Best dessert alternative to Christmas Pudding?

[PigeonLittle]

I normally make a pavlova ahead of time and decorate like a Christmas wreath (see pic)

cdn.thewhoot.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/berry-christmas-pavlova-video.jpg

But would love to hear other ideas, I fancy a change this year!

Trifle. Every year I do a trifle and a lemon meringue roulade. Use the egg yolks for the custard in the trifle and the whites for the meringue in the roulade. Yum

Buche de noel or Mont Blanc (a mound of sweetened chestnut paste with bitter chocolate, topped with cream).

Zuccotto. Bit of a faff but it can all be done in advance, and it's indulgent but nicely refreshing after a hot lunch.

Tiramisu

Oh God. This reminds me last year I made a Waitrose recipe raspberry torte thing. It was truly revolting!

I love a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake or a chocolate tart or my banoffee goes down well (biscuit base not pastry).

This is the chocolate tart recipe I use:

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/no-cook-chocolate-tart/amp

Trifle. Every time. Hits the spot. I save Christmas pud for Boxing Day. Too heavy for after Christmas dinner.

We have a large family gathering and alongside our pudding we always have a raspberry trifle, I think it has been family tradition for about 70 years.

In more recent years my SIL has found a really good amaretto cheesecake recipe so that has been added to the selection.

For the DC it is usually something chocolate based plus ice cream, and depends on who's turn it is, since the DC have been teens one of them does, in recent years it has been homemade yule log and before that fridge cake

My mum makes us chocolate bread and butter pudding 😁

@cloudyrain beat me to it - I was going to suggest Amaretto cheesecake. And zuccotto is lovely.

How about Baked Alaska?

We sometimes do a home made ice cream (stem ginger is nice) and one year I did a mandarin sorbet.

I'm not doing Christmas pudding this year it rarely gets eaten until about May/June (might buy a couple of minis just in case)

I'm making Delia's Panettone and zabaglione trifle and a pumpkin pie.

My SIL usually makes a cheesecake of some description but this year my nephew has requested my banoffee pie

We just do a Christmas/ fruit cake.

Sticky toffee pudding with lots of ginger in it. DC prefer that to trad pud. I also do a trifle for Boxing Day. And Mary Berry's gluten free chocolate roulade.

Delia's panettone bread and butter pudding. If there's any left, also tastes amazing cold on Boxing Day. Feel your arteries harden as you eat it though...
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/occasions/christmas/christmas-desserts/panettone-bread-and-butter-pudding-with-marsala

Almost anything would be preferable to Christmas pudding.
Treacle sponge anyone?

I hate Christmas pudding and fruit cake. So every year we make something different. This year we're doing a croquembouche, a yule log and a mountain of different flavoured cookies.

Nigella Yule Log: www.nigella.com/recipes/yule-log

When I first started hosting Christmas, I used to make a different dessert for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day eg Yule Log, Christmas pudding, raspberry trifle, then Christmas cake, mince pies, Christmas cookies etc for tea.Then I realised that I always had to offer an alternative for someone because of allergies or something simpler/alcohol free for the little DC.

Now I just make the same things but offer all of them at every meal along with a fruit platter and cheese board I quite like having a pretty "centrepiece" so I make individual pavlovas and Christmas puddings, and 3 small Yule logs/trifles so I'm not serving half eaten bowls/cakes. The leftovers get put into individual bowls at tea time.

Usually I do:
Christmas pudding
Mini mince pies, some with marzipan tops, some with pastry
Yule log
Trifle or Pavlova
Cheese board
Fruit platter
German Christmas cookies

Then a "guest" dessert, if I feel like it. Things that have made an appearance in recent years have been Basque burnt cheesecake, The Ivy's iced winter berries (hot white chocolate sauce poured over frozen berries), sticky toffee pudding, Pandoro (a sponge Christmas tree cake thing layered with cream). Sometimes I add cherries to one of the Yule logs and make a Black Forest version.

However, I have a lot of guests (who muck in) and I have a good idea what they will choose so it's not too hard to plan and prepare.

Ben and Jerry's!
One year we'd just moved house and had to simplify everything.
The Sainsbury's delivery man was jealous - 'I wish my mum would do that!'
It's become a tradition and allergies means that we have Christmas pudding when eating out but not at home.
DC all get involved in choosing flavours and it's now become our thing.

Mary Berry's Lemon Meringue Ice cream. Very simple and you freeze it in a bowl so when you turn it out it has the same shape as Christmas Pudding. I have been known to eat it with brandy butter but I am strange!

My mum always used to do a chocolate mousse. We don't usually do a dessert as were stuffed after dinner. MiL was a great cook and she used to do a fruit mousse, I remember lemon and blackcurrant as well as Christmas pudding.

Forgot to say that when we had big family Christmas gathering Delia's Christmas pudding ice cream went down well.

Christmas pudding ice cream.

You slightly melt a tub of vanilla ice cream and stir in a splash of rum, mixed spice, the zest of an orange and a little orange juice, some nuts, glacé cherries - etc. - then re-freeze it.

Apple pie here. Christmas pudding isn't that popular, DC don't like chocolate cake/puddings and I hate meringue. I like the idea of fruit salad but I'd never have the room the fridge to assemble one beforehand.