The Thanksgiving Desserts That Will Get the Most Compliments, Guaranteed

Portland pasty chef Michelle Vernier cooks the fruit ahead so the pie won’t collapse in the oven.

Recipe: Lattice-Top Apple Quince Pie

This incredible fall pumpkin recipe is pumpkin pie meets crème brûlee, and worthy of your next dinner party.

Recipe: Pumpkin Brûlee Tart

Making this crowd-pleaser couldn’t be easier—just stir together seasoned pumpkin pie filling and ice cream and spoon into a gingersnap crumb crust.

Recipe: Pumpkin Ice Cream Gingersnap Pie

Zoe Nathan of Santa Monica’s Huckleberry Bakery tops her pies with a variety of cutout shapes.

Recipe: Caramel Apple Pie with Pastry Cutouts

Ice cream pies make ideal desserts for big holiday dinners, because you can make them days in advance and just haul them out of the freezer right before serving. Plus, they’re easy to make.

Recipe: Candied Orange Walnut Ice Cream Pie

We swapped in shredded squash for the usual carrots and amped up the cake with coconut, bourbon, an intriguing mix of spices, and plenty of cream cheese frosting.

Recipe: Butternut Squash Spice Cake

Basically an open-face pie, this is a great dessert for pie-phobes to make because the crust is so easy to handle.

Recipe: Apple Pumpkin Galette

As one reviewer noted, these mini cakes are easy to make, with a nice fine texture and good buttery flavor. And the vanilla bean icing is just right to offset the cranberry filling.

Recipe: Cranberry-Vanilla Mini Bundts

Let Fuyu persimmons (the flat-bottom variety) ripen until they’re deep orange and sweet, then set them off simply in a buttery crust with a big dollop of rich mascarpone cheese.

Recipe: Spiced Persimmon Tart with Brandied Mascarpone

To create this tablescape, arrange seasonal fruits and leaves along the center of your dining table. Then, when it’s time for dessert, bring out bowls, spoons, and paring knives; whipped cream; and dishes of candied nuts and pie-crust cookies (using our recipes or store-bought nuts and butter cookies). Your guests choose from it all to put together their own pie in a bowl.

Set a few bottles of liqueur on the table for those who’d like to spike their dessert. We like Grand Marnier; cherry liqueur (such as Clear Creek Distillery); and Allspice Dram, a rum-based liqueur that tastes like concentrate of pie.

Recipe: Deconstructed Pie

Embellish a classic pumpkin pie with a streusel topping, then overlap pastry leaves around the edge and set a few on top for a festive presentation.

Recipe: Pumpkin Streusel Pie

Feel free to swap in other squash in pastry chef Michelle McKenzie’s recipe: Sugar Pie comes out sweeter, and canned pumpkin is mellow-tasting, if less distinctive. Shauna Sever, an 18 Reasons instructor, suggested the spicy gingersnap layer. You’ll need a 9-in. deep-dish pie pan.

Recipe: Kabocha Squash Crème Fraîche Pie

This irresistible pumpkin recipe features layers of pumpkin and vanilla ice cream inside a graham cracker crust, with gooey caramel on top.

Recipe: Pumpkin Caramel Ice Cream Pie

These delicate, flaky bites crumble easily over fruit. You’ll need leaf-shaped cookie cutters (we used a 3-in. size).

Recipe: Pie-Crust Leaf Cookies

These little bites taste like mincemeat pie and are good with fruit (or just on their own).

Recipe: Pie-Crust Currant Cookies

We adapted this recipe from Devil’s Teeth Baking Company to create a border that shows off the bright filling. To completely cover the pie, just double the topping.

Recipe: Sweet-Potato Pecan Pie

This torte celebrates the hazelnut crop on the Wolves & People Farmhouse Brewery farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and the malted cream gives a nod to the brewery.

Recipe: Toasted Hazelnut and Honey Torte and Malted Whipped Cream

Ice cream pies make ideal desserts for big holiday dinners, because you can make them days in advance and just haul them out of the freezer right before serving. Plus, they’re easy to make. This nutty, chocolate confection is a surefire crowd-pleaser.

Recipe: Toasted Almond Choco Toffee Ice Cream Pie

For depth of flavor, Portland pastry chef Kir Jensen roasts the pecans and hazelnuts before adding them to the filling. She likes to roll her cornmeal pastry extra thick, so it’s more substantial.

Recipe: Hazelnut, Pecan, and Bourbon Pie

To give the nuts their glistening coating, we use powdered sugar rather than granulated. If you’re using a combination of nuts, it’s easier to mix them with the sugar syrup one type at a time; they’ll be coated more evenly.

Recipe: Shiny Candied Nuts

Tangy goat cheese in the frosting and a hint of cocoa and pepper in the cake add a depth and sophistication to this carrot cake.

Recipe: Spiced Apple Carrot Cake with Goat Cheese Frosting

Rustic and not too sweet, this open-face pie, or crostata, is made for a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Recipe: Cranberry Frangipane Crostata

Imagine a slightly gooey but intensely nutty filling over a rich cookie base, and you’ll understand why these cookies get rave reviews. For easiest cutting, line the pan with buttered foil, and as soon as the baked cookies are cool, cut them into pieces with a sturdy knife (don’t wait until the next day).

