20 Cozy Winter Desserts

The ultimate in winter desserts? Apple Crumble! Golden, crunchy brown sugar crumbles top a sweet tart filling of warm spiced fruit, seasoned with cinnamon, allspice and ginger. Bake this one on repeat all winter, and you’ll never tire of it. 

Another great winter dessert: Apple Dumplings! This is Grandma’s recipe (really!): we worked with Alex’s mom to adapt her famous fall favorite for your home kitchen. Tender, cozy-spiced apples are baked up in a flaky pasty crust with a spiced brown sugar syrup. The result is a revelation: there’s a reason Grandma is famous for these!

These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are over the top: big and chewy, with nutty brown butter, chocolate chunks, topped with flaky sea salt. Our friends and family agree, this is one outrageously delicious cookie!

Got a craving for a lighter winter dessert? Try this Baked Apples recipe! It’s like a short-cut apple crumble, but lighter, easier and tastier. Stuff the sweet tart fruit with oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and allspice, then bake until sweet and tender. The tart tang of the apple against the spiced crumbles is a bit of a revelation!

Here's a favorite winter cookie recipe…iced applesauce cookies! These are so moist and irresistible, you’ll forget about everything else and you savory each chewy bite. The applesauce makes them ultra moist, and they’ve got a little oatmeal to balance the sweet. They’re almost like a lighter version of an oatmeal cream pie!

Everyone loves a good chocolate cookie. But here’s something we think is even better: these soft, gooey Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars! They’ve got an irresistibly chewy texture, featuring a luxurious dough with loads of dark chocolate chips. A bit of oatmeal gives it a nostalgic heartiness, and the edges get perfectly golden. All your friends will be begging for the recipe (ours were).

This apple cranberry crisp is a stunning winter dessert! The tartness of fresh cranberries melds with sweet, comforting crisp apples in a cinnamon-spiced fruit layer. The berries add a zingy flavor and a bright red hue to the fruit, which shines topped with golden buttery crisp crumbles.

This Chocolate Mug Cake recipe comes out insanely fudgy and 100% delicious! It’s got a secret ingredient that makes a delightfully rich flavor. The hardest part? Waiting for it to cool until you can dig in. Here’s our tutorial: all you need to know about how to make a mug cake – and some variations for making it your own!

Here's the ultimate cozy dessert for a chocolate lover: flourless chocolate cake! This decadent flourless chocolate cake is meant for winter celebrations. Rich and fudgy, dense and dark chocolaty, it’s a chocolate lover’s dream cake. Top it with raspberry compote for a sweet tart pairing that cuts the sweetness of the cake perfectly

Try apple pie bars! It’s simple to whip up this handheld winter dessert: the same dough makes a sturdy bottom crust and buttery crumbles of streusel topping! Sandwiched in between the layers is a cinnamon-spiced apple filling, and it’s topped with a sweet maple icing drizzle that tastes a bit like melty vanilla ice cream. 

Here's an ideal warming winter dessert: bananas foster! The warm bananas swim in a gooey sauce of caramelized sugar and rum, topped with a dollop of melt ice cream. There’s usually a flame too, which brings in over the top drama! The best part: you can make it in 10 minutes.

If there’s one cookie we can’t resist, it’s this one: soft and chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies! This recipe makes soft and chewy cookies with a sugar-crisp exterior, infused with cozy, bold spices. Each one is fractured into picture-perfect crinkles, and when you sink in your teeth for the first bite, it’s like being enveloped in a warm hug.

What's a better decadent dessert recipe than cookie dough? Not sure about you, we'd always pick dough over a baked cookie 100% of the time. This cookie dough is perfectly safe to eat with a few tricks. Make the standard dough which has various diet options, or try our popular Chickpea Cookie Dough, an option that's a tad healthier without sacrificing on flavor.

Looking for a decadent treat? Try this chocolate mousse recipe: rich, smooth, and surprisingly easy to whip up at home! It takes just 15 minutes of hands on time, then chill until it’s dense and chocolaty.

Here’s a cozy baked good that’s calling your name: this easy apple cobbler recipe! The topping is a meld of a biscuit and a sugar cookie, chewy, sweet and baked into golden-brown dollops. It covers a sweetly-spiced apple layer that’s flavored with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and lemon zest for a little pop.

These fun cookies are essentially apple snickerdoodles, irresistibly soft, with a sweet coating of cinnamon and sugar. Each bite has a burst of sweet tart apple! They take no time to whip up and don’t require any refrigeration of the dough before baking: which means you can sink your teeth into that soft, spiced cookie as soon as possible. 

This amaretto coffee is part drink, part winter dessert, and 100 percent irresistible! It’s one of those flavor combinations that’s years beyond the sum of its parts. The amaretto brings a nuttiness and spice to the coffee that’s hard to quantify in words. Topped with frothy whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon, it’s truly to die for.

Of course, a list of winter desserts isn't complete without apple pie!  No one would guess that this pie is fully made of plants, because it’s so satisfying. A flaky, golden crust encloses a filling that’s so full of cozy spiced flavor, you won’t want the bite to end. Here are all the tricks for making the most classic apple pie…with no butter to speak of.

Also try: Best Apple Pie Recipe

What's better as a winter dessert than a warm and gooey cookie cake? This chocolate chip cookie cake is 100% more delicious than a store bought cookie cake. (We think, at least!) The rich chocolate chunks and a hint of orange zest make it seriously irresistible: the flavor is oh so real. The texture is perfectly soft and chewy. Everyone will ooo and ahh about this one! (All our family does.)

Also try: Chocolate Chip Almond Flour Skillet Cookie

Chocolate bark is perfect for winter and so easy to make! This one is sweet and salty, with a confetti of colorful ingredients and absolutely irresistible. It’s the best fun treat that makes a great gift. We used cranberries, pistachios, coconut and sea salt for the toppings, but it’s totally customizable based on your preferences. 

Last up, a winter dessert that’s pure perfection in its simplicity: the classic Italian affogato! Two ingredients come together in the most exciting flavor pairing: sweet, creamy vanilla gelato and bitter, rich espresso. Poured at the table, you get to see the ingredients transform right before your eyes. Like you’d expect from Italian cuisine, it’s essentialism at its finest.