25 Cozy Dessert Recipes That’ll Make Your Home Smell like the Holidays

November 08, 2020

These cozy dessert recipes will put you in the holiday spirit. Whether it’s pumpkin, apple, cinnamon or chocolate, these ingredients will make your kitchen smell amazing. You can use these holiday flavors in a variety of desserts, including cookies and cakes. Recipes like Cinnamon-Sugar Dusted Apple Cider Donuts and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie are tasty, fun and will turn your kitchen into a warm and comforting oasis.

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Cinnamon Roll Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

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Here we take all the warm, delicious flavors of cinnamon buns and roll them into a cake smothered with a sweet cream cheese frosting. It's best enjoyed fresh out of the oven.

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Easy Pumpkin Dump Cake with Streusel Topping

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A dump cake recipe is exactly what it sounds like--you simply dump all of the ingredients into a pan and bake. There isn't a step where you stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture; instead, it goes into the baking pan in three stages and the result is a pudding-like cake with a streusel-like topping. The two parts together are delicious (and you'd be hard-pressed to find an easier fall dessert)!

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Peanut Butter Swirl Chocolate Brownies

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This diabetic-friendly brownie recipe uses the classic flavor combination of chocolate and peanut butter to make a delicious dessert you'll want to make again and again.

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Chocolate-Fudge Pudding Cake

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When you have a craving for a comforting dessert, try this pudding cake, which forms its own rich-tasting sauce as it bakes. The coffee flavor is subtle, but it adds complex depth to the cake's flavor.

 

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Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

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Put down that cookie scoop! Baking one giant cookie in a skillet saves time and produces craveable results: a cookie that's crispy on the edges and oh-so-soft on the inside. This easy dessert is sure to please your family and friends.

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Cinnamon-Sugar Dusted Apple Cider Donuts

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Fluffy and light with a warm cinnamon flavor, you'll be craving these homemade donuts (with a hot cup of coffee) all fall! Because apple cider can be harder to find year-round, take advantage of when it's "in season." Don't forget to make a few extra batches and freeze the donuts to enjoy when cider isn't available.

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Brown Butter Apple Pie

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This homemade apple pie recipe has a simple and classic flavor, with fresh apples, spices and butter that's been sizzled until it's brown and nutty. The top crust is where you have the opportunity to add a touch of pizazz. Here we suggest cutting the dough into leaf shapes for an autumnal motif, but you could cut any shape you want.

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Ginger-Spiced Chocolate Cake

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No ordinary chocolate cake, this family pleaser gets its exquisite flavor from buttermilk and two kinds of ginger.

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Cinnamon Streusel Fresh Apple Bars

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These sweet, cinnamon-flavored apple bars are the perfect accompaniment for your afternoon cup of coffee or tea.

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Pumpkin-Chocolate Cream Cake

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This healthy cake recipe is like a pumpkin-flavored version of Boston cream pie. Rather than the traditional round shape, we use a 9-by-13 pan to make a four-layer rectangular cake that looks fun and provides more layers of creamy goodness.

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Quick & Easy Double Chocolate Brownies

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Two kinds of chocolate make these diabetic-friendly, health-minded brownies hard to resist. Enjoy them for a snack or dessert.

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Flourless Chocolate Cookies

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These flourless cookies get their volume from whipped egg whites (like a meringue) instead of grains, making them gluten-free and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. A chocolate chip in each bite adds to the rich chocolate flavor.

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Turtle Brownies

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Chocolate, nuts, and caramel are certainly hard to resist so it's easy to see why turtle brownies are always a favorite. This recipe has black beans in the batter for added fiber. We won't tell if you won't--and we promise nobody will ever know!

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Pumpkin Spice Latte Cookies

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Indulge your PSL obsession with these pumpkin spice cookies. Instant espresso powder gives these soft, cakey cookies a subtle yet recognizable coffee flavor. Spread with cream cheese frosting (with more pumpkin pie spice flavors) and sprinkle with cinnamon to finish. And, go ahead, drink a pumpkin spice latte while you eat them for the full PSL experience. After all, it's only fall for so long (though we'd eat these cookies year-round). To make these cookies kid-friendly, simply omit the espresso powder.

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Strawberry Fudge Brownies

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Change up your go-to brownie recipe by adding pecans and strawberries! This delicious, diabetic-friendly treat is ready in under an hour.

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Apple Crisp with Cranberries

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Sticking to its food-waste mission, L.A. Kitchen created this dessert to work with almost any fruit you have on hand. We've done it here with pears and apples, but you can use berries or even tropical fruits instead. The addition of dried fruit adds a concentrated hit of flavor you won't get from fresh alone.

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Cinnamon Swirl Apple Pie

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Instead of topping your apple pie with a full crust, cover the dough in cinnamon sugar, roll it up and slice it like cinnamon rolls to make beautiful cinnamon swirls to top the pie. The fragrant cinnamon bun-like topping makes homemade apple pie even more special!

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Cinnamon-Sugar Cookies

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It's quick and easy to mix together these slice-and-bake cinnamon-sugar cookies whenever you need something sweet. The recipe makes enough dough so you can bake half and put the other half in the freezer--ready to pull out and bake up a few fresh cookies anytime.

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Our Best Traditional Pumpkin Pie

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Get the classic creamy pumpkin taste but less saturated fat and sugar with this lightened-up recipe.

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Cinnamon-Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

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This recipe takes oatmeal cookies up a notch with its cinnamony, buttery, delicious take on a much-loved classic dessert.

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Cinnamon-Spiced Cake

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This pecan-topped spice cake is made with fruity cantaloupe purée, sprinkled with a cinnamon-sugar mixture and served with whipped topping. It's perfect for any occasion and guaranteed to satisfy your sweet tooth!

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Molten Cupcakes

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These look like simple chocolate cupcakes, but bite into them and you'll find a chocolatey-peanut butter surprise. They're delicious topped with fresh strawberries and powdered sugar.

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Apple-Cinnamon Cake

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This simple nondairy apple cake, which is often called Jewish apple cake, has origins in Eastern Europe. Cinnamon and sweet-tart Granny Smith apples make for a fragrant cake, while orange juice in the batter adds a sweet, fresh touch. Make it for Rosh Hashana or any other fall holiday or occasion. The leftovers (if there are any) pair nicely with a cup of coffee the next morning.

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Pumpkin Cookies

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Cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg add lots of flavor to these rich pumpkin cookies.

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Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies

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It's quick and easy to mix together these slice-and-bake chocolate-chocolate chip cookies whenever you need something sweet. The recipe makes enough dough so you can bake half and put the other half in the freezer--ready to pull out and bake up a few fresh cookies anytime.

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