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  1. Home
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  3. Our Best Quick Desserts

Our Best Quick Desserts

By Food & Wine Updated March 06, 2018
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Whipped Mascarpone
Credit: Eva Kolenko

it's wonderful when you have the time to really go all out on a cake or a pie, but sometimes you just need a quick dessert. These are some recipes that will get you something sweet in a hurry, from gooey molten chocolate cake to creamy rice pudding.

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Coconut Arborio Rice Pudding

Coconut Arborio Rice Pudding
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Arborio rice is great for Stephanie Prida's pudding, because the plump grains stay perfectly firm and chewy.

  • Terrific Rice Pudding Recipes

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Best-Ever Banana Splits

Best-Ever Banana Splits. Photo © Tina Rupp
Credit: © Tina Rupp
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What makes these banana splits from Sweet Rose Creamery in Santa Monica, California, so good is the insanely fudgy chocolate sauce coupled with the light, crunchy almond topping.

  • Ice Cream Sundae Recipes

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Coconut Pudding with Raspberry Sauce

Coconut Pudding with Raspberry Sauce
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Carolina Buia says that when her mother was growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, it was common for the lady of the house to present this creamy coconut dessert at parties. Even though it's referred to here as a pudding, it has a texture similar to panna cotta.

  • More Beautiful Dessert Recipes

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Gianduja Mousse

Gianduja Mousse
Credit: Frances Janisch
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As if the chocolate-hazelnut spread gianduja isn't delicious enough straight off the spoon, I've folded in whipped cream and crème fraîche to create a truly decadent (and ridiculously easy) mousse. For a supereasy ice cream sandwich, spoon the mousse between chocolate wafers and freeze overnight.

  • More Chocolate Desserts

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Quick Apple Crumble with Lebneh

Quick Apple Crumble with Lebneh
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The blend of flavors and textures here—crunchy, smooth, nutty, sweet, tart—makes this simple dessert irresistible. Opt for lebneh or another soft fresh cheese that won’t melt quickly underneath the warm apples topped with a quick granola crumble.

  • Amazing Pudding Recipes

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Creamy Peach Tart with Smoky Almond Crust

Creamy Peach Tart with Smoky Almond Crust. Photo © Tina Rupp
Credit: © Tina Rupp
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An almost-instant crust, made with vanilla wafer cookies and smoked almonds, is the secret to this simple and unusual tart.

  • Pie and Tart Recipes

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Molten Chocolate Cake

Molten Chocolate Cake
Credit: © James Baigrie
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This incredibly chocolaty and quick dessert is made with dark chocolate for extra decadence.

  • More Gooey Desserts

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Toasts with Ricotta and Warm Balsamic-Caramel Apples

Toasts with Ricotta and Apples
Credit: © Antonis Achilleos
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New York City chef April Bloomfield will publish her memoir and cookbook, tentatively titled A Girl and Her Pig, in 2012. It will feature recipes from her three restaurants, including The Spotted Pig, many of them combining hot and cold ingredients. The chilled ricotta served over warm apples here expresses her style and makes an amazingly fast dessert.

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Honey-Roasted Apricots with Amaretti Cookies

Honey-Roasted Apricots with Amaretti Cookies
Credit: John Kernick
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Jessica Theroux drizzles apricots with honey before roasting (plums and peaches work well, too) and crumbles store-bought amaretti (Italian cookies made with egg whites and almond flour) for a crispy topping.

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Pineapple Foster

Pineapple Foster
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This easy pineapple foster recipe is spiced with cinnamon and spiked with dark rum. To save time, buy precut fresh pineapple chunks from the salad bar in the deli section of your supermarket.

  • More Fruit Desserts

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Swirled Summer Berry Soufflés

Swirled Summer Berry Soufflé
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When Annabel Langbein started cooking professionally in 1981, she began gaining weight, eventually putting on 50 pounds. A nutrition course at the Culinary Institute of America in New York's Hudson River valley put her on the course to healthier eating, teaching her how to prepare low-fat dishes that didn't make her feel deprived, like this decadent-tasting soufflé, a swirl of berries and marshmallowy meringue.

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Mini Chocolate-Hazelnut Cheesecakes

Mini Chocolate-Hazelnut Cheesecakes
Credit: © Fredrika Stjärne
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Grace Parisi breaks up whole, cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies in a food processor with hazelnuts and butter to create a supercrunchy crust for these delectable little cheesecakes. The cream filling in the cookies both sweetens the crust and prevents it from becoming too crumbly.

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Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes

Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes
Credit: © Kana Okada
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The luxurious frosting on this irresistible cupcake is made with store-bought strawberry jam.

