Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Recipes - Nielsen-Massey Vanillas (2024)

According to a recent survey we conducted on holiday baking, 67 percent of Americans bake during Thanksgiving, making it the second most popular baking occasion after Christmas. With a magnificent Thanksgiving feast on the line, home chefs can spend a large amount of time in the kitchen causing them to miss out on opportunities to spend with family and friends.

Whether you’re hosting a big bash for your family, planning a Friendsgiving or a quiet meal, knock the Thanksgiving stress and fatigue by planning ahead this year. Below, we’ve prepared a make-ahead guide for our favorite Thanksgiving recipes to help you spend less time in the kitchen and more time with the ones you love. It starts with food that can be prepped long before Thanksgiving and ends with dishes to be prepped a few days before the meal.

Desserts

The easiest dishes to prepare in advance of Thanksgiving are desserts. Among these sweet meal finishers, the first to come to mind are the many Thanksgiving pies – apple, banana cream, pecan and pumpkin pie. Many pies can be frozen weeks in advance.

Our Pecan Pie is a great, time-saving dessert for Thanksgiving, especially if you want a simple and classic pie to share with your friends and family. All you need to do is pull the pie out of your freezer and reheat it in the oven for 20 minutes on low heat. The vanilla flavor in the crust and filling elevates the nutty richness of this pie, making it an excellent complement to any holiday lineup.

You can also turn any homemade pie into a time-saver by making and freezing the pie dough up to three months in advance.

Here’s how:

• Follow the recipe up until rolling out your dough. Instead, form your dough into a sphere and press it until it resembles a thick patty. Wrap in plastic wrap or put into a freezer-safe bag. Thaw the frozen dough in the fridge Thanksgiving morning, then roll out and bake before your meal.
• You can also roll out your dough (like how you’d roll out cookie dough), place the dough in a pie tin and freeze it. When you’re ready to bake the pie, place the frozen dough and tin directly in the oven without thawing.

Not a pie person? Our Pumpkin Cake with Spiced Whipped Cream can be made a few days in advance and chilled until ready to serve.

Side Dishes

Even though turkey can garner all the attention on Thanksgiving, side dishes are an essential part of the meal and can require as much time and planning as the prized bird. Picking simple recipes can give you more time with your guests. Here are four time-saving recipes that will also work well together in your Thanksgiving lineup.

Sweet Potato Casserole

The widely popular sweet potato casserole is a perfect make-ahead dish, best prepared a few days before or the morning of Thanksgiving.

Made with mashed sweet potatoes, coconut milk and vanilla bean paste, our Vanilla Sweet Potato Casserole delivers on sweetness and can easily be prepared two days before Thanksgiving.

To prepare, gather everything except the topping (consisting of sugar, granola and marshmallows). Follow the instructions and once you’ve mashed the sweet potatoes and mixed in all other ingredients, put the mixture in the fridge. Before your meal, simply add the topping and heat in the oven per recipe instructions. Easy as (frozen) pie!

Rolls

If you want to elevate your meal to the next level, tasty rolls are the way to do it. How can you make great homemade rolls during an already busy Thanksgiving? Baking rolls from scratch can be tricky business, but it’s achievable with a little bit of preparation.

Like pie crust, the dough can be made in advance. The difficulty comes in keeping the yeast alive and preventing water crystals, so your rolls can still be fluffy for feasting. We recommend making the dough the night before Thanksgiving for maximum deliciousness while still saving yourself time in the kitchen the following day.

Our Vanilla Honey Butter Crescent Rolls, a savory-sweet pastry, are perfect to prep before Thanksgiving. Not only are they easy to bake, but they’re also a mess-free food perfect for guests of all ages. Follow the recipe up until baking the rolls. Instead of baking, place the rolls onto a baking sheet and put the sheet in the freezer. Once the dough has a hard “shell” around it, which will take 1 to 2 hours, transfer the rolls to an airtight freezer bag to avoid yeast damage.

On Thanksgiving Day, take the rolls out of the freezer about 1 ½ to 2 hours before mealtime. Remove the rolls from the freezer bag and let them rise on a baking sheet. Pop them into the oven while you’re carving your turkey. By the time you’re done carving, you will have hot, fresh rolls to share!

Vegetables

Yes, even parts of your vegetable side can be prepared in advance of the big day! Do the mise en place the day before and store in an airtight container in your refrigerator. Putting a moist paper towel in the container will help keep the produce from losing moisture.

One of our favorites is our Orange Honey Glazed Butternut Squash and Beets recipe. This dish is a fresh way to integrate hearty vegetables into your menu and is perfect for vegan or vegetarian guests. Plus, it comes together in minutes in a hot skillet! To save time, chop up your beets and sweet potatoes a day in advance.

Soup

Serving soup as one of your side dishes is an excellent way to cut down your time in the kitchen on turkey day. You can prepare most soups a few days in advance and store them in your refrigerator.

We are currently obsessed with this Pumpkin Soup that requires less than 30 minutes to prepare, packs a flavor punch and can be served hot or cold. Make it up to three days in advance, storing in your refrigerator. If you want to serve it hot, put the chilled soup into a pot and warm over low heat, stirring frequently until it comes to the desired temperature. It also works as a wonderful post-meal dish, great for sipping when you’re in the midst of a late-night board game.

An Unconventional Main

While most people think of turkey at Thanksgiving, ham is a part of many families’ traditions. In fact, in 2017, Americans purchased approximately 77 million pounds of ham for Thanksgiving! It finds its way onto the table because of how easy it is to prepare – just let the slow cooker do all the work.

While the ham can’t be made days in advance, a dish that will cook itself the day-of can help you work in breaks to leave the kitchen and catch up with loved ones. This Slow Cooker Ham with Orange Honey Sauce will give everyone something new to enjoy this holiday.

Keep these recipes and make-ahead steps in mind as you create a masterful Thanksgiving meal for your loved ones. Spending time in the kitchen can and should be therapeutic, especially when your schedule is full of holiday festivities. When you plan ahead, you can have a relaxed air around Thanksgiving and more opportunities to build memories with your family and friends!

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Show us what you’re preparing ahead of time this Thanksgiving with #NielsenMasseyInspires.