Recipe: Hazelnut Shortbread Bars

This prize-winning cheesecake from a Sunset reader is one of our absolute favorites. Creamy and moist, with just the right amount of sweetness, this dessert will wow your guests.

Recipe: Roasted Sweet-Potato Cheesecake with Maple Cream

This showstopper pumpkin recipe is full of our favorite things, including buttery pecans, a caramely topping, and pumpkin cake. They’re all layered with billowy whipped cream.

Recipe: Praline Pumpkin Torte

The canned pumpkin in the batter keeps these cupcakes moist, reducing the amount of oil you need to use.

Recipe: Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

Poach pears in a syrup made with white wine, vanilla bean, and cinnamon; then serve them with dollops of creamy mascarpone cheese and a sprinkle of crunchy pumpkin seeds.

Recipe: Sauvignon Blanc–Poached Pears with Spicy Pepitas

Studded with tart cranberries and sweet currants, laced with brandy and finished with a buttery, crisp topping, this dressed up apple pie is a Sunset favorite.

Recipe: Apple-Cranberry-Currant Pie with French Topping

Caramel-coated walnuts and cranberries top this tender, easy to make, cake.

Recipe: Cranberry Pumpkin Upside-Down Cake

We gave flan an autumnal flair with citrus, spice, and homemade pumpkin purée (canned pumpkin works great here too).

Recipe: Caramelized Orange Pumpkin Flan

Fresh pears and purchased puff pastry add up to an incredibly easy seasonal dessert.

Recipe: Rustic Pear Tarts with Crème Fraîche

Brown sugar glazed pears top moist ginger cake in this fall-inspired twist on the classic pineapple upside-down cake.

Recipe: Pear and Ginger Upside-Down Cake

Glistening, glazed cranberries shine like jewels atop a luxuriously creamy cheesecake.

Recipe: Cranberry Crown Cheesecake

This creamy cheesecake has a glistening topping of caramelized, candy-like orange slices.

Recipe: Orange Ribbon Cheesecake

Juicy pears take the place of apples in this twist on the apple cranberry crisp. Bake them in individual dishes for an especially pretty presentation.

Recipe: Pear Cranberry Crisps

These pretty tartlets make for a special individual holiday dessert. We love them with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream.

Recipe: Apple-Cranberry Mince Tartlets

This tart is so easy to tote, and everyone loves its supremely buttery crust packed with crunchy nuts and soft, tangy apricots.

Recipe: Apricot Nut Tart

Not everyone loves pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, so try serving this gorgeous and decadent chocolate raspberry trifle in addition to the classic pie.

Recipe: Chocolate-Caramel Trifle with Raspberries

Tart Granny Smith apples, plenty of dried fruit and spices, citrus, and rum go into this richly flavored (and vegetarian) version of mincemeat pie.

Recipe: Apple and Dried-Fruit Spice Pie

Jazz up the traditional Thanksgiving dessert with mascarpone, a hint of orange flavor, and a gingersnap crust.

Recipe: Pumpkin-Orange Mascarpone Pie

A concentrated wine and spice syrup gives this dessert exceptional flavor.

Recipe: Black Mission Fig Tart

The rich sour cream-pound cake texture and bright citrus and cranberry flavors guarantee this bread will disappear in a flash.

Recipe: Cranberry-Orange Bread with Grand Marnier Glaze

To ensure a crisp topping and add depth of flavor to the fruit, bake the streusel topping on its own and simmer the pears with marsala wine and ginger. Then layer pears and topping in a dish and bake briefly.

Recipe: Pear Ginger Crisp with Crumbly Streusel

To create this deluxe but easy dessert, flavor whipping cream with brown sugar, pumpkin, and spices and freeze in an ice cream maker. Then fold in bourbon and crushed gingersnaps and freeze until firm.

Recipe: Pumpkin Gingersnap Ice Cream

As the layers of chocolate graham crackers and pumpkin- and spice-flavored cream cheese chill overnight, the flavors meld and the crackers soften to create this super-easy cake. A dusting of cocoa over leaf stencils give it a fancy look, but you can omit the stencils if you’re in a hurry.

Recipe: No-Cook Pumpkin Chocolate Icebox Cake

If you’re looking for dessert for a crowd, this moist, handsome cake serves 12 to 16, and it keeps well made a day ahead.

Recipe: Chocolate-Pumpkin Marble Cake

These pears are so beautiful you won’t believe they take only 30 minutes to make.

Recipe: Red Wine Poached Pears

A bowl of this refreshing sorbet won’t weigh you down after a big meal; then again, it might be the perfect partner for cookies or a slice of pie.

Recipe: Green Apple Sorbet

If you love the old-fashioned flavor of apple crisp but want a more company-worthy look, try hollowing out the fruit and packing the buttery brown sugar streusel inside.

Recipe: Apple-Crisp Baked Apples

For a fissure-free cheesecake, beat your filling just until it’s blended–no more. (Too much air in the mixture will make it pouf up, and then deflate, in the oven.)

Homey and very moist, a cream torte is like a cross between a cake, a custard, and a dutch baby. To keep the batter from leaking out of the springform pan, be sure the pan bottom and rim fit together tightly; or line the pan with foil before buttering and flouring it.