  • Great Strawberry Recipes

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Apple-Butter Ice Cream with Ginger-Chocolate Ganache

Apple-Butter Ice Cream with Ginger-Chocolate Ganache
Credit: David Malosh
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Folding apple butter into vanilla ice cream is a great way to add elegance. Green Aisle Grocery's Adam Erace also adds grated ginger to melted chocolate to make a fast sundae topping; for a more caramel-like sauce, substitute dulce de leche for the melted chocolate. the melted chocolate.

  • More Ice Cream Recipes

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Crêpes with Strawberries and Muscat-Yogurt Sauce

Crêpes with Strawberries and Muscat-Yogurt Sauce
Credit: © Marcus Nilsson
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Nichole Birdsall tops these crêpes with strawberries, a superfruit high in vitamin C and potent antioxidants, and a creamy, orangey sauce sweetened with a splash of Bonterra Muscat dessert wine instead of sugar.

  • Healthy Dessert Recipes

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Molten Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Filling

Molten Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Filling
Credit: James Baigrie
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More decadent than molten chocolate cake: one filled with warm peanut butter, reveals F&W's Grace Parisi.

  • More Gooey Desserts

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Plum-and-Honey Sabayon Gratins

Plum–and–Honey Sabayon Gratins
Credit: © Quentin Bacon
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This stunning plum-studded sabayon—an airy custard sweetened with clover honey and Moscato—is summer's answer to crème brûlée. If you don't have Moscato on hand, any honey-inflected dessert wine will do, such as Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise or a late-harvest Riesling.

  • Great Fruit Desserts

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Berry Fool with Black Pepper

Berry Fool with Black Pepper
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Black pepper is an unlikely and stimulating addition to this dessert of fresh strawberries in whipped cream flavored with raspberry puree and Grand Marnier.

  • Amazing Berry Recipes

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Brown–Butter Crêpes with Nutella and Jam

Brown-Butter Crêpes with Nutella and Jam
Credit: © Marcus Nilsson
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To give his crêpes a subtle, nutty flavor, Mike Price browns the butter for his batter. "Any jam will go with hazelnuts and chocolate," the chef says. "You can't screw that up."

  • More French Desserts

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Ricotta Ice Cream with Honey and Almonds

Ricotta Ice Cream with Honey and Almonds
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Toasted almonds make an excellent textural contrast to creamy ricotta ice cream.

  • More Cheese Recipes

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Zabaglione with Strawberries

Zabaglione with Strawberries
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Here we serve the zabaglione hot when it's just made, but if you want to prepare the dish ahead of time, mix the zabaglione with whipped cream and refrigerate it as described in the first variation below.

  • Great Strawberry Recipes

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Blueberry Mousse

Blueberry Mousse
Credit: © Eva Kolenko
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Sour cream gives this blueberry mousse a wonderful, subtle tanginess.

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Whipped Mascarpone

Whipped Mascarpone
Credit: Eva Kolenko
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Whipping mascarpone cheese with cream and sugar turns the dense, decadent spread into a pillowy dessert topper. Spoon it over the Rhubarb and Candied Ginger Crostata for your next Easter gathering.

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Chocolate Chunk Cookie for Just One

Chocolate Chunk Cookie for One
Credit: © Con Poulos
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When you need a quick dessert, or just a bit of something sweet, and it's just you, this is the recipe to reach for. It takes 5 minutes to put together, bakes in a toaster oven, and requires no mixer—just a fork. 

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    Everything in This Slideshow

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    View All

    1 of 24 Coconut Arborio Rice Pudding
    2 of 24 Best-Ever Banana Splits
    3 of 24 Coconut Pudding with Raspberry Sauce
    4 of 24 Gianduja Mousse
    5 of 24 Quick Apple Crumble with Lebneh
    6 of 24 Creamy Peach Tart with Smoky Almond Crust
    7 of 24 Molten Chocolate Cake
    8 of 24 Toasts with Ricotta and Warm Balsamic-Caramel Apples
    9 of 24 Honey-Roasted Apricots with Amaretti Cookies
    10 of 24 Pineapple Foster
    11 of 24 Swirled Summer Berry Soufflés
    12 of 24 Mini Chocolate-Hazelnut Cheesecakes
    13 of 24 Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes
    14 of 24 Apple-Butter Ice Cream with Ginger-Chocolate Ganache
    15 of 24 Crêpes with Strawberries and Muscat-Yogurt Sauce
    16 of 24 Molten Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Filling
    17 of 24 Plum-and-Honey Sabayon Gratins
    18 of 24 Berry Fool with Black Pepper
    19 of 24 Brown–Butter Crêpes with Nutella and Jam
    20 of 24 Ricotta Ice Cream with Honey and Almonds
    21 of 24 Zabaglione with Strawberries
    22 of 24 Blueberry Mousse
    23 of 24 Whipped Mascarpone
    24 of 24 Chocolate Chunk Cookie for Just One

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