Let’s be honest – Christmas dinner is just the opening act. The real main event is dessert.
Every year I tell myself I’m going to be “good” and just have one little cookie. And every year, 48 hours later, I’m surrounded by tins of fudge, powdered sugar on my sweater, and zero regrets.
So I decided to narrow it down. After years of very serious, very delicious research, I’ve ranked my 5 all-time favorite Christmas desserts – the ones I make every single December, the ones my family fights over, and the ones that make the whole house smell like pure holiday magic.
They’re cozy, they’re nostalgic, they’re a little over-the-top, and they are guaranteed to put you straight into a sugar-induced Christmas bliss.
Ready to get baking? Let’s dive in!
Why These Christmas Desserts Made the Cut
Most of these desserts are old holiday favorites, and all but the yule log keep the oven free for the rest of the meal. Each one comes with the full ingredient list and the video to cook from.
Christmas Pudding
Christmas pudding is the dark, steamed pudding of British and Irish Christmas tables. It isn’t a cake. It’s a heavy mix of dried fruit, breadcrumbs and warm spices, with Guinness and a few spoons of whiskey and brandy or rum. It goes into a greased pudding bowl, tied under paper and foil, and steams for hours in a pot of water. I make it on low in a slow cooker, which is the easy way, and cooks who make it every year agree. It makes one big pudding, and I pour a little whiskey over it at the end.
The pudding is on my list because it’s the real steamed kind, and it still turns out well when I make it close to Christmas. You don’t have to start weeks ahead. The Guinness is my favorite part, and some cooks remember it from their family puddings in Ireland. I use butter, but margarine works if that is what you have.
Ingredients
- 8oz/225g butter or margarine
- 8oz/225g brown sugar (Demerara)
- 7oz/200g plain flour
- 12oz/350g currants
- 8oz/225g raisins
- 6oz/170g sultanas
- 2oz/55g mixed peel
- 2oz/55g glace cherries, quartered
- 1oz/25g ground almonds
- 6oz/170g fresh breadcrumbs
- Grated lemon rind
- Grated rind and juice of 1 orange
- 1 level tsp nutmeg and cinnamon
- 1 heaped tsp allspice
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup Guinness
- 4 tbsp whiskey and brandy or rum (spiced rum is best)
SaveRice Pudding
Rice pudding is a thick, creamy pudding, and the family behind this recipe makes it for every holiday. A dessert one family puts on the table year after year has earned a spot on mine. The pudding cooks in one big pan on the stove. Long-grain rice simmers slowly in milk and evaporated milk, and eggs and sugar go in at the end, so it turns rich, almost like custard. I chill it and serve it cold. It makes a big batch, enough for a family table.
I keep making this rice pudding because it feeds a crowd from one pan and keeps raisin lovers and raisin haters happy. I leave the raisins out of half, and plenty of cooks skip them altogether. Medium-grain rice works if that is what you have. If you like a skin on top, do what some cooks do and bake the finished pudding with cinnamon sprinkled over it.
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups long-grain white rice (not instant)
- Water, enough to cover the rice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Small piece of butter
- 2 quarts milk
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Cinnamon to taste
- Raisins, if desired
SaveChocolate Yule Log
Chocolate yule log is the French buche de Noel: a thin chocolate sponge rolled around a filling and frosted to look like a log. This recipe has a light cocoa sponge, a chocolate and coffee whipped cream inside, a rich chocolate buttercream marked to look like bark, and little meringue mushrooms on top. It needs the oven and several hours, and it serves about 10.
The yule log is on my list because one flat sheet of sponge cake turns into a showpiece for the Christmas table. Rolling it was less scary than I expected. Cracks don’t matter, because the buttercream hides them, and real logs crack too.
One warning about the list below: it says 1 tablespoon of salt in the buttercream. I found that far too salty, and 1 teaspoon is the amount that works.
