23 Thanksgiving Desserts That Aren't Pie

Thanksgiving is practically synonymous with pie. For many of us, it's the one time of the year that we eat pumpkin pie, but apple, pecan, sweet potato, and all kinds of other pies often find their way to the table.

But pie is hardly the only way to end your meal, and dessert is always more fun with multiple options. We've gathered together almost two dozen dessert recipes to help you expand your horizons. If you want to keep it fall-appropriate we’ve got creamy pumpkin cheesecake or spicy gingersnaps; if you want to throw tradition completely out the window, we’ve got rich éclair cake and tiramisu.

Fruit Desserts

The Best Apple Crisp

Want all the flavors of apple pie with a lot less work? A crisp is the way to go. The spiced apple filling we use here, with added complexity from a shot of whiskey, is every bit as delicious, and the crumb topping—made with turbinado sugar and chopped pecans—provides a more interesting textural contrast. Short on oven space? Try making your fruit crisp on the stovetop instead.

Gâteau Invisible (Invisible Apple Cake)

Gâteau invisible aux pommes, or "invisible apple cake," features dozens of intersecting layers of thinly sliced apples bound in a sweet, custardy batter. Why invisible? When baked, the apples seem to disappear into the cake, and become texturally indistinguishable from the custard, forming a cohesive, sliceable dessert that’s decidedly more fruit than cake. Tim pairs the cake with a white miso caramel sauce for a sweet-salty hint of savoriness.

Tarte Tatin

Tarte Tatin can be a tricky dessert to make: You have to nail the caramel and perfectly cook the apples without burning either, and when it’s baked and cooled, you have to invert the whole thing onto a plate. Luckily, after many tests, Genvieve has developed a foolproof method for making the ideal tarte Tatin, and walks readers through the process in this excellent recipe.

Pear, Riesling, and Ginger Sorbet

After a heavy Thanksgiving meal, I secretly long for something light and refreshing, not rich, in my dessert, and this juicy sorbet fits the bill. To make it, we combine chopped pears with sweet-tart Riesling and spicy ginger. We like a good deal of ginger to help cut through the sweet fruit and minerally wine, but feel free to scale it back if you prefer a milder ginger flavor.

Fruity No-Churn Ice Cream

Consider this recipe the template for all your future fruity ice cream needs. Since the recipe calls for freeze-dried fruit, you can mix bright, fresh-tasting flavors that ordinarily might not be available once summer is over. Plus, this no-churn method will free up your hands to work on turkey and sides.

Sunny Lemon Bars

After a full Thanksgiving meal, these bright and tangy lemon curd bars are a welcome respite for weary palates. The pat-in-the-pan crust comes together easily in a food processor and the bars can be made a few days ahead.

Apple Cider Doughnut Cake

The 2.0 version of apple cider doughnuts, no deep-frying required. This buttery cake is coated in the requisite cinnamon sugar. Mace, the cobwebby exterior of nutmeg, is a must in this recipe as it adds that unmistakable cider doughnut flavor to the cake.

Apple-Ginger Tishpishti (Gluten-Free Almond and Walnut Cake)

Our version of this festive dessert features grated apple, a heady mix of spices and citrus, and a final soak in apple brandy–ginger syrup.

Cranberry Trifle

With layers of fluffy angel food cake, bittersweet amaro, tart cranberry jam, and creamy whipped mascarpone, this holiday trifle is a celebration of contrasting flavors and textures.

Chocolate Treats

Chocolate Mousse

Rich with bittersweet flavor and light as a cloud, chocolate mousse is a simple, elegant dessert that’s deeply satisfying to eat. Best of all, you can prepare the mousse well ahead of time. For a fantastic vegan version, try Genvieve's recipe for avocado chocolate mousse.

Ginger Spice Brownies

A complex blend of spices complements the rich chocolate flavor of these fudgy brownies, adding a woodsy, wintry warmth. Slivers of crystallized ginger cover the top, providing textural contrast and a mellow spiciness.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our ultimate chocolate chip cookies are indeed fantastic, but they need to be started a day in advance, and you may not have that kind of time if you're looking for a fast, easy, and crowd-pleasing dessert. Making the cookies with larger chunks of chopped chocolate bars, instead of commercial chips, produces wonderful melty pockets in the finished cookies; the dust that you generate while chopping is just a bonus, as it ensures that every bite has a little cocoa flavor. An unexpected ingredient—nutmeg—helps deepen the rich butter flavor.

