Tess Rose Lampert is a New York City-based writer, beverage educator, and lover of savings. With over a decade in the alcoholic beverage industry, she strives to enhance consumers' everyday experiences with food and beverage through dynamic and interactive writings, educational seminars, and events.
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After sweating over a whole meal, who has the time or energy to concoct a complex dessert? These delicious recipes use ingredients that are in ready supply at the grocery store or already in the pantry, and no tool fancier than a blender. Some are so classic that a busy cook will be relieved to remember them, while others are less familiar but surprisingly simple.
This family favorite uses two super-inexpensive ingredients: bananas and cream. Once whipped, cream nearly triples in volume, which means 1 cup can be enough for an entire pie topping. Combine instant pudding with a few sliced bananas in a ready-made pie crust and you get a fast dessert for a just a few dollars.
Recipe: Our Best Bites
Quick and easy, instant pudding is a low-cost dessert that can be enjoyed a variety of ways. Tasty enough on its own, it transforms into a more cosmopolitan dish when topped with a few sliced strawberries, whipped cream, or a sprinkling of cinnamon.
To get a rich, chocolatey experience without indulging in expensive cakes or truffles, opt for sippable chocolate. Create a custom mix for less by using good-quality cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.
Recipe: Martha Stewart
Oats are inexpensive as well as nutritious, and using them as the base for cookies or dessert bars is a money-saving trick. Keep a box of oats around for impromptu desserts such as gluten-free oatmeal chip bars.
Recipe: Taste of Home
Take advantage of cheap seasonal fruit by using it as the star of dessert. Go with apples and pears in fall, citrus in winter, apricots and strawberries in spring, and peaches and berries in summer. Arranged elegantly on a plate and garnished with mint, fresh fruit is a refreshing dessert for any occasion.
Peanut butter is a low-cost ingredient that features in rich, indulgent desserts, starting with the classic peanut butter cookie. Customize dough to be saltier, less sweet, or mixed with candy toppings. Peanut butter bars and truffles are other great ways to use this delicious and cheap staple for dessert.
Recipe: Allrecipes
A generous scoop of ice cream at the end of a meal is a classic that's hard not to embrace. At less than $1 a serving, it's an easy and low-cost way to enhance a meal with something sweet. Spruce it up by topping with crunchy cereal or a pitcher of chocolate sauce warmed in the microwave.
Especially good in the fall, when a wide variety of pears are available, poached pears are easy to make, as well as elegant and flavorful. Simply peel and halve the fruit, then poach them in a sweet liquid such as honey and spices with water, or white wine for extra complexity.
Recipe: Giada De Laurentiis
This classic and simple cake combines inexpensive household ingredients such as flour, sugar, and butter. Use a touch of vanilla and almond extract to enhance the naturally rich flavor. The dense, rich cake is indulgent enough that a small piece is a full serving.
Recipe: Southern Living
Humble household ingredients such as sugar, flour, eggs, and butter are easily transformed into sugar cookies. To make the treats more festive, cut them into shapes and decorate with colored frosting.
Recipe: Allrecipes
Even out of season, apples are easy to find for $1 or less. When cored, sprinkled with cinnamon, and baked, apples turn into an apple-pie-like dessert. These cheap treats are a health-conscious replacement for the usual calorie-saturated desserts of the holidays.
Infusing a simple cake with lemon can transform it from boring to unique. Simply add the zest and juice of a lemon to a basic recipe or boxed mix to give it a twist and enhance the flavor of an inexpensive favorite.
A few small pieces of good-quality chocolate go a long way. Find gourmet chocolate in bulk for a better price per ounce, and serve it broken into small portions for a sweet cap to a meal.
A basic crisp can be made from any fruit, fresh or frozen. Blueberries are available year-round at low prices in the frozen section of most grocery stores. Just combine with an oat-based crisp topping for a winning dessert.
Recipe: Martha Stewart
Try this dessert when making dough for pizza or bread, although premade pizza dough works just as well: Simply pan-fry small pieces of dough in a little oil on the stove, then coat with cinnamon and sugar. These bites cost next to nothing, but they're as good at home as they are from a concession stand at the county fair.
Turn a banana into a delicious frozen dessert by arranging it on a popsicle stick or wooden skewer. Roll it in chopped nuts, possibly drizzled with chocolate syrup, before freezing on wax paper. Frozen bananas can be kept wrapped in wax paper for up to a month.
This American classic uses just a couple dollars' worth of ice cream, milk, and other flavorings such as chocolate syrup. A small serving of a thick and tasty milkshake is a fun way to finish a family meal, and flavors can be made with as few as three ingredients. Some call on a blender to incorporate graham crackers, Oreos, or even cake doughnuts.
Recipe: The Cheat Sheet
As one of the least expensive ingredients available all year, sweet potatoes are ideal for budget-conscious cooks. Two large sweet potatoes and a few other cheap household staples, such as eggs and sugar, are enough for a pie that easily serves eight.
Recipe: Patti LaBell
Take fruit to the next level with this unexpected and fun dessert. Grilling works especially well with stone fruit such as peaches and tropical fruits such as pineapple. It caramelizes the sugars, enhancing the natural sweetness, and creates a unique, smoky char.
Store-bought biscotti are less than $1 a serving -- and making your own is cheaper yet. Even without brandy as an ingredient, this is a sophisticated choice for dinner parties and diners who don't want anything too sweet.
Recipe: Gourmet