435 holiday dessert recipes

Halloween mini pumpkin cupcakes are tender pumpkin spice bites topped with cream cheese frosting tinted orange, black, and white. Decorate with candy and sugar crystals for spooky kid-friendly party treats.

Pear and ginger cheesecake bakes a granola crust around a filling of simmered pears, crystallized ginger, and a lightened cottage-and-cream-cheese base. A cozy holiday dessert with less heft than classic cheesecake.

Holiday charlotte with ladyfinger-lined mold filled with silky chocolate mousse and crowned with fresh fruit glazed in apple jelly. A showstopper no-bake holiday dessert.

Buttery shortbread cookies studded with spiced mincemeat and finished with sweet vanilla glaze. Festive holiday treats that taste like Christmas in every crumbly bite.

Lighter cranberry apple cookies made with egg whites and skim milk, loaded with fresh fruit, cinnamon, and orange zest. A guilt-free holiday cookie that yields 2 dozen.

Steamed cranberry pudding, a brighter take on Christmas pudding: tart cranberries, walnuts, and apricots in a suet batter, steamed moist and served warm with caramel or hard sauce. A festive holiday dessert.

These rich chocolate-toffee bars from Mary Lueke of Menasha were our top pick in the bar category.

The crisp, densely chocolaty cookies, with an unusually long baking time, were an annual favorite among the 20-plus recipes that Susan Couchman of Hartland remembers were made each year by her mother, Gloria Kuchler.

Mexican wedding cakes are always a holiday favorite but this recipe takes it up a notch or two, writes Mary Wilhelm of Sparta.

Chocolate and caramel give this thumbprint cookie from Kathy T. Preston of Milwaukee a different twist.

Experimentation led Mary Ann Zarczynski of Franklin to create this recipe, which she described as "very rich and delicious."

This cut-out cookie from Bev Bosveld of Waupun is dressed up with chewy oats and crushed peppermint for a pleasing result.

Very beautiful ice cream, definitly will make it again.

Twice-baked Italian almond cookies studded with bright maraschino cherries, spiked with kirsch and Grand Marnier. Perfect holiday gift.

No-bake peanut butter cheesecake with a graham cracker crust and chopped peanut topping. Rich, creamy, and ready in just a few hours of chilling.

Make Almond Legend Cake every New Year's Eve for a fun tradition at your house. Somewhere hidden in the baked cake will be a single whole almond. Whoever gets the almond in their slice of cake, according to legend, will enjoy good fortune during the year