumbly texture. In this recipe from pastry chef Shawn Gawle of March restaurant in Houston, the cheesecake is topped with chestnut honey, which pairs perfectly with sweet caramelized figs and candied lemon zest. Get the Recipe 03 of 17 Spiced Carrot Cake with Brown Butter Frosting Photo by Christopher Testani / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Kathleen Cook Varner A warming blend of cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg brings festive flavors to this tender, moist spiced carrot cake studded with golden raisins and crunchy pistachios. Brown butter ghee does double duty here: It enriches and flavors the cake batter, and the caramelized milk fat left over from making it adds a nutty flavor to the cream cheese frosting. Get the Recipe 04 of 17 Apple Flambé Pie Photo: Victor Protasio / Food Stylist Torie Cox /Prop Stylist Claire Spollen Apple cider joins forces with both fresh and dried apples in this stovetop apple pie filling. The pie is topped with flaming apple brandy just before serving. Get the Recipe 05 of 17 Gingerbread with Quark Cheesecake © Tina Rupp This clever recipe combines two cakes in one: gingerbread and cheesecake. The cheesecake half is light and creamy, with a pleasant tang from quark (a soft, unripened cheese that's similar to sour cream), while the gingerbread half is fragrant, moist, and delicately spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Get the Recipe 06 of 17 Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Christine Keely The secret to nailing these Thanksgiving-edition snickerdoodles is to bake them just until they’re set but not browned. They’ll finish cooking as they cool on the baking sheet, delivering their craveable tender-chewy texture. Get the Recipe 07 of 17 Spiced Upside-Down Apple Bundt Cake © Con Poulos David Guas, co-author of the cookbook DamGoodSweet, tops his apple bundt cake with a nicely salty streusel of pecans and toasted rolled oats. He bakes the streusel on its own to make it extraordinarily crisp, then pats it over the warm cake right out of the oven. Get the Recipe 08 of 17 Cornmeal Cake Trifle with Sabayon and Candied Kumquats Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Christine Keely A masterpiece of technique and flavor, this stunning collaboration between pastry chef Kelly Fields and baking legend Claudia Fleming has many delicious components, most of which can be made ahead. Layers of crumbly cornmeal cake and fresh and candied citrus float on billowy drifts of barely boozy sabayon, topped with sweet, crisp peaks of toasted Italian meringue. Get the Recipe 09 of 17 Pecan-Pumpkin Cream Pie Tara Donne This pie slices beautifully to reveal not one but two fillings: both pumpkin custard and gooey, syrupy pecan. Chef Joanne Chang’s technique ensures the bottom of the pie shell is perfectly cooked and avoids sogginess. Cooling the blind-baked pie shell with weights keeps it hotter, and flatter, longer. Get the Recipe 10 of 17 Tamarind Millionaire's Shortbread Photo by Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Melissa Gray / Prop Styling by Lydia Pursell Tart tamarind breathes new life into the classic Millionaire's Shortbread (also affectionately known as Caramel Slice), a tray-bake of layered shortbread, caramel, and chocolate that's been a fixture in home cooks' kitchens since 1970. Tamarind concentrate adds a gloriously sharp acidic profile to balance the decadent caramel layer in this version, topped with the bittersweetness of dark chocolate and a coconut-y shortbread biscuit base. Get the recipe 11 of 17 Milk-Chocolate Tart with Pretzel Crust © Con Poulos This dessert from pastry chef Colleen Grapes, a tribute to the chocolate-covered pretzel, hits just the right salty-sweet note. She mixes crushed pretzels with flour, butter, sugar, and egg to make a crunchy crust, pours in a luxurious milk chocolate filling, then sprinkles on more crushed pretzels as a garnish. Get the Recipe 12 of 17 Maple-Apple Upside-Down Cake © Con Poulos This is one of the best upside-down cakes ever. The maple syrup infuses both the apples and the cake, making the dessert taste like a stack of apple pancakes. Get to Recipe 13 of 17 Three-Layer Thanksgiving Cake Con Poulos To celebrate the myriad flavors of autumn, we layer three separate cakes — pumpkin, candied pecan, and cranberry cornmeal — into one giant cake, all finished with a luscious cream cheese frosting. It's got a little something for everyone at the Thanksgiving table. Get the Recipe 14 of 17 Brandy Pecan Pie Gerard + Belevender A blend of turbinado sugar, maple syrup, and honey makes for a pecan pie with a well-rounded sweetness. A dash of apple brandy adds a faint caramel apple flavor and brightens the nutty toasted pecans. Get the Recipe 15 of 17 Cocoa Cola Bundt Cake Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Micah Morton / Prop Styling by Christine Keely 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. In her modern-day version, cookbook author Vallery Lomas flips tradition on its head by making a cola-flavored cake with cola-flavored icing. She adds warming spices into the cake, like cinnamon and nutmeg, along with a dash of both orange and lemon zest, deepening the cake's chocolatey, cola-y flavor. Get the Recipe 16 of 17 Pumpkin Cream Pie in a Chocolate Crust © John Kernick Cookbook author Melissa Clark shakes up classic pumpkin pie with this version, which is made of pumpkin custard held together by a chocolate cookie crust. Get the Recipe 17 of 17 Pear and Cranberry Slab Pie © Con Poulos Instead of making a traditional two-crust pie in a pie plate, F&W culinary director at large Justin Chapple makes this free-form, fruit-filled, ginger-laced pie on a baking sheet. Get the Recipe Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit