Okay, you’re at the age where, surprise, you are an adult so you are expected to contribute to the family Thanksgiving spread. Or maybe – even better – you are going to a Friendsgiving to celebrate with all of your friends without the drama that comes with your family (enter 101 Thanksgiving family memes here).

But actually…there are 10 million of them on the internet so have a laugh!

If you’ve seen any of my other posts, you may remember that I really can’t cook. I try, but no matter how much I follow the recipe, I still manage to screw something up. WHYYY THOUGH? So I prefer to bake and always offer to make desserts.

This year, I was baking for one Friendsgiving and two different family Thanksgiving dinners, so I settled on a dessert assortment with all of the different holiday flavors. I did tons and tons of research to find things that looked easy and yummy, so now I can save you the hassle of researching. These all ended up being super easy and the perfect combination for everyone to find something that they liked!

Here’s the lineup:

• Mini Caramel Apple Cheesecakes – Taste of Home
• Salted Chocolate and Caramel Pretzel Bars – Tastes Better from Scratch
• Pumpkin Snickerdoodles – Cooking Classy

Fortunately, I had a LOT of the ingredients for all of these already since I like to bake, but I did still have to buy several spices that I didn’t own and some cream of tartar (what even is that tho?). I was a little annoyed at having to buy giant bottles of spices to use 1 tsp, but I guess that just means I need to start baking more regularly!

*I am horrible at remembering to take enough pictures throughout the process and have very few finished product photos – more coming soon!

Mini Caramel Apple Cheesecakes

I always struggle to get the lumps out from the cream cheese, so I love these mini cheesecake recipes because the tops will be covered. No need to worry about lumpy batter if no one will see it!

Tip – don’t cook the caramel in step 5. I’m not sure what the recipe was telling me to do, but it made the caramel very very running and drippy by cooking it. Either mix the caramel in off the heat or scoop the caramel onto the cheesecakes and add the apple mix on top!

Bonus Tip – use a shot glass to press the graham cracker crust into the bottom of the muffin pan. It’s the perfect size!

How easy are these to make? On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the easiest, I would give these a 2. Very easy to make and absolutely delicious!

Salted Chocolate and Caramel Pretzel Bars

This recipe called for a lot of pretzels, but it was perfect after you made it. Just make sure to evenly distribute the caramel and chocolate as much as possible so that everything stays together when you break these apart.

Tip – melt the caramel with cream instead of water for an even creamier caramel spread!

Bonus Tip – make a double batch of these because THEY WILL GO FAST. When I put out the tray at Friendsgiving, these were gone in about 47 seconds.

How easy are these to make? On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the easiest, I would give these a 1. The hardest part is not spreading chocolate everywhere!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

I LOVE LOVE LOVE snickerdoodle cookies but don’t really like pumpkin. These are still incredible and the pumpkin is not overbearing! Also, this was my first time making snickerdoodles and they are not difficult at all.

Tip – measure out the first ball to see how large they should be, but after that, just eyeball it! These take a little while to roll out and you can save a lot of time by not sitting and measuring each one perfectly.

How easy are these to make? On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the easiest, I would give these a 2. This recipe is a little more time consuming, but still easy to do!

All of these (or even one of these) are sure to be a big hit if you bring them for the holidays so get baking!