30+ Vegan Desserts Everyone Will Adore

updated Sep 4, 2020

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Credit: Joe Lingeman
The Easiest, Fudgiest Vegan Avocado Brownies

If you follow a vegan diet, you know that it’s not always easy to partake in dessert with family and friends. Classic favorites like cake, cookies, and ice cream generally tend to be filled with ingredients that are off the table, such as eggs, butter, and milk. But there are loads of great recipes out there that eschew these ingredients, making them totally vegan. They also happen to be just as sweet and delicious — whether it’s creamy ice cream made with cashews, buttery shortbread cookies made with olive oil, or rich chocolate pudding made with coconut milk.

We rounded up our best vegan desserts that everyone will love. Here are 32 recipes to cook through and enjoy.

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Vegan Cookies and Cakes

Lose the butter and eggs and you can still have incredible cookies, cakes, and brownies to dig into. These recipes prove it.

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The World's Easiest Cookies

You just need four ingredients and a little elbow grease to make macaron-flavored cookies that are crisp on the edges and chewy in the center.

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Life-Changing Vegan Thumbprint Cookies

Nutty, oat-y, sweet with maple syrup and a touch of jam, these thumbprints will please vegan and non-vegan palates alike.

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Coconut Snowballs

These coconut snowball cookies check all the boxes. They're no-bake, gluten-free, vegan, and quick to assemble.

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Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie & Marshmallow Sandwich Cookies

The starchy water leftover from a can of chickpeas, aka the aquafaba, is the secret to the vegan marshmallow filling here.

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No-Bake Sesame Coconut Ginger Cookies

These lightly sweetened no-bake cookies are perfect for when a mid-afternoon sugar craving hits.

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Hazelnut & Olive Oil Shortbread

These delicate shortbread cookies are richly nutty and slightly savory thanks to the olive oil.

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Vegan Meringue Cookies

Harness the egg-replacing power of aquafaba to whip up easy vegan meringue cookies.

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Avocado Brownies

These chewy, chocolate-y brownies are made with just 5 ingredients, and also happen to be vegan.

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Chai-Spiced Pumpkin Bars

If you love masala chai, you'll love these pumpkin bars filled with warm spices.

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Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Ginger & Orange

Butter who? These veganized cupcakes aren’t lacking in richness, despite the absence of animal products.

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One-Dish Chocolate Cake

This simple cake comes together in next to no time thanks to ingredients you probably already have on hand.

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Vegan & Gluten-Free Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

These gooey and dark chocolate cupcakes with sweet coconut icing are completely free of wheat flour, butter and eggs.

Vegan Puddings and Candies

Things like chia seeds, coconut milk, and dates are smart ingredients to lean on if you’re vegan. Here they are the secret to rich and creamy puddings as well as sweet candy.

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Vegan Chocolate-Almond Chia Pudding

If you've got fresh raspberries on hand, they're a great garnish for this rich chocolate pudding.

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Coconut Tapioca Pudding with Smoked Sesame Seeds

Smoked sesame seeds lend a surprisingly sophisticated note to this coconut pudding.

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Hazelnut-Rosemary Brittle

This sweet brittle is perfectly balanced by the savory flavor that comes from the fresh rosemary.

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Turn dates into a chewy, salty-sweet caramel without heating up the stove.

Frozen Vegan Desserts

There are endless opportunities for frozen vegan treats. You can make ice cream with coconut milk, freeze fruity Popsicles, or make your own sorbet.

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Impossibly Creamy Strawberry-Pineapple Whip

This fast, refreshing, and dairy-free treat is made with frozen fruit, banana, coconut milk, and pineapple juice.

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3-Ingredient Mango Nice Cream

This creamy, no-churn mango nice cream comes together with just three ingredients.

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Granitas are one of the easiest frozen fruit desserts ever.

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3-Ingredient Strawberry Nice Cream

This creamy, no-churn strawberry nice cream comes together with just three ingredients and no added sugar.

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Like Dole Whip, this sweet and creamy frozen pineapple treat is a delicious hybrid of soft-serve and pineapple sorbet — but better.

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Berry Frosé Ice Pops

Simply substitute the honey for an equal amount of maple syrup or agave when sweetening the berries for these boozy pops.

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One-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream

If you have bananas in the freezer and a food processor, you can make this ingenious ice cream right this second.

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Campari Granita

This boozy granita is the perfect adults-only treat.

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Vegan Cashew Ice Cream

A dreamy (vegan!) cashew ice cream that only requires three ingredients and no cooking.

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The Best Sorbet

You can make sorbet with just about any fruit, so have fun mixing and matching.

Vegan Fruit Desserts

When fresh fruit is in season, it really makes for the best and easiest desserts, whether you’re vegan or not. Grill watermelon wedges, toss together a colorful fruit salad, or cook a mix of fruit down into a sweet compote.

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The Easiest Grilled Peaches

Two ingredients and 4 steps transform plain peaches into an Instagram-worthy dessert.

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Red Fruit Salad with Lemon-Vanilla Bean Syrup

This fruit salad filled with peaches, raspberries, and cherries, is drenched in a light lemon-vanilla syrup.

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The Best Grilled Watermelon

Grilling watermelon caramelizes the melon's sweetness and gives it a subtle, smoky flavor.

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Slow Cooker Fruit Sauce

This recipe will show you how to turn your haul of overripe fruit into a beautiful sauce, perfect for vegan ice cream and eating by the spoonful.

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Orange, Almond & Date Salad

Dates lend molasses-like sweetness to this refreshing citrus salad.

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Rainbow Fruit Salad

Swap out the honey for maple syrup to make this colorful fruit salad perfectly vegan.

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