30 Thanksgiving Dessert Recipes That Aren't Pie

Anyone can bring pie. You're bringing something unexpected.

"What can I bring?" you ask your Thanksgiving hosts.

"Can you bring dessert?" they reply. "But don't bring pie. We've got pie covered."

With pie covered, you'll have to get creative because Thanksgiving is THE pie holiday. Don't worry. Your hosts may have the pie covered, but we have you covered with these 30 ideas for Thanksgiving desserts that aren't pie.

These desserts have fall flavors—pumpkin, apple, pecans, baking spices, and more—just no pie crust.

Read More: Your Thanksgiving Meal Questions, Answered!

1. 2-Ingredient Pumpkin Mousse

Get Recipe: 2-Ingredient Pumpkin Mousse

This dessert looks fancy but is simple to make. Mix canned pumpkin pie filling (not purée) and whipped cream. Make it up to 24 hours ahead, and serve it from the bowl you mix it in or spoon it into individual bowls for single servings.

2. Apple Cider Donut Muffins

Get Recipe: Apple Cider Donut Muffins

Senior Editor Laurel Randolph says, "A simple trick for a next-level muffin: reduce the apple cider before adding it to the mix. You can technically skip this step and just add plain cider to the batter (use 1/2 cup, not the 1 cup called for), but you won’t get the same level of apple cider flavor."

3. Chocolate Cranberry Rugelach

Get Recipe: Chocolate Cranberry Rugelach

Roll chocolate, walnuts, and dried cranberries in a rich cream cheese pastry to create these one-bite traditional Jewish cookies. They freeze well, but if you want the cookies to be fresh, you can still make the dough ahead of time, freeze it, and then have half the work already done when it's time to make the cookies.

4. Pumpkin Tiramisu

Get Recipe: Pumpkin Tiramisu

This is a mix-and-assemble dessert that's a seasonal take on the classic Italian tiramisu. It still has an espresso syrup for soaking the ladyfingers, but also pumpkin spice and pumpkin purée thrown into the mix.

5. Apple Pie Bars with Crumble Topping

Get Recipe: Apple Pie Bars with Crumble Topping

These apple pie bars have a filling similar to apple pie, but on the bottom of the bar is a layer of oats, sugar, flour, and butter. Spread the pie-like apple filling on top, then add a crumble. The recipe makes 16 bars that would be delicious topped with vanilla ice cream.

6. Honey Cake

Get Recipe: Honey Cake

Contributor Hannah Zimmerman says, "Honey is the strongest flavor in this cake, so use a high-quality honey that you really love."

7. No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

Get Recipe: No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

There is seriously, truly no baking in this stunning cheesecake recipe, from the crust to the creamy filling. Draining the canned pumpkin on paper towels makes it less watery, giving you a sliceable cheesecake of substance. Use caramel sauce form the store to save time.

8. Pecan Pie Bars

Get Recipe: Pecan Pie Bars

If you love pecan pie, you'll love these bars. Thick pecan pie filling sits on top of shortbread. Bake, cool, and cut into squares. A great make-ahead dessert, you can freeze these bars for up to two months.

9. Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Get Recipe: Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg flavor this light pumpkin cake that's topped with a rich cream cheese frosting. You make it in a 9x13-inch cake pan so frosting it is super simple. The recipe also works for cupcakes baked for 18 to 20 minutes.

10. Basque-Style Pumpkin Cheesecake

Get Recipe: Basque-Style Pumpkin Cheesecake

Remember when those rustic, burnished Basque cheesecakes were popular a few years ago? They're so attractive and a great gift to bakers who are all thumbs, since the aim is for the cheesecake to collapse as it bakes. This pumpkin variation is subtly spiced and will steal the show away from pumpkin pie.

11. Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

Get Recipe: Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

Cranberries and caramel sauce go on the bottom of the pan, and a sweet cake flavored with orange zest goes on top of that. Bake, turn it out, and you'll have a beautiful cranberry dessert to finish off Thanksgiving dinner.

12. No-Churn Pumpkin Ice Cream

Get Recipe: No-Churn Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream

Real pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, whipped cream, plus plenty of baking spices go into this ice cream that you don't need to churn. Mix the ingredients, freeze in a loaf pan for about six hours, and you have ice cream!

13. Ritz Torte

Get Recipe: Ritz Torte

Ritz torte is a buttery treat for lovers of nuts (pecans or walnuts). It's also quite unique, hailing from eastern Appalachia. Toast crushed Ritz crackers and chopped nuts, then fold them into a meringue base and bake. Top with whipped cream. It's buttery and salty from the crackers and has a garnish of shaved chocolate on top for a little contrast.

14. Baked Apples

Get Recipe: Baked Apples

Founder Elise Bauer says, ""Rome Beauty" is the variety of apple that is best suited to baking, and is worth seeking out if you are making baked apples."

15. Chocolate Martini

Get Recipe: Chocolate Martini

This chocolate martini is a special dessert drink made with vodka, chocolate liqueur, and crème de cacao. The result is a rich, creamy cocktail that works on its own as a dessert or to accompany any treat on your Thanksgiving dessert bar.

