Desserts With Few Ingredients: 8 or Fewer, Compared by Time

Every one of these 12 desserts with few ingredients uses 8 ingredient lines or fewer, not counting optional and serving items. Chocolate-covered strawberries need the fewest, 3, and are also ready soonest: 50 minutes in total (20 prep + 5 cook + 25 set).

A short ingredient list is not the same as a quick dessert. Five of the 12 take more than 4 hours, and in each case most of that is chilling, cooling or soaking. Below, the recipes are compared on ingredient count, prep and cook time, waiting time, servings and calories per serving, then grouped by method, with picks by need and each recipe's own storage times.

How are the ingredients counted?

Each recipe's fact line counts its ingredient lines and leaves out anything marked optional or listed to serve. Chocolate-covered strawberries show "3 ingredients (plus 2 optional or for serving)": the coconut oil and the decorations are the two extras. By that count, the 12 split like this:

• 3 ingredients: chocolate-covered strawberries
• 5 ingredients: besan ladoo, brigadeiros
• 6 ingredients: shortbread, coconut barfi, creme brulee, leche flan
• 7 ingredients: no-bake peanut butter chocolate bars, mango sticky rice, baklava
• 8 ingredients: caramel apples, pecan pie

The count is lines, not shopping-list items, so several recipes need fewer things than their number suggests. Shortbread, creme brulee and baklava each list sugar twice, and the peanut butter bars use peanut butter in both layers. Mango sticky rice lists sugar and salt once for the rice and again for the sauce, so its 7 lines come to 5 items: glutinous rice, coconut milk, sugar, salt and cornstarch or rice flour.

It can also run the other way. The pecan pie's crust is a single line, "homemade or store-bought", so a homemade crust brings its own ingredients, and the 3 mangoes in mango sticky rice sit in its "To serve" group, so they are not counted at all.

Desserts with few ingredients: every recipe compared

The table is sorted by total time as stored on each recipe. Prep + cook adds the two stored times. Waiting is the set, chill, cool or soak time each recipe lists, with its own label. Calories are an estimate per serving; for recipes that make pieces, a serving follows the stored count (brigadeiros make 24 and serve 12).

The waiting column decides the day more than the ingredient column does. Coconut barfi and the peanut butter bars need only 20 minutes of prep and cooking each, then the barfi sets for 60 minutes and the bars chill for 75. Baklava has the most prep and cooking in the list (40 prep + 50 cook), and then soaks for 240 minutes.

No-bake and stovetop desserts with few ingredients

Desserts • American

Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

50 mins20-24 strawberries

Chocolate-covered strawberries are dipped in melted dark or semi-sweet chocolate, chilled for about 15 minutes, then drizzled with white chocolate and chilled for 10 minutes more. The catch is moisture: the berries have to be completely dry, and a tip says to take them out of the fridge an hour ahead, which the total does not include. They are listed as vegetarian and gluten-free.

The no-bake peanut butter chocolate bars press a base of peanut butter, melted butter, cracker crumbs and icing sugar into a 20 cm (8 inch) pan, chill it for 15 minutes while the chocolate melts, then set for 1 hour in the fridge. At about 235 calories and 4.5 g protein per serving (estimate), they make 16 bars. They are listed as vegetarian only; a variation uses gluten-free crackers.

Stovetop sweets: brigadeiros, coconut barfi, besan ladoo and caramel apples

Brigadeiros are condensed milk, cocoa, butter and salt, cooked over medium-low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until the mixture comes away from the pan as one mass, cooled for about 1 hour, rolled into balls and coated in chocolate sprinkles. A tip says never to stop stirring, and a mixture too soft to roll goes back in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes more. A serving is 2 of the 24, at about 150 calories per serving (estimate).

Coconut barfi has the shortest prep in the roundup, 5 minutes: desiccated coconut is toasted in ghee, cooked with condensed milk and milk for 10 to 12 minutes, pressed into a pan and left for 1 hour at room temperature or 30 minutes in the fridge. The recipe asks for unsweetened desiccated coconut, not sweetened flakes.

Besan ladoo has the fewest calories in the roundup, about 145 calories per serving (estimate), from 5 ingredients. Nearly all of its 25 minutes of cooking is stirring gram flour in ghee over low heat. Step 2 also has the mixture cool for 10 to 15 minutes before the sugar goes in; added hot, the sugar melts and the ladoos do not hold their shape. Besan ladoo and coconut barfi both appear in the Diwali recipes collection.

Homemade caramel apples use all 8 lines: one is the apples and seven make the caramel, which is cooked to 116-118°C (240-245°F) over 15 to 20 minutes. That needs a candy or instant-read thermometer, or the cold-water test in the tips. One apple is one serving, at about 400 calories per serving (estimate), the most in this group.

