25 Easy Dessert Recipes with 5 Ingredients or Less
Look, we love a pint of Ben & Jerry’s as much as the next person, but sometimes you want to be a little more adventurous—without throwing your entire kitchen into disarray. Or spending all day baking. These 25 easy dessert recipes require a measly five ingredients or less (plus the occasional, optional whipped cream topping or rainbow sprinkles).
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1. 3-Ingredient Blood Orange Granita
Granita is a lot like a snow cone. You know, one that’s chic and not limited to the summer months.
2. 3-Ingredient Coconut Ice Cream
It’s sweetened with honey, but you can use maple syrup to make it vegan. Bonus points for dishing this up in a halved pineapple for presentation.
3. Easy Chocolate Marshmallow Cups
These lil’ cuties are rich, velvety and a treat you’d pay top dollar for at a fancy bakery (but they taste even better than that).
4. Cheater’s Mini Rhubarb Galettes
Want to know a secret? We use store-bought pie dough to make this recipe a breeze.
5. Frozen Chocolate Soufflé
A typical soufflé is intimidating (and makes us feel like Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina). Our solution? Freeze it.
6. One-Ingredient Watermelon Sorbet
This sounds too good to be true, but we promise it’s not.
7. Blackberry Jam Pie-Crust Straws
If you, like us, crave pie once every 5 seconds, these flaky pastries have you name on them. They take 35 minutes to make and half that time is totally hands off.
8. Cold Brew Ice Pops
This might be the most delicious way to get your caffeine fix.
9. Rosé Poached Pears with Ginger and Vanilla
Fruit for dessert is usually a snooze-fest…unless it’s cooked in an entire bottle of wine.
10. 3-Ingredient Ice Cream (with Endless Variations)
Start with vanilla and add any mix-ins you want. Caramel swirl? Crushed cookies? Sounds delish.
11. Mini Caramel Apples
Psst: The caramel comes from melted store-bought candies, but you don’t have to tell anyone.
12. 3-Ingredient Strawberry Ice-Cream Shell
You can swap the strawberry for any flavor, but the rainbow sprinkles are nonnegotiable.
13. Ruby Red Grapefruit Panna Cotta
This classic Italian dessert is really easy to make and lightly cleanses your palate—instead of filling you up—after a big meal.
14. Raspberry Prosecco Ice Pops
Frozen Bellini on a stick? Don’t mind if we do.
15. Ice-Cream Cupcakes
They can be kept in the freezer for up to two weeks, so make a batch now and eat them whenever.
16. Cantaloupe-Mint Sorbet
What has four ingredients and tastes like the essence of sunshine? This sorbet is what.
17. 3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
When a cookie craving strikes, there’s no time to fuss over a complicated recipe. These take 20 minutes to make and we bet you have every ingredient already in your pantry.
18. Chrissy Teigen’s 3-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse
The salty puffed rice hazelnut crackle is optional (but worth the extra effort).
19. Berry-Coconut Rocket Pops
They’re just like the ones from the ice cream truck of your childhood, only grown up and even more delicious.
20. Salted Coconut Sorbet with Peanuts
Here’s proof that you don’t need an ice-cream maker to make homemade sorbet.
21. Watermelon-Kiwi Ice Pops
While you could use special molds for these pops, paper cups also do the trick.
22. The Easiest 3-Ingredient Brigadeiros, Two Ways
It’s the next best thing to hopping a flight to Brazil.
23. Cookies-and-Cream Ice Pops
They’re cold, frosty and no-cook. The hardest part is waiting for them to come out of the freezer.
24. No-Bake Sugar Cookie Truffles
Switch up the sprinkles for a festive dessert that’s ready for any celebration (or Tuesday night).
25. Fresh Fruit Ice Pops
If you ask us, you’re never too old to enjoy an ice pop.
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