Food and Recipes Quick and Easy Dinners Easy 5-Ingredient Dessert Recipes To Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth By Jenna Sims Jenna Sims Jenna is a Digital Editor for Southern Living and joined the team in 2014. She writes, produces, and assigns content with a focus on email growth and commerce content. She covers a range of topics in the lifestyle space from holiday gift guides to new product launches to tips for cooking with your air fryer. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Updated on September 8, 2022 Share Tweet Pin Email Trending Videos Photo: Joy Howard While there are certainly plenty of times when we'll spend a couple of hours in the kitchen to bake an elegant layer cake or impressive pie, there are also times where we want a sweet treat that's a little easier to pull together. Weeknight sugar cravings are real, and that pint of ages-old ice cream in your freezer just won't cut it. These are the times when we'll rely on our favorite 5-ingredient dessert recipes. Aside from pantry and refrigerator staples, these simple dessert recipes need just 5 ingredients (or less!) to pull together. We have homemade ice creams, like Homemade Cookies-and-Cream Ice Cream and Blueberry Ripple No-Churn Ice Cream. We've got cookies, like our Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies, and cakes (it doesn't get much easier than Two-Step Pound Cake). No holiday cookie tin would be complete without our Fudgy Pecan Bourbon Balls. From cakes to pies to cookies, let one of our simply satisfying dessert recipes provide the sweet finishing touch to your meal. 01 of 34 Egg Custard Pie Antonis Achilleos Recipe: Egg Custard Pie You can use homemade or refrigerated pie crust as the base for this classic custard pie. Once done, the creamy custard (made with half-and-half and eggs) and the crispy crust make for one tasty combo. 02 of 34 Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Jennifer Causey Recipe: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Browning the butter for these chocolate chip cookies takes a little more time, but we promise the extra effort is worth it. 03 of 34 Pineapple Cherry Dump Cake Micah A. Leal Recipe: Pineapple Cherry Dump Cake As the name implies, this cake just requires dumping the ingredients into a casserole dish. No extra mixing bowls required. 04 of 34 Fudge Cake Alison Miksch; Prop Styling: Kay E. Clarke; Food Styling: Anna Hampton Recipe: Fudge Cake Reviewers describe this cake as the perfect mix of cake and brownies in one pan. It only takes butter, eggs, semisweet chocolate, and flour to make—but powdered sugar and pecans sure do look pretty on top. 05 of 34 Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies Micah A. Leal Recipe: Red Velvet Cake Mix Cookies Boxed cake mix is the not-so-secret ingredient to pulling homemade cookies together with just a few ingredients and 10 minutes of prep time. 06 of 34 Two-Step Pound Cake Recipe: Two-Step Pound Cake Pound cakes are delicious, easy to make, and can also double as a sweet breakfast treat. Honestly, with just five ingredients and 15 minutes of prep time, we'd be happy to whip up this dish any time of day. 07 of 34 Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies Southern Living Recipe: Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies Just four ingredients (which you probably have on hand) are needed to whip up our easiest peanut butter cookies of all time. 08 of 34 Lemon Chess Pie Photographer: Antonis Achilleos, Prop Stylist: Christine Kelly Food Stylist: Ali Ramee Recipe: Lemon Chess Pie Lemon juice and zest add a bright citrus flavor to chess pie. 09 of 34 Homemade Cookies-and-Cream Ice Cream Caitlin Bensel Recipe: Homemade Cookies-and-Cream Ice Cream For warm summer days when you may not want to turn on your oven, this five-ingredient homemade ice cream is the treat to try. 10 of 34 Easy Sugar Cookies Carlina Teteris/Getty Images Recipes: Easy Sugar Cookies No matter the occasion or holiday, sugar cookies are a great basic recipe to rely on. 11 of 34 Fudgy Pecan Bourbon Balls Hector Manuel Sanchez; Prop Styling: Karin Olsen; Food Styling: Kellie Gerber Kelley Recipe: Fudgy Pecan Bourbon Balls If you're looking for an easy dessert, this one can't get any simple. These bourbon balls require just four ingredients, don't have to be baked, and transport beautifully. 12 of 34 Old Fashioned Tea Cake Micah Leal Recipe: Old Fashioned Tea Cake Tea cakes were originally created at a time when ingredients were scarce, but they've stuck around as an everyday treat. 13 of 34 Homemade Yellow Cake Photographer: Jennifer Causey Food Stylist: Ana Kelly Prop Stylist: Kay Clarke Recipe: Homemade Yellow Cake Using this easy recipe, making homemade yellow cake is almost as uncomplicated as using a boxed mix. 14 of 34 Meyer Lemon Sponge Pudding Hector Manuel Sanchez Recipe: Meyer Lemon Sponge Pudding Egg whites give this citrus pudding a light and airy texture. 