Éclair Cake

We love going all out on a fancy dessert. On the other hand, sometimes preparing dinner requires most of our attention. In developing this two-version recipe for eclair cake, Genevieve provides a show-stopper option, and an easy-peasy (but still delicious) icebox cake. The show-stopper, pictured above, is essentially a super-sized, ring-shaped éclair (or Paris-brest) with créme mousseline and topped with a chocolate glaze. Her no-bake icebox cake consists of layers of graham crackers and crème légère, topped with a generous layer of chocolate ganache.

Rich and Creamy Tiramisu

Our version of this Italian favorite pairs ladyfingers with mascarpone and a coffee syrup made with sweet crème de cacao and toasty Cardamaro. By reducing the number of egg yolks typically used for tiramisu, we keep the focus on the mellow flavor of the mascarpone. If you really want to impress, build the dessert with homemade ladyfingers; given how much other cooking you may have to do on Thanksgiving, it's totally fine to buy them from an Italian bakery (or even the supermarket) instead.

Toasted White Sesame Tart with Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache

Toasted white sesame meets bittersweet chocolate ganache in this rich holiday tart. Here, sesame seeds are used three ways: coarsely-ground seeds and tahini paste are mixed into the custard, while whole seeds are sprinkled on top, giving it textural contrast and nuttier flavor. It's the perfect addition to any Thanksgiving table.

More Options

Roasted Sweet Potato Cheesecake With Maple Walnut Caramel Sauce

Tim's entry in the pantheon of Thanksgiving desserts: a delicious concoction that combines sweet potato pie and cheesecake. Perfect for the holidays or any day.

Pumpkin Layer Cake

True cake lovers will take this fluffy pumpkin layer cake over pumpkin pie any day. A blend of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves gives it that classic pumpkin-spice taste while adding lots of egg yolks to the batter mimics the custardy texture and flavor of pumpkin pie. A tangy cream cheese buttercream frosting cuts through the warm spices and earthy pumpkin purée beautifully.

Brown Butter Carrot Cake

Brown butter is the secret to this show-stopping carrot cake, reinforcing the flavor of the earthy-sweet carrots, nutty pecans, and toasty whole wheat flour. That flour is an important touch, too: It absorbs moisture better than white flour, preventing the cake from getting weighed down by water from the carrots. This recipe does require a fair amount of prep work, but the tedious task of peeling and shredding the carrots can be done up to a week in advance.

Gingerbread Sheet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

This big cake requires only 15 minutes of active time, so it's easy to balance with all your other holiday responsibilities. Just because it's simple to make doesn't mean it's boring, though—it's got a fluffy buttermilk crumb, a deep sweetness from molasses, and a nice kick from a combination of spices, including an unusual addition of Chinese five-spice powder.

Pumpkin Cheesecake With Gingersnap Crust

This holiday-appropriate cheesecake is made with pumpkin purée and the standard pumpkin pie spices you'd expect, like ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. It's the gingersnap-and-brown-sugar crust, plus the crunchy candied-walnut topping, that makes it truly special. For maximum fall-spice infusion, we use the above trio of spices in the crust, filling, and topping.

The Best Gingersnaps

We want two things from our gingersnaps: a seriously spicy kick, and a texture that truly snaps. To achieve the latter, we use whole wheat flour and cream the butter and sugar for several minutes, ensuring that the cookies turn out especially crispy. A mixture of ground and grated fresh ginger provides all the spiciness we crave.

Hummingbird Skillet Cake

Hummingbird cake is a wonderful Southern dessert to add to your Thanksgiving table. It's texturally similar to carrot cake, but pineapple and banana lend it a tropical twist.

Pumpkin Bread with Salted Brown Butter Glaze

This moist and generously spiced quick bread, packed with earthy pumpkin purée, toasty malted milk powder, and classic pumpkin spice, is a wonderful fall treat. Even though it's optional, the loaf is even better when finished with a sweet and salty brown-butter glaze.