Desserts, being the final dishes, have the honor of closing hearty meals. But there’s also pressure to exceed (or, at least, live up to) the standards of the previous dishes.
Cakes, ice cream, and pies are some of the most common and well-loved dishes. While familiarity often assures quality, there is no better thrill and experience than tasting a unique and great-tasting dessert.
Step out of your dessert comfort zone with these exquisite dessert recipes. Impress everyone’s sweet tooth with delicious treats that open you all up to novel flavors and culinary experiences.
1. No Bake Orange Creamsicle Cheesecake
I’ll start this compilation of dessert recipes with one that is simple but unique. This no-bake orange creamsicle cheesecake is childhood as a dessert, exuding fresh citrus, cream cheese, and vanilla flavors.
As a no-bake dessert, you don’t have to deal with setting up or preheating your oven. Just collect the ingredients: cream cheese, heavy cream, orange jello, water, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and orange zest.
Instead of graham crackers, you’ll use vanilla wafers with granulated sugar and melted butter to make the crust. Let the cheesecake chill for four hours, then garnish and serve.
2. Key Lime Pie Mousse
Give your favorite key lime pie recipe a twist by turning it into a soft, light mousse. This tart and creamy dessert look adorable in mini dessert glasses and bursts with fresh flavors.
It’s also one of those easy recipes you can make within a few minutes! You only need graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and key lime juice.
To assemble, fill dessert glasses with a graham crumb crust, lime-flavored whipped cream, and a bit more of those crumbs. Serve with fresh lime wedges for more pizzazz and bright flavors.
3. Peach Cobbler
Peach cobbler is a humble dish you’d hardly think of when recalling dessert recipes. But when all the flavor is there, this sweet dish makes for a great summer dessert, especially with vanilla ice cream.
This peach cobbler recipe calls for peaches, sugar, salt, butter, flour, baking powder, milk, and cinnamon. You can also use canned peaches instead of preparing them from scratch with sugar and just a hint of salt.
Gather everything into a baking dish. Start with melted butter; over that, pour the batter mixture before adding the sweet peaches and cinnamon.
4. Dark Chocolate S’mores with Fresh Berries
We mostly think of s’mores as simple snacks or campfire treats. But dark chocolate and fresh berries transform this quick and easy recipe into a classy dessert.
Since we’re making fancy s’mores, go all in and find the best quality dark chocolate bars. These chocolate bars provide all the flavor and decadence that makes these s’mores stand out.
Besides the dark chocolate bars, the fresh berries are also the star of the show. You can use mixed berries, fresh strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries – anything you like.
Don’t forget the graham crackers and marshmallows!
5. Baked Alaska
This dessert is the bomb — literally because baked Alaska is also known as bombe Alaska. There’s no better dish to grab your guests’ attention than this: ice cream on a pound cake enclosed in a torched meringue.
Baked Alaska seems complex, and, honestly, it does take some effort. But this gorgeous dessert’s fascinating look and taste compensate for all of it.
There are two components: the ice cream and pound cake filling and the meringue made with egg whites, cream of tartar, and sugar. You can use more than one flavor of ice cream.
6. Cannoli
Delight your guests with a tray of finger-sized cannoli oozing creamy, delicious filling. This Italian pastry has a perfectly flaky, fried tube-shaped dough that you could stuff with your favorite flavors.
This perfect dessert has two components: the shells and the filling. You’ll need flour, sugar, salt, butter, marsala wine, eggs, and oil for the cannoli shells.
Meanwhile, use whole milk ricotta, powdered sugar, mini chocolate chips, cinnamon, and pistachios to make the filling. But you can also give it a twist by adding orange zest, cherries, vanilla, mascarpone, or other ingredients you think will work well with the cannoli.
7. Bavarian Cream
Are you looking for creamy and easy dessert recipes? This Bavarian cream recipe fits the bill while giving tips on making this simple European dessert look and taste luxurious.
This dessert combines milk, eggs, gelatin, and whipped cream, making it an incredibly creamy and rich dish. Besides those, you’ll also need cane sugar, vanilla extract, and garnishes like fresh fruits, herbs, powdered sugar, honey, or fruit syrup.
While this Bavarian cream is pretty basic and has an off-white color, you can also make flavored and colored variants. To do so, you’ll need to infuse flavors or pigmented syrups.
8. Creme Brulee
Creme brulee is an absolute mouthwatering dessert, and while it looks so intimidating, there are easy dessert recipes for it. This Recipe Critic recipe lets you make a simple but impressive dessert.
A creme brulee is a custard made with heavy cream, egg yolks, granulated sugar, and vanilla. Some special equipments you’ll need are ramekins and an oven or kitchen torch for caramelizing the top.
I recommend a kitchen torch to have better control over the heat, resulting in a gorgeous brown top. Serve your creme brulee with strawberries and other delicious fruits.
9. Raspberry Tiramisu
Tiramisu often highlights intense coffee or chocolate flavors. But for this raspberry tiramisu, we’re taking its taste profile towards fresh and sweeter flavors as it unites coffee and berries.