15 of 34 Homemade Pralines Greg DuPree; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis; Food Styling: Emily Nabors Hall Recipe: Homemade Pralines While you'll only need a handful of ingredients, you will need a candy thermometer to produce perfect homemade pralines. 16 of 34 Mamie Eisenhower's Chocolate Fudge Southern Living Recipe: Mamie Eisenhower's Chocolate Fudge Whether you serve it chilled or at room temperature, you can't go wrong with this fudge recipe that any cook can conquer. 17 of 34 Sea Salt Ice Cream Photograher: Greg DuPree Prop Stylist: Mary Clayton Carl Food Stylist: Margaret Dickey Recipe: Sea Salt Ice Cream This ice cream is the perfect combination of salty and sweet. 18 of 34 Coconut Pound Cake Antonis Achilleos Recipe: Coconut Pound Cake Coconut, pecans, and a splash of bourbon add some extra flavor to classic pound cake. 19 of 34 Apple Bread Pudding Helen Norman Recipe: Apple Bread Pudding Transform a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread into a decadent dessert by combining it with fresh Honeycrisp apples and a few pantry staples. 20 of 34 Easy Blackberry Cobbler John O'Hagan Recipe: Easy Blackberry Cobbler Blackberries are the true star of this cobbler, which doesn't require any extra effort to make a crust or pretty lattice top. 21 of 34 Blueberry Ripple No-Churn Ice Cream Joy Howard Recipe: Blueberry Ripple No-Churn Ice Cream Evaporated milk and heavy cream form the base of this easy-as-can-be no-churn ice cream. 22 of 34 Ultimate Dark Chocolate Brownies Antonis Achilleos; Prop Styling: Christine Keely; Food Styling: Chelsea Zimmer Recipe: Ultimate Dark Chocolate Brownies While these aren't your run-of-the-mill brownies, they're still just as easy to whip up. Simply add bourbon and espresso to your typical ingredient list. 23 of 34 Two-Ingredient Pineapple Angel Food Cake Jessica Furniss/Southern Living Recipe: Two-Ingredient Pineapple Angel Food Cake As easy as it sounds, just combine angel food cake mix and a can of crushed pineapple for a foolproof treat when you're in a pinch. 24 of 34 Southern Buttermilk Pie Photographer: Fred Hardy II, Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall, Props Stylist: Christina Brockman Recipe: Southern Buttermilk Pie Store-bought pie crust means this old-fashioned Southern dessert only requires 15 minutes of hands-on time. 25 of 34 Pecan Pie Bars Helen Norman Recipe: Pecan Pie Bars We turned your favorite Thanksgiving pie into an easy-to-serve bar made for year-round enjoyment. 26 of 34 Chocolate Parfait Southern Living Recipe: Chocolate Parfait This chocolate dessert uses pudding mix for an ideal make-ahead, light and fluffy post-dinner sweet. 27 of 34 Quick & Tasty Banana Pudding Van Chaplin, Charles Walton IV Recipe: Quick & Tasty Banana Pudding This layered dessert only calls for four ingredients and is best pre-served to make entertaining a breeze. 28 of 34 No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies Greg DuPree; Food Styling: Rishon Hanners; Prop Styling: Prissy Lee Montiel Recipe: No-Bake Chocolate-Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies No time to preheat the oven? No problem. Satisfy your sweet craving with these soft, chocolatey cookies sprinkled with peanuts for a nice crunch. 29 of 34 Cookie Dough Fudge Photography and Food Styling: Karen Rankin Recipe: Cookie Dough Fudge Not your typical fudge, this cookie dough delight uses white chocolate as the base. Best of all, you can easily switch up the flavor or topping if you're feeling creative. 30 of 34 Apple Pie Cookies Micah A. Leal Recipe: Apple Pie Cookies Looking for the flavor of apple pie but in individual format? Look no further. These hand-pie-like cookies will do the trick. 31 of 34 Luscious Lemon Bars Photo: Jennifer Davick Recipe: Luscious Lemon Bars With a handful of pantry staples and a few lemons, you can stock your freezer up to a month in advance with these lemon bars, making you host-ready for any occasion. 32 of 34 Rum Balls Hector Manuel Sanchez Recipe: Rum Balls Though they aren't bourbon balls, they're just as delicious. This five-ingredient boozy confection made its debut in our 1993 issue and has rightfully stood the test of time. 33 of 34 Ice Cream Sandwich Cake Caitlin Bensel Recipe: Ice Cream Sandwich Cake Use store-bought ice cream sandwiches to create this crowd-favorite layered summertime sweet. 34 of 34 Chocolate Cobbler Antonis Achilleos; Prop Styling: Audrey Davis; Food Styling: Emily Nabors Hall Recipe: Chocolate Cobbler While we love a peach cobbler in the summer, a heaping scoop of this rich and gooey pudding-like delight topped with vanilla ice cream is hard to beat. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit