21 Best Mexican Desserts Recipes

Mexican desserts are some of the most delicious treats around. They balance sweet flavors with interesting ingredients like cinnamon, chocolate, and sometimes even a little heat from chiles. These 21 recipes give you plenty of options from quick and easy to more special occasion desserts. Most of these don’t require fancy ingredients and many have been passed down through generations of Mexican families.

Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

These fried dough sticks are crispy on the outside and soft inside. The key is the star-shaped piping tip which gives churros their signature ridges that hold onto the cinnamon sugar coating. The chocolate sauce for dipping is thick and rich, usually made with Mexican chocolate which has cinnamon already in it. Making the dough isn’t hard but the frying takes a little practice. Perfect for parties since everyone loves picking up a warm churro and dunking it.

Tres Leches Cake

This cake is soaked in three kinds of milk (hence the name) – regular milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk. This makes it super moist but somehow not soggy. The trick is using a sponge cake that can soak up all that liquid without falling apart. It’s usually topped with whipped cream and sometimes fruit. This cake actually gets better if you make it a day ahead since it needs time to soak up all the milk mixture. Great for birthdays or any celebration.

Mexican Chocolate Brownies

These aren’t just regular brownies – they got cinnamon and sometimes a tiny bit of cayenne pepper that makes the chocolate flavor pop more. The spices aren’t strong enough to make them spicy, they just add depth. Some recipes use Mexican chocolate which already has cinnamon in it. These are fudgier than cakey and so good slightly warm with vanilla ice cream. They’re easy to make but taste like something special.

Sopapillas with Honey

These are puffy fried dough pillows that get all hollow inside when they cook. The dough is simple – just flour, baking powder, salt, and water. When you fry them they puff up like magic. While they’re still hot you drizzle them with honey which soaks in a little bit. Some people make a little tear in the corner and pour honey inside too. These are best eaten right after frying while still warm and crisp.

Margarita Bars

These are like lemon bars but with lime, tequila, and sometimes a little orange flavor just like the cocktail. The crust is usually a simple shortbread and the filling is tart and sweet at the same time. The tequila flavor is subtle – they won’t get you drunk! Some recipes add a sprinkle of coarse salt on top to mimic the salted rim of a margarita glass. These are perfect for summer parties or Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

This uses dulce de leche which is like caramel made from sweetened condensed milk cooked until it’s thick and golden. The dulce de leche gets swirled into the cheesecake batter or used as a layer between the crust and filling. Either way it adds amazing caramel flavor. Some recipes include a bit of cinnamon in the crust which works great with the caramel notes. This is rich and impressive looking but not hard to make if you’ve done cheesecake before.

Cinnamon-Sugar Tortilla Chips with Fruit Salsa

These are super easy to make. You just cut flour tortillas into triangles, brush with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and bake until crispy. The fruit salsa is usually diced strawberries, kiwi, mango, and sometimes pineapple with a little lime juice and honey. It’s fresh and colorful against the brown cinnamon chips. This is great for kids to help make since there’s no actual cooking needed for the salsa part. Perfect for parties or after-school snacks.

Chocolate-Chili Cookies

These combine Mexican chocolate flavors in cookie form. The cocoa powder and chocolate chips give double chocolate flavor while cinnamon adds warmth. The chili powder or cayenne is just a tiny amount – not enough to taste spicy, just enough to make the chocolate taste deeper. Some recipes add coffee which also boosts the chocolate flavor. The cookies are usually soft in the middle and a little crisp at the edges. Great with coffee or milk.

Fried Ice Cream

This is a fun dessert that seems impossible – how do you fry something frozen? The trick is coating ice cream balls in crushed cornflakes or cookies, then freezing them solid before very quickly deep-frying. The coating gets crispy while the ice cream stays frozen inside. Some places fake it by rolling the ice cream in toasted cereal and never actually frying it. Either way it’s usually served in a cinnamon sugar tortilla bowl with honey, chocolate sauce, or caramel. This is restaurant-style fun to make at home.

Coconut Flan

This is like regular flan but with coconut milk added to the custard. This makes it creamier and gives it a tropical flavor that’s really good. Some recipes also add shredded coconut for texture. The caramel on top gives that bitter-sweet contrast that makes flan so special. This version is a nice change if you’ve had regular flan many times. It looks fancy served in slices but is actually pretty simple to make.

Conchas (Mexican Sweet Bread)

These are sweet rolls with a crunchy topping that’s scored to look like a seashell (concha means shell in Spanish). The bread itself is soft and slightly sweet, kind of like a brioche. The topping is a paste made of sugar, flour and butter that gets colored and flavored – usually chocolate, vanilla, or sometimes strawberry. Making the dough takes some time because it needs to rise, but shaping the shells is fun. These are traditional breakfast bread but good anytime with coffee.

Mango Paletas (Mexican Popsicles)

Paletas are Mexican ice pops made with fresh fruit. Mango is a popular flavor but you can use almost any fruit. What makes them special is they’re usually made with chunks of real fruit frozen in the pop, not just juice. Some recipes add a squeeze of lime or a sprinkle of chili powder which sounds weird but tastes amazing with mango. These are super refreshing in hot weather and healthier than most desserts since they’re mostly just fruit.

Buñuelos with Cinnamon Sugar

These are crispy fried tortillas dusted with cinnamon sugar. Traditional buñuelos are made from scratch dough that’s rolled super thin, but many recipes cheat and use flour tortillas. The tortillas puff and bubble when fried and get crispy like a big chip. Some people serve them flat while others shape them into bowls while still hot for serving ice cream. In some parts of Mexico, they’re drizzled with a piloncillo syrup (made from raw sugar cones) instead of just cinnamon sugar.

Arroz con Leche (Mexican Rice Pudding)

This is comfort food at its best – rice cooked slowly in milk until it’s creamy and thick. Cinnamon sticks, vanilla, and sometimes star anise flavor the milk as it cooks. Most recipes use regular white rice but some use arborio like Italian rice pudding. Raisins are optional – some families always add them, others never do. This is usually served warm but it’s also good cold from the fridge. Really easy to make but it takes time and stirring to get that creamy texture.

No-Bake Margarita Pie

This is perfect for summer when it’s too hot to turn on the oven. It’s usually made with a graham cracker crust and a filling of sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, zest, and a splash of tequila and orange liqueur. Some recipes fold whipped cream into the filling to make it fluffier. After chilling, it sets up firm but creamy, kind of like a key lime pie. The flavor is tart and sweet with just a hint of the margarita booze. Great for adults at summer cookouts.

Churro Cupcakes

These taste like churros but in cupcake form. The cake is usually a simple vanilla batter with cinnamon. After baking, the tops get brushed with butter and dipped in cinnamon sugar just like real churros. Some recipes include a dulce de leche filling or a cream center. The frosting, if used, is often cream cheese or cinnamon buttercream. These are easier to serve to a crowd than actual fried churros but still give you that cinnamon-sugar churro taste.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

These cookies have the flavors of Mexican hot chocolate – deep chocolate with cinnamon and a tiny hint of chili. The cookie dough usually includes chocolate chips and sometimes a bit of instant coffee to deepen the flavor. They’re often rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking which creates a crackly exterior. The texture is soft and chewy inside with slightly crisp edges. These are good anytime but especially nice in winter when you want something warming and spiced.

Flan Napolitano

This is a custard dessert with a layer of caramel on top (which becomes the bottom when you flip it out). The Mexican version often has cream cheese added which makes it creamier and less eggy than regular flan. Getting the caramel right takes practice – you want it amber colored not burnt. The water bath baking method seems fussy but it’s important for the smooth texture. This looks impressive when served but isn’t actually that complicated to make.

Horchata Rice Pudding

This combines two Mexican favorites – horchata (the cinnamon rice drink) and rice pudding. The rice is cooked in milk with cinnamon sticks, vanilla, and sometimes star anise until it’s creamy and the rice is soft. This tastes like the drink but in dessert form. Some recipes add raisins or a sprinkle of ground cinnamon on top. This is comfort food that’s good warm or cold from the fridge. Not fancy looking but so good.

Tequila Lime Bars

Similar to margarita bars, these have lime juice and zest plus a splash of tequila in the filling. The difference is these usually don’t have the orange flavor. The filling is bright and tangy over a buttery shortbread crust. Some recipes top them with powdered sugar while others go for a lime glaze. The tequila mostly cooks off so they’re fine for everyone to eat. These are refreshing and not too heavy after a big Mexican meal.

Cajeta Brownies

Cajeta is similar to dulce de leche but made with goat’s milk which gives it a slightly tangy flavor. These brownies have cajeta swirled into the batter before baking which creates pretty patterns and pockets of caramel goodness. The combination of rich chocolate and caramel is always a winner. If you can’t find cajeta, you can substitute dulce de leche. These are fancier than regular brownies but not much harder to make.