Healthy Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes

Featured Recipes

Glazed Chocolate-Pumpkin Bundt Cake

You don't have to have pumpkin pie to still enjoy pumpkin and spice in a Thanksgiving dessert. This tender, moist cake uses pureed pumpkin to replace much of the fat and is delicately seasoned with classic Thanksgiving flavors.

» Glazed Chocolate-Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Deep-Dish Apple Pie

With all that delicious fruit an apple pie should be healthy, but the truth is a slice can have as much as 750 calories and 30 grams of fat. For the most part, the culprit is the crust. We use whole-wheat pastry flour to add fiber and lower the saturated fat by replacing some of the butter with canola oil. The brown sugar-sweetened filling in this pie is made with two kinds of apples for the perfect balance. A slice has half the calories of a typical version and only 10 grams of fat—sweet!

» Deep-Dish Apple Pie

Holiday Pumpkin Pie

This lighter pumpkin pie has the rich, subtle spices of the classic and a delicate, faintly sweet crust.

» Holiday Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap-Walnut Crust

We pulled out a few of our favorite EatingWell tricks to achieve plenty of creaminess in our pumpkin cheesecake without all the saturated fat of a typical recipe: nutrient-packed canned pumpkin and pureed nonfat cottage cheese replace some of the cream cheese. A touch of pumpkin pie spice warms up the flavor. For the crust, shop the natural-foods section for gingersnaps without any hydrogenated oil. Simple toasted walnuts are an elegant garnish. Or try making candied walnuts. Just be careful not to eat all of them before they make it to the cake!

» Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap-Walnut Crust

Maple Pecan Tart with Dried Cherries

This pecan tart gets added tang from dried cherries. Instead of corn syrup, which is found in most pecan pie recipes, we’ve opted for maple syrup. If you can find it, choose dark amber or grade B, because it has the richest maple flavor. The crust, made with heart-healthy pecans and canola oil, couldn’t be easier to whip together. Just blend it in the food processor and pat it into your tart pan.

» Maple Pecan Tart with Dried Cherries

Apple, Pear & Dried Cranberry Crisp

Apples, pears and dried cranberries fill this holiday crisp. It has all the fruit flavor and sweet streusel topping that you get in a pie, but without the need to fuss with a crust.

» Apple, Pear & Dried Cranberry Crisp

Cranberry Coconut Trifle

No other dessert turns heads like a trifle. Festive in every way, this trifle recipe glows from within with scarlet layers of juicy cranberries. The filling is made from an astounding 6 cups of antioxidant-packed cranberries! We made the custard “skinny” with a combination of low-fat milk and light coconut milk. From-scratch brown-butter sponge cake, made with whole-wheat pastry flour, stands in for store-bought ladyfingers.

» Cranberry Coconut Trifle

Lighten up your holiday meal with these delicious and healthy Thanksgiving desserts.

Our healthy Thanksgiving dessert recipes are lighter and delicious versions of your favorite holiday classics─pumpkin pie, apple pie, cranberry cake and more. Many of these healthy desserts can be made ahead, so you can bring them along to wherever you’re having Thanksgiving dinner.