A Surprising Ingredient Makes These Desserts Irresistible

Did you jump on the Dalgona coffee trend earlier this year and now have a stash of instant coffee granules taking up space in your pantry? Let us help you celebrate National Coffee Day and free up those 3 square inches with this roundup of some of the best instant coffee drink and dessert recipes the internet has to offer (yes, including Dalgona just in case you haven't gotten around to trying it yet). Need to restock your instant coffee supply in order to make some of these? Check out which brand our resident coffee snob ranked best-tasting.  

Related: Perk 'Em Up with These Great Gifts for Coffee Lovers

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With only five ingredients, this recipe isn't difficult, but it also isn't for anyone craving dessert anytime soon. It takes 45 minutes to prep and requires an additional few hours in the refrigerator. After that, you'll get a creamy treat that doesn't go too far in the sweet department. Noted one reviewer: "The instant coffee in this recipe doesn't give the sorbet a distinct coffee flavor — it deepens the chocolate and gives it a little extra bitter kick."

Recipe: Serious Eats

This mouth-watering recipe calls for a healthy three tablespoons of instant coffee, but that kick of bitter is balanced with rich ingredients like heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and butter. Cardamom adds flavor depth while plain, full-fat yogurt gives it its "insanely moist" quality. 

Recipe: Food52

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Looking for something sweet you can make in less than an hour? These little puddings topped with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon can be prepared, chilled, and ready to serve in about 45 minutes. One note: Some reviewers suggest decreasing the amount of instant coffee used in these from three to two tablespoons if you're wanting something without bitterness.

Recipe: Epicurious

If you've got tons of zucchini in your garden this summer, here's a recipe that'll help use it up. The instant coffee comes into play in the frosting, which also harnesses the creaminess of avocados and full-fat coconut milk. Zucchini in a cake? Trust us when we say you'll hardly notice it, but you'll still get its many health benefits. 

Recipe: The Healthy Foodie

Yes, these doughnuts are glazed with an icing that includes instant coffee, but the real surprise is that the dough recipe uses a potato. The recipe makes four dozen of these bad boys, so you might want to cut that in half that before committing. (For more potato recipes, check out Celebrate Spuds With 27 Tasty Ways to Cook Potatoes.)

Recipe: Taste of Home

Related: Expert Tips for Making Doughnuts at Home

If you like your desserts of the gooey variety, this one's for you. On top of a couple of tablespoons of instant coffee in the brownie batter, Kahlua and Nutella add extra flavor, and a caramel sauce that includes coffee, brown sugar, and coconut milk takes the whole thing to a decadence level tuned to maximum. 

Recipe: Half Baked Harvest

You didn't think we were gonna get through this list without tiramisu, did you? It's the dessert for people who value a cup of coffee spiked with a tipple or two of booze. This one — as its name suggests — doesn't veer far from the usual ingredients, but gives you the option of using Marsala wine, dark rum, or brandy in your filling as well as some boozy ingredients in your coffee syrup.

Recipe: Pretty. Simple. Sweet.

Related: 13 Boozy Milkshake Recipes You're Going to Love

If you're not familiar with Biscoff spread, it's also known as cookie butter, and it's amazing. It's one of the main ingredients in this recipe, which also includes instant coffee (of course), Kahlua (yes, again — we're fans), and plenty of spices to boot. 

Recipe: Wall Flour Girl

There's iced coffee and then there's iced coffee, and this recipe falls in the latter category. This should probably be reserved for special occasions — like breakups, or Tuesdays (scientifically unproven to be the longest day of the week). This recipe calls for fat-free this and sugar-free that, but we won't tell anyone if you bend those rules a bit.

Recipe: Mom Loves Baking

Related: How to Make Your Own Cold Brew Coffee and Save

Also known as whipped coffee — and the darling of the viral Tiktok and Instagram crowd as of late — this drink uses instant coffee as one of three main ingredients (the others being sugar and milk). The secret to it is in the whipping, which takes it to heightened levels of creaminess. We like the version below because Jessica (of "in the kitchen" status) suggests pairings that sound absolutely heavenly, plus she uses a pinch of cinnamon in her recipe. 

Recipe: Jessica in the Kitchen

This recipe takes some time — it involves making the dough and letting it proof a couple of times before assembling the rolls. The instant coffee comes into play in the filling and the icing, and the final product has reviewers saying things like, "These are literally 'eye rolling' good!"

Recipe: Taste of Home

Related: I'm a Coffee Snob. This Cheap Coffee Is the Best, IMHO

We're not really sure how the "Tex" or "Mex" comes into play here, but this sheet cake will feed a crowd and, with brewed coffee and instant coffee among its list of ingredients, it's sure to be a dessert that will satisfy anyone who can't go without a cup in the mornings.

Recipe: Folgers

Related: 25 Simple Depression-Era Desserts That Actually Are Indulgent

Here's another recipe that uses all the usual baking ingredients but throws in some instant coffee for a kick of flavor. This can be liberally dipped into a cup of cappuccino for maximum goodness.

Recipe: Love Foodies

This recipe starts with a chocolate and coffee-flavored base cake, then it gets saturated with mocha filling and topped off with an espresso whipped cream. It calls for espresso powder, but reviewers noted they used instant coffee as a substitute for "life-changing" results.

Recipe: Celebrating Sweets

Related: 18 Cheap Recipes That Celebrate Chocolate

How do you make chocolate cookies even better? Put coffee in them. Not sure about that? Nearly 60 reviewers give this recipe 4+ stars with comments like: "These came out perfectly and provided everything you love in a chocolate chip cookie but better!"

Recipe: Frosting and Fettuccine

Related: The 20 Best Classic Cookie Recipes

So this is one "dessert" recipe you won't be sharing with the kids. It's exactly what you've come to expect of a White Russian, but with a tablespoon full of instant coffee thrown in. Want to make it extra special? Whip up some Dalgona Coffee and spoon some of that on top.

Recipe: Half Baked Harvest

Related: 20 Cold Weather Cocktails

Five ingredients. No baking. With whipped topping. Sure, this has to be refrigerated for a few hours before it can be served, but we're guessing it's well worth the wait.

Recipe: Little Sunny Kitchen

We love a good trifle — something about those layers is incredibly enticing to the taste buds. This one starts with a frozen store-bought pound cake and adds in vanilla pudding, whipped topping, chocolate chunks, cinnamon, and instant coffee. It has a stamp of approval from one reviewer who notes: "I bring it to the office for my birthday treat and it rarely makes it past noon."

Recipe: Pampered Chef

Related: 30 Easy Frozen Desserts to Make at Home

Did you know Jell-O used to make a coffee-flavor? But you won't need that for this recipe, which combines gelatin powder, sugar, instant coffee, and water for the same result, and then serves it with sweetened condensed milk and cream for a truly unique drink.

Recipe: Foxy Folksy

This pudding gets a kick from instant coffee and coffee liquor, plus a pinch of exotic flavors from ground cardamom. Cooks who've made it use words like "divine" and "delicious" to describe it. But plan ahead — it takes about five hours to chill to the proper consistency. 

Recipe: Food.com

Related: From Mocha to Java: The Secret History of How Coffee Took Over the World