Winter Dessert Recipes
Winter desserts do their best work after the holidays, when the lights come down and it's dark by five. These thirty run on warm puddings, citrus at its peak, pears, spice and plenty of chocolate, sorted by mood. Hot cocoa desserts close it out, since January needs them most.
Start With These Six
One from each section below, picked for a cold night with nothing on the calendar. If you only make one, make the sticky toffee pudding.
Sticky Toffee Pudding with Orange and Sea Salt
Soft date sponge soaked in salted toffee sauce, with orange zest to wake it up. Keep the extra sauce in a jug at the table, because someone will ask.
Cara Cara Orange Olive Oil Cake
Pink-fleshed Cara Cara oranges baked into a tender olive oil cake. She kept making it all winter while they were in season, and one slice explains why.
Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears
Pears simmer in spiced red wine until they turn deep ruby, then get a pour of chocolate sauce. It looks like a restaurant dessert and takes one pot.
Dark Chocolate Tart with Sea Salt
Make it the day before and it slices clean and glossy. A scatter of flaky salt on top keeps the dark chocolate from tasting one-note.
Swedish Cardamom Cake
One bowl, a lot of freshly ground cardamom and a snowy coat of powdered sugar. Swedes eat this with coffee, and they know a thing or two about long winters.
Malted Milk Hot Chocolate
Bittersweet chocolate, malted milk powder and a pinch of espresso make a mug with real depth. Our Malted Milk Powder brings the warm, toasty flavor of a diner-counter malt.
Warm Puddings and Cobblers
The desserts that come out of the oven still bubbling. Serve them warm, with something cold on top, in the biggest bowls you own.
Sticky Toffee Pudding with Orange and Sea Salt
Soft date sponge soaked in salted toffee sauce, with orange zest to wake it up. Keep the extra sauce in a jug at the table, because someone will ask.
Bread Pudding with Vanilla Sauce
Day-old bread bakes up soft and custardy, then a warm stovetop vanilla sauce goes over every square. The best thing a stale loaf can hope for in January.
Old-Fashioned Cherry Cobbler
Frozen cherries make this a mid-winter cobbler, no orchard required. Seven ingredients and one cast-iron skillet, with vanilla ice cream melting into the middle.
Baked Caramel Pudding
Plain batter goes into the dish and comes out sitting on its own caramel sauce. Self-saucing puddings feel like a magic trick every time you scoop one.
Old-Fashioned Stovetop Rice Pudding
Creamy, custardy rice pudding that simmers on the stove while you do something else. Finish it with our Royal Cinnamon, which is bold enough that a pinch goes far.
Self-Saucing Butterscotch Pudding
Brown sugar sauce bubbles up under a light sponge as it bakes. Spoon it out warm with a dollop of cream and watch nobody leave the table early.
Hot cocoa tastes better with a spoonful of malt
Our Malted Milk Powder brings warm, toasty, caramelly depth to hot chocolate, puddings and chocolate cake. Real malted barley, wheat and milk, non-GMO sourced, with no artificial flavors.
Winter Citrus Desserts
Citrus peaks right when everything else in the produce aisle gives up. Blood oranges, Meyer lemons and clementines bring the bright spot to a gray month.
Cara Cara Orange Olive Oil Cake
Pink-fleshed Cara Cara oranges baked into a tender olive oil cake. She kept making it all winter while they were in season, and one slice explains why.
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Meyer lemons are sweeter and more floral than the regular kind, and this glazed loaf lets them show it. Cut it thick and serve it with afternoon coffee.
Grapefruit Olive Oil Cake
Bright, a little bitter and very moist, with grapefruit in the yogurt batter and again in the glaze. For anyone who thinks lemon gets too much credit.
Easy Clementine Cake
Whole clementines, peel and all, go into the food processor for the most orange-tasting cake you will make this year. A syrup and a glaze finish the job.
Blood Orange Tart with Almond Flour Crust
Coral blood orange curd in a gluten-free almond crust, ringed with meringue kisses. Blood oranges only stick around for a few months, so this is the moment.
Tangerine Bundt Cake
Tangerine in the batter, tangerine in the glaze and peeled segments piled on top. It looks like a centerpiece and bakes in one pan.
Pear and Winter Fruit Bakes
Pears and persimmons hold up when the berries are long gone. Poach them, bake them into bread, or flip them out of a cake pan.
Spiced Red Wine Poached Pears
Pears simmer in spiced red wine until they turn deep ruby, then get a pour of chocolate sauce. It looks like a restaurant dessert and takes one pot.
Spiced Persimmon Bread
Ripe persimmon pulp keeps this spiced loaf moist, and sliced Fuyus on top make it look bakery-bought. Our single-origin Royal Cinnamon brings the warmth without crowding the fruit.
Brown Butter Pear Cake
Caramelized pears on the bottom and nutty brown butter in the batter, flipped out warm. Upside-down cakes are the easiest way to look like you tried very hard.
Cozy Chocolate Desserts
Molten centers, flourless cakes and a tart that slices like glass. Cold weather is the best excuse chocolate ever gets.
Dark Chocolate Tart with Sea Salt
Make it the day before and it slices clean and glossy. A scatter of flaky salt on top keeps the dark chocolate from tasting one-note.
Molten Lava Cake
Break into the middle and warm chocolate runs across the plate. Dust the ramekins with our Dutch-process cocoa instead of flour and the outside tastes like chocolate too.
Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake
Dense, fudgy and gluten-free, with espresso in the cake and in the caramel on top. Our Espresso Powder deepens the chocolate and dissolves completely, no grit.