16. Fresh Apple Bundt Cake

Get Recipe: Fresh Apple Bundt Cake

Chunks of fresh apples and a buttery caramel glaze make this one serious Bundt cake. It's a family favorite recipe from Mrs. Paxton, the mother of our founder Elise Bauer's friend. Now, it makes its way to you.

17. Crème Brûlée Cheesecake

Get Recipe: Crème Brûlée Cheesecake

This dessert pleases anyone who likes cheesecake, anyone who likes crème brûlée, or anyone who likes a really good dessert. After making a luscious cheesecake, brûlée the top using sugar and a kitchen torch. It doesn't take long to do but it totally transforms the cheesecake into something extra special.

18. Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles

Get Recipe: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Soft snickerdoodle cookies are a treat, and this version gets the fall holiday treatment by adding pumpkin purée (canned is fine) and pumpkin pie spice. They keep for five days in an air-tight container so you can make them a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

19. Persimmon Pudding Cake

Get Recipe: Persimmon Pudding Cake

Surprise everyone around the table with something different—this persimmon pudding cake. There's no actual pudding in the cake, but the persimmon pulp creates a pudding-like consistency in the cake that has seasoned with warming spices and studded with nuts.

20. Apple Bread Pudding

Get Recipe: Apple Bread Pudding

What's great about this bread pudding dessert, besides the fact that it's delicious, is that it's so similar to French toast casserole that you can eat its leftovers for breakfast over Thanksgiving weekend. The brown sugar bourbon sauce is optional for breakfast, though.

21. Butterscotch Pudding

Get Recipe: Butterscotch Pudding

This butterscotch pudding is easy and very affordable to make. If you have heavy whipping cream, you most likely have the rest of the ingredients in your kitchen to whip it up—butter, brown sugar, salt, whole milk, egg yolks, and vanilla extract. Bake the pudding in individual ramekins, and serve fresh whipped cream on the side as an optional topping.

22. Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake

Get Recipe: Instant Pot Pumpkin Cheesecake

Why make a cheesecake in the Instant Pot? It will never dry out, crack, or come out underdone in the middle. If you like to plan way ahead for the holiday, you can make this pumpkin cheesecake weeks in advance and freeze it.

23. Pumpkin Spice Blondies

Get Recipe: A Pan of These Pumpkin Spice Blondies Will Disappear Like Magic

White chocolate chips and toasted pecans fill these blondies flavored with pumpkin pie spice. Browning the butter first adds a depth of flavor and is totally worth taking the few extra minutes it adds.

24. Apple Carrot Cupcakes

Get Recipe: Apple Carrot Cupcakes

Can't decide on apple cake or carrot cake? You don't have to with these cupcakes that have coconut and pecans in them. The recipe yields 24 cupcakes, perfect for a large family and friends gathering.

25. Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Get Recipe: Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

With a cheesecake-like filling and a crunchy streusel topping, serve these cheesecake bars with optional caramel sauce or whipped cream. They're a real crowd pleaser so it's good the recipe servers up to 18.

26. Eggnog Ice Cream

Get Recipe: Eggnog Ice Cream

Usher in the holiday season with homemade eggnog ice cream. It tastes just like eggnog, but instead of drinking it, you churn it into ice cream. Serve by itself or with a drizzle or caramel, or substitute it for the vanilla ice cream topping for any dessert.

27. Gingersnap Pavlova With Cranberries

Get Recipe: Gingersnap Pavlova with Cranberries

A pavlova is a giant cloud of baked meringue served with a fruit sauce. In this case, a sauce of cooked fresh cranberries. Before baking, fold crushed gingersnaps into the meringue. It's very simply but reaps big rewards as a centerpiece dessert.

28. Apple Upside Down Cake

Get Recipe: Apple Upside Down Cake

Cornmeal in the batter gives this upside down cake an enlivening texture. It's an elegant change of pace from heavily spiced apple desserts; the caramel topping does all the heavy lifting.

29. Apple Pandowdy

Get Recipe: Pandowdy Is the Easy Retro Dessert I'm Making on Repeat This Fall

Recipe Developer Nicole Hopper says, "This is a slightly more modern version of the classic, topped with pieces of store-bought pie crust, creating a patchwork top that’s an ideal topping for the saucy filling."

29. Indian Pudding

Get Recipe: Indian Pudding

This dessert isn't much to look at, but it's pure comfort in a bowl. Indian pudding dates back to early American colonial times in New England, where colonists would make a baked cornmeal pudding sweetened with molasses and flavored with spices. It's a mix-and-bake affair, quite simple and easy to make ahead of time. Warm it before serving and make sure to offer it à la mode!

30. Pear Cake with Cinnamon Sugar

Get Recipe: Pear Cake with Cinnamon Sugar

Contributor Sally Vargas says, "A 9-inch round cake pan or tart pan with a removable rim, set on a baking sheet, is the best choice for this cake. In a pinch, you could use an 8-inch cake pan, but the surface will not hold as many pears, and that’s a compromise I would not want to make unless pressed!"