Baked and steamed desserts with a short ingredient list

Desserts • British

Classic Shortbread Cookies

55 mins20 cookies

Classic shortbread cookies are the only baked dessert here under an hour, at 55 minutes in total. The dough of butter, sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt is rolled 8 mm thick, cut, chilled for 15 minutes and baked at 160°C (325°F) for 18 to 22 minutes. If the edges brown before 18 minutes, a tip suggests baking the next batch at 150°C (300°F).

The classic pecan pie bakes at 175°C (350°F) for 50 to 60 minutes after the pecans are toasted for 6 to 8 minutes, then cools for at least 3 hours before slicing. It is done when the centre jiggles only slightly, or reads about 93°C (200°F) on a thermometer. It serves 10 at about 440 calories per serving (estimate).

Turkish pistachio baklava has the most prep in the list, 40 minutes, and its steps butter every phyllo sheet one at a time. It is cut into 32 pieces before baking at 180°C (350°F) for 45 to 50 minutes, and the cooled syrup goes over the hot pastry to soak for at least 4 hours or overnight. The phyllo also thaws overnight in the fridge first, a wait the total leaves out.

Custards and sticky rice: creme brulee, leche flan and mango sticky rice

Creme brulee bakes in a water bath at 150°C (300°F) for 30 to 40 minutes, until the centres wobble and read 77-80°C (170-175°F), then chills for at least 4 hours. It needs a kitchen torch or the oven broiler for the sugar topping. At about 480 calories per serving (estimate), it is the highest in the roundup.

Leche flan is a caramel of sugar and water under a custard of 10 egg yolks, condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla, strained twice and baked in a water bath at 160°C (325°F) for 45 to 55 minutes. It cools for 30 minutes and chills for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, giving the longest total here, 5 h 45 min. It also has the most protein, about 10 g protein per serving (estimate), and a tip covers the 10 leftover egg whites.

Mango sticky rice is steamed, not baked: glutinous rice soaks for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge, steams for 20 to 25 minutes, then stands in sweetened coconut milk for 20 to 30 minutes. A tip notes that jasmine, basmati or sushi rice will not turn chewy in the same way, so the rice is not one to swap.

Which dessert with few ingredients should you make?

• Ready soonest: chocolate-covered strawberries, 50 minutes in total; shortbread follows at 55 minutes.
• Least prep and cooking: coconut barfi (5 prep + 15 cook) and the peanut butter bars (15 prep + 5 cook), 20 minutes each.
• Fewest ingredients: chocolate-covered strawberries, 3; then besan ladoo and brigadeiros, 5 each.
• One can of condensed milk: brigadeiros, coconut barfi and leche flan each use one 395 g can of sweetened condensed milk.
• Fewest calories per serving: besan ladoo, about 145 calories per serving (estimate), then brigadeiros at about 150 and shortbread at about 155.
• Most protein: leche flan, about 10 g protein per serving (estimate).
• Most pieces: baklava, 32.
• No oven: the 6 no-bake and stovetop desserts, plus mango sticky rice on a steamer.
• Vegan: mango sticky rice is the only one of the 12 listed as vegan; see the vegan recipes for more.
• Gluten-free: 8 of the 12 are listed as gluten-free (all but shortbread, the peanut butter bars, pecan pie and baklava). Check the labels on chocolate, sprinkles and besan if you must avoid gluten.

Which ones can you make ahead or freeze?

Each recipe gives its own keeping time, and they range from 24 hours to 2 weeks. The freezer column is the recipe's own note; "no note" means the recipe gives none.

Two of them keep in parts. Creme brulee custards keep for up to 3 days before the sugar is torched, and the recipe says to serve within an hour or two once the tops are caramelized. Mango sticky rice keeps its rice, mango and sauce apart, and its storage note says not to leave cooked rice at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Baklava and shortbread stay out of the fridge: the baklava note says chilling makes the pastry hard, and shortbread does not need refrigerating.

Besan ladoo, the peanut butter bars and baklava all keep for a week, so one can be made at the weekend and served through a planned week of dinners such as the 30-minute dinner meal plan with one shopping list. For more dishes with a make-ahead note, see the make-ahead recipes.

Quickest desserts with 8 ingredients or fewer

The 12 desserts compared above each meet both needs: a dessert course and 8 ingredient lines or fewer, not counting optional and serving items. Savour keeps adding desserts, so the quickest current matches by total time follow, including any added after this roundup.

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  Desserts • American

  Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

  50 mins20-24 strawberries
• 

  Desserts • British

  Classic Shortbread Cookies

  55 mins20 cookies
• 

  Desserts • Indian

  Besan Ladoo

  1 hr 5 mins16 ladoos
• 

  Desserts • American

  Homemade Caramel Apples

  1 hr 10 mins8 caramel apples
• 

  Desserts • American

  Chocolate-Dipped Crispy Rice Treats

  1 hr 15 mins16 treats
• 

  Desserts • Indian

  Coconut Barfi

  1 hr 20 mins16 pieces

For desserts with longer ingredient lists, the full dessert recipe category lists every one.

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