Brooklyn Blackout Cake
Devil's food layers, chocolate pudding filling and a coat of cake crumbs. The recipe calls for black cocoa, and ours gets that near-black crumb with little to no food coloring.
Chocolate and Pear Cake
Pear halves sink into a gluten-free almond chocolate cake as it bakes, so every slice gets fruit. Dust it with powdered sugar and serve it slightly warm.
Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes for Two
Small-batch lava cakes that make exactly two, so there are no leftovers to explain. Valentine's Day is covered, and so is any cold Friday night.
Spiced Cakes and Loaves
Cardamom, chai and cinnamon do the heavy lifting here. Each one makes the whole house smell like you planned ahead.
Swedish Cardamom Cake
One bowl, a lot of freshly ground cardamom and a snowy coat of powdered sugar. Swedes eat this with coffee, and they know a thing or two about long winters.
Chai Spice Bundt Cake
Brewed chai goes straight into the batter with cinnamon, allspice and cardamom, then an orange glaze drips down the sides. Tea time, in cake form.
Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Dark brown sugar and molasses make the crumb deep and moist, and tangy cream cheese frosting keeps it in check. Our Royal Cinnamon runs strong, so use a touch less than the recipe says.
Hot Cocoa Desserts
Everything we love about a mug of hot cocoa, baked into pies, cookies, brownies and cupcakes. The malted mug is still here for the purists.
Malted Milk Hot Chocolate
Bittersweet chocolate, malted milk powder and a pinch of espresso make a mug with real depth. Our Malted Milk Powder brings the warm, toasty flavor of a diner-counter malt.
Hot Cocoa Pie
Chocolate shortbread crust, warm milk chocolate filling and torched marshmallow on top. It eats like a mug of hot cocoa you can cut into wedges.
No-Bake Hot Chocolate Pie
Cream cheese and hot cocoa mix set up in a chocolate cookie crust while the oven stays off. Mini marshmallows and a chocolate drizzle finish it.
Marshmallow-Stuffed Hot Cocoa Cookies
Chewy chocolate cookies made with hot cocoa mix and packed with marshmallow bits. Pull them a minute early so the centers stay soft.
Hot Chocolate Brownies
Fudgy brownies with mini marshmallows melted on by the pan's leftover heat. Swap half the cocoa for our Black Cocoa and the squares go dramatically dark.
Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
The recipe insists on Dutch-process cocoa, and it is right about that. Ours brings smooth, rounded chocolate and 22-24% cocoa butter under a hot cocoa whipped cream swirl.
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That warm, toasty, caramelly depth from a great diner milkshake - now in your cookies, cakes, and frostings. Non-GMO sourced with no artificial flavors, so the malt does the talking.
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We've Got Answers
What makes a dessert a winter dessert?
Mostly warmth and what is in season. Winter desserts lean on things served warm (puddings, cobblers, lava cakes), ingredients that peak in the cold months (citrus, pears, persimmons), and flavors that feel cozy, like spice, caramel and chocolate. Hot cocoa desserts count too. Nothing on this list needs holiday decorations, so they work from New Year's Day through the end of February.
What fruit is in season in winter for baking?
Citrus is the star. Blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, Meyer lemons, grapefruit, clementines and tangerines are at their best from about December through March. Pears hold up well into winter, persimmons run from late fall into early winter, and pomegranates last through January. For cobblers and crisps, frozen fruit like cherries and berries bakes up just as well as fresh, which is why it shows up in winter recipes.
Which winter desserts can I make ahead and reheat?
Bread pudding and sticky toffee pudding both reheat well: bake them a day ahead, cover with foil, and warm at 325F for 15 to 20 minutes, with the sauce warmed separately. Citrus cakes and spice cakes keep three to four days wrapped at room temperature and often taste better on day two. Lava cake batter can wait in the ramekins in the fridge for up to a day; add a minute or two to the bake time. Self-saucing puddings are best fresh from the oven.
How do I keep a cobbler or bread pudding from going soggy?
For a cobbler, keep the fruit hot when the topping goes on, leave gaps so steam can escape, and bake until the filling bubbles in the center as well as at the edges. Let it rest 15 minutes before serving so the juices thicken. For bread pudding, use stale or lightly toasted bread so it soaks up custard without collapsing, and bake until a knife in the middle comes out clean. Store leftovers uncovered for the first hour so condensation doesn't drip back onto the top.
How do I use malted milk powder in desserts?
Treat it like a flavor booster. Stir a tablespoon or two into a mug of hot chocolate, whisk a few tablespoons into pudding or custard before it cooks, or add a couple of tablespoons to the dry ingredients of a chocolate cake or brownie batter. It brings a warm, toasty, caramel-like flavor and works especially well with chocolate. Start small, taste, and go up from there, since a little goes a long way in a delicate dessert.
What are easy winter desserts for a weeknight?
Stovetop rice pudding, poached pears and lava cakes for two all come together in well under an hour with pantry staples. The no-bake hot chocolate pie sets in the fridge while you make dinner. If you have leftover bread, bread pudding is mostly hands-off oven time. Save the layer cakes and tarts for the weekend.
More Baking Adventures
Cranberry Dessert Recipes
Tart, bright and red, for the bag of berries in the freezer.
Apple Dessert Recipes
Crisps, cakes and pies for the apples still in the crisper drawer.
Gingerbread Desserts
Molasses and spice, well past the cookie cutter.
Peppermint Chocolate Desserts
Cool mint and dark chocolate, the cold-weather classic.
Malted Milk Powder Recipes
Every way to put that toasty malt flavor to work.
Mocha Dessert Recipes
Chocolate and coffee, for the afternoons that need both.