12 Days of Christmas Dessert Ideas
There’s no need to compromise on luxurious Christmas desserts if you’re following a slimming diet over the most wonderful time of the year. All of our Christmas dessert ideas keep things light, merry and as simple as possible, so you’ll spend less time in the kitchen and more time making precious memories with your loved ones.
Whether you treat yourself to one, or all twelve days of our festive round-up of low-calorie Christmas desserts, you can rest assured that every pudding here has no shortage of slimming-friendly Pinch of Nom magic!
From chocolate-covered Yule logs to spiced pies and freezer-friendly Christmas puddings, there’s snow-way you’ll spot anything higher than 305 calories on our list (we’ve checked it twice!).
Day 1: Mini Spiced Christmas Apple Pies
If you’re looking for low-calorie Christmas dessert ideas you can make using a short list of ingredients, you might want to try our Mini Spiced Christmas Apple Pies. These delightful little treats break away from tradition with an autumnal juicy-sweet apple filling, infused with cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
No one wants to be rolling homemade dough on Christmas, so you’ll find ready-rolled shortcrust pastry on our low-fuss ingredients list.
Once your mini bites have turned golden, they’re ready to take out of the oven. Be careful…they’ll be piping hot, so you’ll want to let them rest for at least ten minutes!
While your batch of pies are cooling, why not rustle up a Christmas Hot Chocolate to wash them down?
Day 2: Black Forest Bakewells
All of the low-calorie Christmas desserts on this list are ready with minimum effort, and our Black Forest Bakewells are no exception. The ultimate combination of chocolate, cherries and almonds, you won’t believe this one’s so low in calories (80 calories per spongey, crunchy Bakewell).
The full recipe is in the ‘Quick Cook’ chapter of our newest cookbook, Pinch of Nom: Express, where we have loads of delicious dishes you can make in a flash without missing out on scrummy flavour.
There’s still time to grab a copy that’ll arrive in time for Christmas. Once Express is at your fingertips, turn to page 81 to make these tarts the cherry on top of your festive spread.
Day 3: Winter Berry Ice Cream
It’s never too cold for ice cream, especially if it’s a bowl of our Winter Berry Ice Cream we’re talking about. Our recipe is so wondrously creamy and silky smooth, you’d never guess that it’s a dairy-free (and totally vegan) Christmas dessert option.
If you’ve got overripe bananas lying around, don’t throw them away – they’re absolutely perfect for this recipe!
You’ll blitz them together with winter berries and dark chocolate in a food processor, until they create a velvety frozen mixture.
Don’t forget to top with our lip-smacking homemade berry sauce right before serving!
Day 4: Festive Fruit Salad
You can’t beat an array of colourful, Christmassy fruits! Our Festive Fruit Salad is brimming with oranges, grapefruits, nectarines, figs, blackberries and raspberries, cut through with the tart sweetness of pomegranate seeds.
To give this Christmas dessert even more reason to be cheery, we’ve made a zingy homemade syrup to drizzle on top, using oranges, honey, cinnamon and nutmeg.
As if that wasn’t enough to impress, the scattering of chopped pistachio nuts we’ve layered on top adds an irresistible moreish crunch.
There’s so much you can do with fruit if you’re feeling creative! You can make an eye-catching celebratory showstopper with our Fruit Christmas Tree recipe (and then reward yourself with a glug of Mulled Wine!).
Day 5: Mini Spiced Orange Mince Pie Crumbles
It’s not Christmas without mince pies! You can get all of your favourite Christmas dessert flavours in one bite with these Mini Spiced Orange Mince Pie Crumbles.
Thanks to a couple of nifty, reduced-fat swaps, we’ve brought the calories down to just 86 calories per crumble-topped pie. Instead of pastry, we’ve encased our festive filling in a crispy, oven-baked surprise: low-calorie tortilla wraps.
They’re especially delicious warm with a swirl of low-fat aerosol cream! Save them in airtight tupperware for a few days, so you’ll always have a quick nibble to pair with a cuppa.
Day 6: Christmas Trifle
No matter how full you are after Christmas dinner, you’re bound to find room for Christmas Trifle. Our twist on the traditional Yuletide pudding uses lightly-spiced fruit and their juices instead of jelly, with low-calorie custard and creamy reduced-fat mascarpone.
