Christmas Baking & Dessert Recipes

Here's an elegant yet simple twist on the autumn classic. Pears are oven-poached in Riesling wine, which is known for its floral accents and aromas and hints of honey and pear. Serve this dessert with lightly sweetened ricotta cheese. Delicious hot, room temperature or chilled.

Pumpkin swirl cheesecake is a delicious dessert that everyone will love, especially during the holiday season.

A great dessert option for your next holiday party, these sweet cheesecake bars have an oat crust and a cranberry-orange sauce that's swirled on top and baked right in.

This irresistible diabetic-friendly peanut butter cookie recipe contains no flour. For Christmas or special occasions, imprint them with cookie cutters to fit the season instead of the star-shaped cutter.

The key to these decadent treats is the portion size--baking them in mini-muffin tins keeps the carbs and saturated fat in check. And maple syrup allows you to make this pecan pie recipe without corn syrup.

This eye-catching frozen peppermint-chocolate bark was inspired by Williams Sonoma's Original Peppermint Bark--our loose interpretation of the treat is frozen and made with Greek yogurt, chocolate and crushed candy canes. For the creamiest bark, be sure to use full-fat yogurt, as fat-free yogurt can get icy when frozen. Serve this healthy dessert when you want all those festive holiday flavors in a lightened-up--and totally delicious--package. Just don't stuff your Christmas stockings with this bark because it melts quickly.

This easy vegan pumpkin pie gets its structure from aquafaba (the leftover water from a can of chickpeas) whipped up into a meringue-like foam. When it's combined with pumpkin and poured into a gluten-free pecan crust, you would never know beans had anything to do with this vegan pumpkin pie recipe.

Make a batch of these easy homemade dried-fruit bars to tuck into your kid's lunchbox all week.

The dessert menu at Brigtsen's restaurant in New Orleans offers "Bread Pudding du Jour," which changes with the seasons. This sweet potato version plays well during the holidays.

This diabetes-friendly take on a classic black forest cake boasts a thick cream-cheese filling mixed with antioxidant-rich cherries and is drizzled in decadent hot fudge topping.

Grapefruit for dessert? Why not! In this broiled grapefruit recipe, grapefruit halves are topped with spiced brown sugar, caramelized under the broiler then topped with a dollop of vanilla-infused whipped cream.

This easy chocolate cookie icing recipe is healthier than traditional chocolate icing recipes as it has substantially less sugar. Unlike chocolate icing used for decorating cakes, this thinner icing is perfect for drizzling on cookies or to fill thumbprints.

Ah, the maligned fruitcake. Many store-bought varieties, stuffed with unrecognizable candied bits, deserve their bad reputation--but not these wonderful cakes, made with a generous serving of dried fruit and candied orange peel in a light batter. There's only one trick: buy the best-quality, moist dried and candied fruit you can afford.

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!

With all that delicious fruit an apple pie should be healthy, but the truth is a slice can have as much as 750 calories. 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—sweet!

The oaky taste of Armagnac, a French brandy made in Gascony, has long been paired with prunes. While Armagnac is available in vintage bottlings, nothing so extravagant is needed for this recipe. Use waterproof markers to decorate the outside of glass jars with flowers, abstract designs or a favorite line from a poem.

Holiday cookies don't get any cuter than these mini gingerbread houses that kids and adults alike will love. Use a mini gingerbread house cookie cutter to cut out all the parts (the kids will love helping with this part), then build the houses and let the kids go to town decorating. Line up your finished creations to make a gingerbread house village, eat them up or prop them up on mugs of cocoa for dipping and munching.

While regular hot cocoa is lovely and warming, sometimes something a bit more spirited is in order. Some other tasty additions to hot chocolate: bourbon, creme de menthe, Galliano, creme de cassis, Chambord.

In this healthy apple pie recipe, a touch of maple syrup spiked with lemon zest, cinnamon and ground ginger coats the apples while they bake. Serve this amazing homemade pie with lightly sweetened whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

These delectable bar cookies are great for holiday cookie trays, to bring out at casual gatherings, or just to enjoy with a cup of coffee.

Every panaderia (bakery) in Puerto Rico has many flavors of flan, from vanilla to guava. Reduced-fat cream cheese gives this version a rich, comforting texture.

These crispy cookies are made with Piedmontese staples--hazelnuts and eggs--and called Brutti Ma Buoni: literally, “Ugly But Good.” But they are really more plain-looking than “ugly,” and pack a powerful, sweet, nutty burst of flavor, making them welcome at any table.

Smooth and soothing; a great classic pie right down to the crust, redefined with a generous amount of lemon and fewer egg yolks in the filling.

This refreshing chilled Key lime mousse is a perfect union of cream and foam, tangy lime and soft sweet custard. The method is simple but a little unusual--you make a custard with fresh Key lime juice rather than milk or cream. Key limes, which are about the size of a Ping-Pong ball, are wonderfully fragrant and more acidic than regular limes. They are available all year at well-stocked supermarkets. If you can't find them, by all means use regular limes.