Ingredients
- Sponge: 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp cake flour
- Sponge: 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- Sponge: 3/4 tsp baking powder
- Sponge: 1/4 tsp baking soda
- Sponge: 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus a pinch
- Sponge: 4 large eggs (150g), separated, at room temperature
- Sponge: 2/3 cup granulated sugar (100g), divided
- Sponge: 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- Sponge: 1/3 cup buttermilk (60g), at room temperature
- Sponge: 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Sponge: 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- Sponge: a little instant coffee (optional)
- Filling: 1 cup heavy cream, divided
- Filling: 2 oz milk chocolate
- Filling: pinch of salt
- Filling: 1/3 cup creme fraiche
- Filling: 1/2 tbsp coffee
- Filling: 1 tsp instant coffee
- Meringue mushrooms: 75g egg white
- Meringue mushrooms: pinch kosher salt
- Meringue mushrooms: pinch cream of tartar
- Meringue mushrooms: 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- Meringue mushrooms: 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- Meringue mushrooms: 1 tsp vanilla paste
- Buttercream: 2 large eggs (100g), at room temperature
- Buttercream: 2 large egg yolks (32g), at room temperature
- Buttercream: 3/4 cup sugar (150g)
- Buttercream: a little water, for the sugar syrup
- Buttercream: 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (283g), cut into tablespoons, at room temperature
- Buttercream: 8 oz (227g) semisweet chocolate (68 to 70% cacao), melted and cooled
- Buttercream: 1 tbsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Buttercream: 2 tbsp vanilla extract
SaveVictorian Trifle
Victorian trifle is the grand, old British kind of trifle: cake, fruit, custard and cream layered cold in a deep glass dish, so you see every layer. In this recipe the sponge cake is soaked in brandy, the custard is made with almonds, and the whipped cream is piped high and topped with almonds and candied fruit. Apart from the custard there is no cooking, and it comes together in about an hour plus time to set.
I tried this trifle because its video has over 5 million views on YouTube. It’s trifle the way the Victorians made it, much grander than the quick versions. It’s also how I use up leftover sponge cake.
I don’t hold back on the brandy and sherry. I make the custard from scratch and use good fruit, because packet custard and canned fruit don’t give you the same trifle.
Ingredients
- 100g leftover sponge cake
- 50ml brandy
- 1 teacup of jam
- 100g crystallized fruit, such as ginger and cherries
- 100g ratafia biscuits or macaroons
- 125ml port or sherry
- 500ml custard, set with 2 sheets of gelatine or 2 tbsp cornflour
- 100g ground almonds
- 1 1/4 pints whipping cream
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- Decoration: slivered blanched almonds
- Decoration: small cubes of crystallized fruit
- Decoration: edible flowers, candied (optional)
SavePeppermint Crisp Tart
Peppermint Crisp tart is the South African fridge tart I make when I don’t want to turn on the oven at all. Tennis biscuits, a South African cookie, go in layers with whipped cream. The cream is mixed with Caramel Treat, a canned caramel, and grated Peppermint Crisp, a mint chocolate bar. More chocolate goes on top, and the tart sets in the fridge in about two hours.
This tart is on my list because it takes four ingredients and no oven. Lots of cooks make it for Christmas and say the whole family loved it, and it goes fast at my table too.
Use cream straight from the fridge, because warm cream won’t whip. I stick with Caramel Treat, since a cook who used condensed milk instead found the tart came out dry. All three brands are South African, and I haven’t tried a US swap for them. Sometimes I set the tart in small cups and freeze them. It freezes well like that.
Ingredients
- 2 packets Tennis biscuits
- 500ml whipping cream
- 1 can (360g) caramel treat
- 150g Peppermint Crisp chocolate
SaveChristmas Desserts FAQ
A few things to know before you make these Christmas desserts.
Which Christmas Desserts Can I Make Ahead?
I make the cold ones the day before and keep them covered in the fridge: the rice pudding, the trifle and the peppermint crisp tart. The yule log needs at least two hours in the fridge after it is filled, so I make it the day before too. The Christmas pudding can be made the day before or on the day, and some cooks make it a month ahead.
Which Christmas Desserts Keep the Oven Free?
Only the yule log needs the oven, for its thin sponge cake. The Christmas pudding steams in a pot of water or on low in a slow cooker. The rice pudding cooks on the stove, the trifle needs the stove only for its custard, and the peppermint crisp tart sets in the fridge. If your oven is full on Christmas Day, pick any of the others.
What Is a Traditional Christmas Dessert?
Christmas pudding is an old British and Irish Christmas dessert, and trifle is an old British one. The trifle here is the grand Victorian kind. The yule log comes from France, where it is called buche de Noel. Peppermint crisp tart is a South African favorite. For the most old-fashioned table, the pudding and the trifle are the ones to make.
Where Do I Buy the Tart Ingredients?
I look for Tennis biscuits, Caramel Treat and Peppermint Crisp at South African shops or shops that sell imported food, and cooks outside South Africa say that is where they find them. Don’t swap the biscuits for a pie crust. South African cooks say the Tennis biscuits are what make this Christmas tart.
I make the tart when time is tight and the yule log when I want a little drama on the table. Whichever you pick, read the full list before you shop, since a few of these call for things you may not keep at home. Then open the video under that recipe and cook along.