To create this raspberry tiramisu, prep some egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, mascarpone cheese, heavy cream, ladyfingers, cold-brewed coffee, fresh raspberries, and cocoa powder. Fresh raspberries are crucial to achieving a remarkable flavor that isn’t watered down.
This tiramisu is a layered dessert with three components: moist ladyfingers, cream, and raspberries. You’ll have to cook the cream before assembly and use coffee to moisten the ladyfingers.
10. Mango Sticky Rice
Rice, coconut, and mango seem like odd flavors together, but they blend well. Mango sticky rice is a well-loved dessert and street food in Asia, although it’s primarily associated with Thailand.
This recipe makes six servings of mango sticky rice. To create this humble but exotic dessert, you’ll need glutinous, sweet rice, unsweetened coconut milk, sugar, salt, sesame seeds, and sliced mango.
Infuse the rice with coconut milk, salt, and sugar to give it a creamy and balanced flavor. To serve, put sticky coconut rice on a plate, lay mango slices, and sprinkle sesame seeds.
11. French Macarons
Admittedly, French macarons won’t make it to the list of easy recipes. They’re notoriously challenging, needing skill, technique, and practice to perfect these delicate cookies.
But you can always get there, especially if you started in the right place, like this “Beginner’s Guide to French Macarons” by Sally’s Baking Addiction. It guides you on how to make and assemble the macaron shells and filling correctly.
Essential French macaron ingredients are egg whites, cream of tartar, superfine sugar, almond flour, and confectioners sugar. You must get the components and procedures down to the tee.
12. Baklava
So far, we’ve had dessert recipes from Asia, Italy, and France, so I think it’s time to explore other cuisines – say, Greek. This delicious honey baklava recipe has sweet syrup, crunchy nuts, and tasty pastry.
A lot goes into baklava; for instance, there are usually three kinds of nuts – hazelnuts, walnuts, and pistachios – mixed with ground cloves and cinnamon. You’ll make cool syrup from honey, water, sugar, and lemon, although you can also add orange extract and whole cloves.
You don’t need to make phyllo dough from scratch. Instead, you can use store-bought pastry for convenience.
13. Black Forest Gateau
There’s no compilation of dessert recipes without cakes. But for this post, I’ve picked one of those most elegant, show-stopping cakes: the black forest gateau.
Black forest gateau comprises dark chocolate cake with raspberries and cherries, golden caster sugar and kirsch syrup, and kirsch cream made of whipping cream, golden caster sugar, vanilla, and kirsch. The kirsch cream serves as the frosting.
Chocolate shavings cover the entire cake, while white frosting and cherries decorate the top of the black forest gateau. Its rich and decadent flavor matches how great it looks, making this dessert simply unforgettable.
14. Italian Affogato
Is your sweet tooth craving easy dessert recipes? This Italian affogato is a quick dessert made of espresso, vanilla ice cream, dark chocolate, and liqueur.
This simple dessert promises a union of intense flavors: chocolate, coffee, and alcohol. But with subtle hints of nuts and vanilla, all the flavors come together beautifully.
To prepare, scoop cold vanilla ice cream into a glass and pour a shot of espresso and nut or coffee liqueur over it. Grate some dark chocolate into the mix, and you can add nuts for extra textures and taste. So easy, right?
15. Pavlova
Pavlova sounds intimidating, but if you stick to the dessert recipe, you can make yourself a perfect one. A perfect pavlova is a rollercoaster of textures – the top, filling, and sides all have varying levels of softness and crunchiness.
Pavlova is a delicate, meringue-based dessert. This dessert sounds like it has a lot going on, but it’s made with only five ingredients: egg whites, sugar, acid (e.g., cream of tartar), cornstarch, and vanilla.
Prepare whipped cream and fruits for garnish and serving. But you can also use lemon curd, berries, florals, herbs, fruit sauces, chocolate shavings, and more.
16. Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bar
Let’s wrap up this dessert recipe post with something simple, delicious, and Canadian: peanut butter Nanaimo bars. What makes it better is that this dessert is a no-bake!
This layered dessert usually consists of a crumb, custard filling, and chocolate ganache, but this recipe uses a peanut butter filling instead. It perfectly balances the sweet and salty flavors, combining them in a way that makes sense.
Each layer of this Nanaimo bar calls for unique ingredients and procedures. When you add a layer, chill the dessert in the fridge to ensure firmness.
16 Unique Dessert Recipes
Prep the most striking desserts with these recipes!
Ingredients
No Bake Orange Creamsicle Cheesecake
Key Lime Pie Mousse
Peach Cobbler
Dark Chocolate S’mores with Fresh Berries
Baked Alaska
Cannoli
Bavarian Cream
Creme Brulee
Raspberry Tiramisu
Mango Sticky Rice
French Macarons
Baklava
Black Forest Gateau
Italian Affogato
Pavlova
Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bar
Directions
- Select your favorite recipe.
- Organize all the required ingredients.
- Prep a dessert in 30 minutes or less!