Best Desserts & Sweets: Easy Recipes for Every Occasion

Raid your kitchen and make something sweet! Each of these pantry desserts is made with basic ingredients and takes 15 minutes or less to prep.

We’ve all been there: You’re craving something sweet, but you know there’s nothing in the kitchen to satisfy. But take a look in your pantry. If you have flour, butter and sugar, there’s a whole world of pantry desserts at your fingertips.

From sugar cookies and oatmeal bars to fudge and cobblers, these pantry desserts take 15 minutes or less to prep and use shelf-stable ingredients like oats, peanut butter, cocoa powder or rainbow sprinkles. And, most importantly, they’ll satisfy your sweet tooth without a trip to the store.

Chocolate Chip Brownies Ingredients

• Butter: Use unsalted butter in this recipe. Salted butter tastes great when spread on toast, but when mixed into a baking recipe, it can make the brownies taste a little saltier and increase the sodium content.
• Sugar: When you cream the butter and sugar, ensure you mix them for at least five minutes. The less time you spend creaming the two, the flatter the final mixture because creaming adds air to the batter.
• Eggs: Eggs serve as binding and leavening agents for the ingredients. Beaten eggs add more air to the batter.
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract adds flavor; you might not taste it outright in the baked brownies, but if you leave it out, the brownies’ flavor will seem less full.
• All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour is your go-to for brownies. It is strong enough to provide structure but not strong enough to make the brownies tough.
• Baking cocoa: Unsweetened baking cocoa lets you control the sweetness of the brownies instead of adding more sugar to the recipe.
• Baking powder: Baking powder is the primary raising agent. It contains both baking soda and cream of tartar
• Semisweet chocolate chips: Use semisweet for the best control over the sweetness of the brownies. Semisweet chips have some sugar, so they won’t be too bitter to eat. But they also don’t have a lot of sugar, so the baked brownies won’t taste too sweet, either.
• Vanilla or white chips: These add flavor and make the brownies look more attractive.
• Chopped walnuts: Walnuts give the brownies a nice bit of crunch.

 Potato Chip Clusters

Ingredients for Potato Chip Clusters

• White baking chocolate: Sweet white chocolate melts into velvety smoothness, acting as the glue that holds these crunchy clusters together. Chop the chocolate before microwaving so it melts evenly.
• Ridged potato chips: Use a great-tasting brand of potato chips. Break the chips into coarse crumbles by popping them into a zip-top bag and crushing them with a rolling pin.
• Pecans: Nuts add mild flavor and lots of extra crunch. Coarsely chop the pecans; for bonus flavor, lightly toast them.

Russian Tea Cake Ingredients

• Butter: Who doesn’t like to break out the best butter for the holidays? It’s key for these buttery, crumbly cookies.
• Confectioners’ sugar: As the only sweetener in this recipe, confectioners’ sugar is used instead of granulated sugar in the dough since it dissolves more easily and produces a lighter cookie. The baked cookies are then rolled in confectioners’ sugar for added sweetness and to create a snowball appearance.
• All-purpose flour: Russian tea cakes use a high flour-to-butter ratio to create their signature tenderness and require all-purpose flour to achieve this, so avoid swapping for a different flour.
• Nuts: Russian tea cakes are often made with pecans, but they can be made with walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts or macadamia nuts.

How To Make Malpua

Make Batter

1. In a mixing bowl, add 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (saunf), and 3 to 4 crushed green cardamom pods (discard the peels) or ⅓ teaspoon cardamom powder. Mix the dry ingredients well.

Add 3 tablespoons grated khoya (mawa or dried milk solids) and 3 tablespoons curd/yogurt. Please use fresh yogurt.

You can use whole milk powder or dairy whitener instead of khoya.

3. Add ½ cup water.

4. Begin to stir with a wired whisk.

5. Stir to a thick to medium-thick, flowing batter without any lumps. Cover and allow the batter to rest for 30 to 40 minutes or up to about 2 hours at room temperature.

6.  The below photo shows the consistency of the malpua batter.

7. While the batter is resting, blanch the almonds and pistachios in hot water. Keep them soaked in hot water for 20 to 30 minutes, then peel them.

8. Slice them and keep them aside.

9. Just before you begin to fry the malpua, prepare the sugar syrup. Heat ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup water. Here I have used raw sugar, hence this golden color.

10. Simmer this mixture on low heat, stirring well so the sugar melts.

11. You need to have a ½ string or 1 string consistency in the sugar syrup. If you cannot achieve these string consistencies then just make a sticky syrup.

12. Heat 4 tablespoons ghee in a pan or griddle. Here I am shallow frying the malpua instead of deep-frying them.

13. Add 3 pinches (⅛ teaspoon) baking soda to the malpua batter before frying. Instead of baking soda, you can add ½ teaspoon of baking powder.

14. Mix very well. This is important as you want the baking soda to be mixed evenly.

15. Lower the heat. Either take 2 to 3 tablespoons or a ladle of the batter and gently pour it on the hot ghee.

16. When the base becomes light golden, gently and carefully flip over using a spatula.

17. Flip once more and fry the other side.

18. Flip again and fry till they have a crisp edge and are golden. Working in batches, continue to fry malpua this way, adding more ghee if required.

Kaju Katli

About Kaju Katli Recipe

Kaju Katli is a traditional cashew fudge, and is one of the most sought after and loved Indian sweets. Whenever we get a big box at home they disappear in a matter of days.

If you stay in North India during Diwali festival you might receive a box of kaju katli or dry fruits as a gift. Kaju Katli is one of the most popular sweets which is gifted to relatives and friends during the diwali festival.

Kaju Katli is also called as Kaju Burfi. But, unlike thick burfi, kaju katli should be thin. In fact the word ‘katli’ means ‘thin slices.’

Now, I will not say making kaju katli at home is easy. Honestly speaking it is not. If you are making for the first time, then just forgive yourself if the kaju katli does not turn out perfectly. It will get easier as you practice, I promise!

When I started making this recipe, I tried different methods and all of them were not that good. Learning from my trials, I was able to develop this foolproof recipe of kaju katli where you do not need to check the consistency of sugar syrup.

My step-by-step guide below is a sincere attempt to share the method to get the perfect kaju katli at home every time!

Rabdi Recipe

About Rabdi Recipe

Traditional Rabdi, also called Lachha Rabdi in Hindi, is a classic North Indian dessert made by slow cooking milk until it thickens and reduces.

During the cooking process, layers of clotted cream (malai) are collected and later mixed back into the thickened milk, giving this milk-based sweet its characteristic texture.

Rabri is flavored with cardamom, saffron, nuts and sometimes rose water. It can be served warm or chilled as a dessert on its own or paired with sweets like malpua, jalebi or gulab jamun.

Making this sweet does take some time, but the method is simple and the recipe comes together in one pan.

With the quantity of milk used in this recipe, it takes about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes to prepare, depending on the size and type of pan used.

Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cake

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