23 Decadent Desserts You Can Make With 7 Ingredients Or Less

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If it seems that every day is busier than the next, you're not alone. Many of us are trying to balance a busy work, school, and personal life. Part of this balance can mean making small changes to your habits and routines to fit everything into your schedule, while still ensuring that you're able to enjoy good friends and family, good times, and, of course, good food. If you're planning a get-together with friends or loved ones — or are simply looking to satisfy your sweet tooth — many dessert recipes can look overwhelming. They have too many ingredients and require too much time out of your busy schedule to prepare.

Fortunately, there are options that won't require you to make sacrifices when it comes to taste. We've pulled together a list of decadent desserts that can be made with seven ingredients or less — helping you simplify prep and save money at the grocery store, all while ensuring that you're able to share something absolutely scrumptious with those that you care about.

If you knew you could make English toffee with only five ingredients, we're fairly certain you would have whipped this recipe up a time or two (or three or four) already. Well, now that you know all that's standing between you and a delicious baking sheet full of toffee is some light brown sugar, salted butter, semi-sweet chocolate, pecans, and flaked sea salt, what's stopping you? You simply need to melt the brown sugar, butter, and a tiny bit of water for 10 to 15 minutes. You'll also want a candy thermometer, such as the Taylor Stainless Steel Candy Thermometer, to confirm that the mixture reaches the right temperature. That's all that's needed for the toffee base, which you can then top with melted chocolate, chopped nuts, and sea salt. Decadence does not have to be difficult.

Recipe: Classic 5-Ingredient English Toffee

If you've never tried sopapillas, then you've been missing out on the deep-fried dough hailing from New Mexico. However, this sopapilla recipe offers an easier spin than the traditional one, which would require you to make dough first. Instead, it calls for flour tortillas, which are cut into wedges, deep-fried in hot oil, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Despite how easy they are (and the fact that the recipe calls for just three ingredients), they come out looking rather impressive. You could serve them as-is or drizzle them with a little honey or chocolate sauce.

Recipe: Easy Sopapillas

Strawberry sorbet is a refreshing treat on a warm day. It's cooling, flavorful, and easier to make than you might have guessed if you opt for this specific recipe. It calls for only three ingredients and requires just 10 minutes of your time to whip up four scrumptious servings. As long as you have a high-speed blender, you're close to being able to enjoy this concoction. Blend the frozen strawberries and then sweeten them with a little sugar and lemon juice. After blending, pour the mixture into a loaf pan or freezer-safe bowl and freeze it for about two hours. Then, grab your favorite cone or bowl, and get ready to satisfy your taste buds.

Recipe: Strawberry Sorbet

Everyone should have a go-to vanilla pudding recipe — whether they prefer to enjoy it straight out of a bowl, like topping it with some fresh fruit and a little whipped cream, or want to layer it with brownies and chocolate to make an impressive trifle. We're convinced that once you give this vanilla pudding recipe a try, it will become your new go-to. It calls for only seven ingredients, which all come together in just 10 minutes to make a smooth, creamy, and flavorful treat.

Recipe: Simple Classic Vanilla Pudding

Homemade angel food cake with just six ingredients — do we have you intrigued yet? This light and airy treat pairs beautifully with some fresh fruit and whipped cream, a scrumptious chocolate sauce, or sweet lemon curd. And, let's face it, angel food cake tastes great all by itself as well. This recipe calls for whipping up egg whites with a little sugar and cream of tartar before adding in vanilla extract, cake flour, and salt. The whipped eggs take the place of the baking powder or baking soda used for other cake mixtures, helping the cake rise and giving it that classic light and airy texture.

Recipe: Light and Fluffy Angel Food Cake

If you enjoy ordering rice pudding from local restaurants, then you might be surprised to find out how easy it is to make your own batch. This recipe calls for seven ingredients: white rice, whole milk, evaporated milk, sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and cinnamon. You literally only need to dump them into an oven-safe dish before baking them in the oven. It doesn't get much easier — or tastier — than that.

Recipe: Baked Rice Pudding

This flourless chocolate torte, which is naturally gluten-free, calls for just seven ingredients that combine to create a rich and flavorful dessert. After melting butter and dark chocolate in the microwave and beating eggs, sugar, and vanilla until thick and frothy, you simply combine all of these elements, along with cocoa powder and almond meal, before baking. If you have powdered sugar on hand, you can dust the top just before serving to give it a more professional appearance, but this cake will likely be gone so fast that your guests won't even notice what it looks like.

Recipe: Flourless Chocolate Torte

There's a way to enjoy strawberry cheesecake without turning on the oven or worrying about the base cracking or sinking? Believe it or not, that's all possible when you opt to make these sweet and scrumptious strawberry cheesecake bars. And, even better than the no-bake aspect is that the recipe calls for only seven ingredients and can be put together with just 15 minutes of your time. The bars feature a buttery, crushed graham cracker crust, which is topped with a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and thinly sliced strawberries. Once assembled, the entire thing chills in the freezer for a few hours, helping the bars to set and making sure they're ready for you to serve and eat.

Recipe: Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

This classic banana pudding recipe will be perfect for your next barbecue or just the next time you want to kick up your feet and binge-watch your favorite series. The recipe starts with some instant vanilla pudding mix, allowing it to come together quickly. Once the pudding is made, you'll layer it with vanilla wafer cookies and sliced bananas into small cups to make individual servings of the dessert. Right before serving, you can add a shot of canned whipped cream — or, if you're feeling adventurous — a dollop of your homemade whipped cream.

Recipe: Classic Banana Pudding

Searching for a dessert that looks fancy but requires little effort to make? If so, then this no-bake Filipino mango float may be right up your alley. It calls for five simple ingredients: mangoes, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and graham crackers. The treat comes together in mere minutes (with an additional chill time in the fridge). Graham crackers are layered on the base of a large baking dish, and then a mixture of the heavy cream, condensed milk, and vanilla extract is spread over them. Finally, thin-sliced mangoes are placed over the cream mixture, which adds both color and flavor to this recipe.

Recipe: No-Bake Filipino Mango Float

If you like banana pudding, then you'll love the pie version. Think of it as banana pudding's older and cooler sibling. The pie features a sweet graham cracker base, which is topped by luscious banana pudding, a layer of sliced bananas, whipped cream, and extra sliced bananas. If you're worried about the bananas turning brown, you can always spritz them with some lemon juice after slicing. In fact, a lemon is one of the seven ingredients called for in the recipe.

Recipe: Banana Pudding Pie

Whether eaten by itself, topped with whipped cream and fruit, or used as a delicious addition to a layered trifle, pound cake is truly incredible. The ease of this recipe is just as amazing, given that you only need six ingredients (which are likely in your fridge and pantry right now) and about 10 minutes of prep time. After creaming butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, and sour cream (remember, we said this recipe was easy, not low calorie), you simply need to mix in flour before baking the cake for about 45 minutes. That's it. Dessert is ready.

Recipe: Classic Pound Cake

These chocolate oatmeal cookies come together in just a few minutes. And, even better, they don't have any raw ingredients and don't need to be baked. To bind the oats together, you'll create a delicious mixture of cocoa powder, butter, milk, and sugar. Once the butter melts and all of the ingredients are incorporated, you only need to stir in some peanut butter, rolled oats, and vanilla extract before scooping the cookies onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. While these may be tempting to sample right away, they'll be hot and quite loose. Instead, just give them about half an hour to set before digging in.

Recipe: No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

If you love cheesecake and also enjoy sopapillas, you'll be happy to hear that you don't have to choose just one to devour. Instead, you can get the best of both worlds with this easy sopapilla cheesecake. Unlike many cheesecakes, which often feature a graham cracker or crushed cookie crust, this recipe uses canned crescent rolls. These mimic the texture of the fried dough of a traditional sopapilla while also cutting way back on how long you'll need to prepare this recipe. The crescent roll crust is topped with a cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar blend (similar to other no-bake cheesecakes you may have prepared) and then topped with an additional layer of crescent roll dough. Melted butter, cinnamon, sugar, and allspice are drizzled over the top before baking as the finishing touch, which is what makes this recipe so similar to sopapillas.

Recipe: Easy Sopapilla Cheesecake

As you can probably guess from the recipe name, these pumpkin cookies call for only five ingredients. And these ingredients can all be combined in a few minutes, further simplifying your time in the kitchen. Unlike many other cookie recipes that start with creaming butter and sugar together, for this one, you'll create the base using a mixture of pumpkin puree, almond butter, and maple syrup. Once those ingredients are evenly mixed, incorporate the oats and a little bit of pumpkin pie spice (and a handful of chocolate chips, if desired), bake, and enjoy. These cookies could make the perfect addition to a fall-themed meal, but you might like them enough to enjoy them year-round.

Recipe: 5-Ingredient Pumpkin Cookies

What's better than five-ingredient cookies? Three-ingredient cookies, like these easy Nutella cookies. In addition to the Nutella, all you'll need is an egg and some all-purpose flour. That's it. They take only minutes to prepare. After the elements are combined, you'll form the dough into balls and space them out on a lined cookie sheet. You'll want to flatten each cookie to help ensure they bake evenly and spread as desired. They bake relatively quickly in the oven and come out exploding with that chocolate hazelnut flavor that you love so much.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Nutella Cookies

If you like Oreos, then you'll definitely want to try this Oreo mug cake recipe. It requires only two ingredients and is quick and easy to make. Use your food processor to process the Oreos until they have a very fine consistency, similar to that of sand. Think of this as your "boxed" cake mix, to which you'll add milk before cooking it in the microwave for just over a minute. Once set and cool, the chocolatey cake will be ready to enjoy as-is, but you can also enhance the flavor with toppings, such as additional crushed Oreos, whipped cream, shaved chocolate, ice cream, or hot fudge.

Recipe: Oreo Mug Cake

When your sweet tooth strikes, it isn't always in the mood for something as heavy as a cake or cookie. This delicious mango sorbet would be perfect for those times when you're craving something a bit lighter. Its cool and refreshing taste also makes it a top choice for a tasty afternoon snack on a hot summer's day. And, with only three simple ingredients, you won't need to debate whether it's going to take much time to prepare. You simply need to blend frozen mango slices, a little lime juice, and sugar in a blender until smooth. Then, add the blended yumminess into a loaf pan or freezer-safe container and freeze for at least three hours before serving. That's it — your refreshing treat is ready to serve.

Recipe: Easy Mango Sorbet

Here's another recipe that's sure to delight Oreo cookie lovers. While "dirt pudding" might not sound that appealing, the recipe is a tantalizing combination of rich chocolate pudding and crushed Oreos. To make the pudding even more enticing, extra cocoa powder is added to the instant mix before stirring. Then, some whipped topping gets folded into the chocolatey goodness, giving it a slightly airier texture and a creamier taste. Finally, the pudding mix and crushed Oreos are layered in individual serving jars or glasses for a deliciously "dirty" experience. If you have young children, you could even top each cup with a few gummy worms.

Recipe: Easy Dirt Pudding

The next time you're celebrating a birthday, don't force yourself to choose between cake and ice cream. Enjoy the flavors of both with this birthday cake batter ice cream recipe. The recipe starts with a box of yellow cake mix, which is toasted to kill any potentially harmful bacteria present in the raw flour. Once that important food safety step is out of the way and the mix cools, you're ready to make the ice cream by adding sugar, milk, cream, vanilla, and salt to a bowl with the cake mix. Stir well to combine before chilling the mixture in the fridge. Then, using your ice cream maker, churn the ingredients as directed by the manufacturer. Don't forget to toss in a few sprinkles towards the end of the churning process — it can't be a birthday cake without sprinkles, can it?

Recipe: Birthday Cake Batter Ice Cream

You already know how good peanut butter and jelly can taste together. However, did you know that there are other ways to enjoy these two classic ingredients that don't involve sandwiching them between two slices of bread? One idea that you'll surely want to try is this recipe for PB&J chia seed pudding. The simple-to-make recipe requires only six ingredients and calls for layering the ingredients in individual-sized cups or jars. Some strawberry jam goes first, followed by a layer of cream peanut butter, and then finally a layer of chia seed pudding (which is made with coconut milk chia seeds, maple syrup, and vanilla extract). The addition of the chia seed pudding to this classic flavor combination will leave guests craving more. Between the lightly sweet flavor and the texture added by the chia seeds, it truly is a delight.

Recipe: PB&J Chia Seed Pudding

As fancy as they may look, these creamy banana pudding milkshakes are incredibly quick and easy to make. They call for only six ingredients: vanilla ice cream, frozen bananas, vanilla wafer cookies, instant vanilla pudding mix, vanilla extract, and milk. It's literally all tossed into a blender, combined until smooth, and then poured into a glass to enjoy. You can further elevate the milkshakes with toppings, such as a few more vanilla wafers or whipped cream, but they also taste perfectly fine without any extra effort on your part.

Recipe: Creamy Banana Pudding Milkshake

If you've never heard of posset before, it's a British dessert with a texture that's similar to that of pudding — though the original possets used to have a much more liquidy texture. Today's variations feature a sugar and cream base, which is thickened by the addition of more acidic fruits — raspberries in the case of this recipe. Before heating the heavy cream and sugar, you'll want to prepare the raspberries. While you want the fruit's flavor, you don't want all of its seeds getting in the way of the smooth texture associated with a posset. So, blend them and then use a fine mesh strainer to separate the seeds from the rest of the fruit puree. After the heavy cream and sugar have boiled for a few minutes, you can stir in the puree, along with a little bit of rose water for extra flavor. Chill in the fridge for a few hours to let the posset thicken before garnishing with some fresh raspberries or a few rose petals.

Recipe: Raspberry Rose Posset