The trick to the perfect trifle is in having patience with your layers. When the time to add custard arrives, make sure it’s warm and not piping hot – otherwise, you’ll run the risk of cracking your fanciest serving bowl!
The great thing about this indulgent-tasting, low-calorie dessert is that you can prepare it the day before, and leave the flavours to mingle until you’re ready to entertain.
Day 7: Chocolate Orange Trifles
Try something a little bit different with our Chocolate Orange Trifles. We’ve built our trifle tiers with Jaffa Cakes, mandarin orange segments, orange jelly, chocolate custard and a topping of light aerosol cream.
We all like to splurge on Christmas, and the advantage of this sweet treat is that it looks and tastes like a high-calorie pudding, for only 169 calories per portion.
As is always the case with trifle, make sure your homemade custard layer has cooled down nicely (if it’s too hot, it could dissolve the wibbly-wobbly fruit jelly underneath!).
Day 8: Rice Krispie Christmas Puds
These adorable, no-cook Rice Krispie Christmas Puds are so fun to make, there’s nothing to stop the whole family from getting involved! You can never have too much chocolate at Christmas, and the proof is in these puddings – we’ve bound our mixture together with melted fun-size Mars Bars.
To say they take such little effort, you won’t believe how impressive they look as part of your Christmassy buffet.
Simply roll your mixture together into individual puds, and let them set in the fridge until they’re ready to decorate with gorgeous little sprigs of edible holly.
Day 9: Baileys Chocolate Cheesecake Pots
Our Christmas dessert menu wouldn’t be complete without a hint of Baileys somewhere. The world-famous, Irish cream liqueur is the star of the show for our Baileys Chocolate Cheesecake Pots, making them perfect to tuck into with a Christmas film.
Each silky, decadent-tasting pot comes in at just 108 calories each, even with a topping of crumbled double chocolate cookies.
While we’ve served this ‘grown-ups only’ dessert in individual ramekin dishes, there’s nothing to stop you making one large cheesecake for the centre of your table. Pick up your copy of Pinch of Nom: Quick and Easy and turn to page 228 for the full recipe.
Day 10: Christmas Chocolate Log
We can’t talk about chocolate-based Christmas dessert ideas without mentioning our crowd-pleasing Christmas Chocolate Log. Our fatless sponge keeps the calories nice and low, without skipping the rich, deep chocolate flavours a day of celebration needs.
Don’t worry if you’ve never made a Swiss roll-style pudding before. Getting the knack of rolling can take a bit of practice, but it’s far easier if your sponge is still warm; if it’s too cold, it’s more likely to crack.
We’ve textured our low-fat cream cheese frosting with a small palette knife to resemble bark, and finished off the look with a delicate dusting of icing sugar.
Day 11: Black Forest Desserts
In tribute to the Black Forest Gateau that was always a part of our Boxing Day buffet table, we lovingly assembled these fancy-looking Black Forest Desserts.
While the traditional retro dessert is high in calories, our version slims things down with a handful of healthier ingredients, including low-fat Greek yoghurt and a low-fat double cream alternative.
To take things up a notch, you can brush each of the sliced sponges with some Kirsch brandy. It’ll take each pud up to a total of 326 calories – not bad at all for a boozy festive third course!
Day 12: Frozen Christmas Pudding
This is your cue to make some space in your freezer for the ultimate Christmas dessert idea: Frozen Christmas Pudding. Guaranteed to leave your guests feeling merry and bright, it’s bursting with Yuletide cheer for only 129 calories per serving.
Rather than slathering our version in a brandy sauce, we’ve drizzled a tantalising chocolate syrup on top.
We’ve used shop-bought ice cream to speed things up a bit, but there’s nothing to stop you getting creative with a homemade scoop (our Biscoff Swirl Ice Cream would make an epic pudding base!).
We wouldn’t recommend freezing the decorative toppings – save the fun of personalising your pud for the big day so it’ll look and taste its best.
We ho-ho-hope you’re left feeling inspired for Christmas!
Don’t forget to give us the gift of sharing your wonderful photos with us! You can tag us in your story on Instagram (@pinchofnom) or share snaps of your creations in our friendly Facebook group (there’s almost 1 million community members waiting to answer any questions you might have).
Visiting our Gallery is a great way to find out what everyone else is putting on their festive menu. You’ll want to sign up to a free website account to upload and share your photos (it’s really easy, and we’ve even got a step-by-step guide you can follow).
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