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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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Senior Food Editor

Katherine Gillen is PureWow’s senior food editor. She’s a writer, recipe developer and food stylist with a degree in culinary arts and professional experience in New York City...