Dessert recipes
In dessert recipes a guessed amount of flour or sugar shows, so every dessert here gives precise quantities, and a cake or custard that works once works the next time too. The pies, custards, cakes and small sweets on this page come from across Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Bake an apple pie on a Sunday, make banoffee pie or crème brûlée for guests, and try brigadeiro from Brazil or churros con chocolate from Madrid. Scale a recipe up for a party and every amount on the shopping list changes with it.
73 recipes
Apple Pie🇺🇸 American recipes · Dessert · 4 h 40 min
Crème Brûlée🇫🇷 French recipes · Dessert · 5 h
Brownies🇺🇸 American recipes · Dessert · 2 h 10 min
Churros con Chocolate🇪🇸 Spanish recipes · Dessert · 45 min
Banoffee Pie🇬🇧 British recipes · Dessert · 3 h
Carrot Cake🇺🇸 American recipes · Dessert · 2 h 40 min
Æblekage🌍 Nordic recipes · Dessert · 2 h 15 min
Baked Apples🇬🇧 British recipes · Dessert · 1 h 5 min
Calabaza en Tacha🇲🇽 Mexican recipes · Dessert · 2 h 40 min
Kabak Tatlısı🇹🇷 Turkish recipes · Dessert · 10 h 15 min
Omenapiirakka🌍 Nordic recipes · Dessert · 1 h 10 min
Pear Cake🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Dessert · 2 h 35 min
Poached Pears in Red Wine🇫🇷 French recipes · Dessert · 1 h 15 min
Sangkaya Fak Thong🇹🇭 Thai recipes · Dessert · 4 h 45 min
Sharlotka🌍 Eastern European recipes · Dessert · 1 h 55 min
Versunkener Apfelkuchen🇩🇪 German recipes · Dessert · 2 h 40 min
Æbleskiver🌍 Nordic recipes · Dessert · 45 min
Apfelstrudel🇩🇪 German recipes · Dessert · 2 h 30 min
Apple Crumble🇬🇧 British recipes · Dessert · 1 h 10 min
Arroz con Leche🇲🇽 Mexican recipes · Dessert · 45 min
Arroz Doce🇵🇹 Portuguese recipes · Dessert · 3 h
Bánh Flan🇻🇳 Vietnamese recipes · Dessert · 5 h 20 min
Beijinho🇧🇷 Brazilian recipes · Dessert · 1 h 45 min
Bienenstich🇩🇪 German recipes · Dessert · 4 h
Bolo de Cenoura🇧🇷 Brazilian recipes · Dessert · 1 h 25 min
Bread and Butter Pudding🇬🇧 British recipes · Dessert · 1 h 30 min
Cannoli🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Dessert · 10 h 20 min
Clafoutis🇫🇷 French recipes · Dessert · 1 h 10 min
Crema Catalana🇪🇸 Spanish recipes · Dessert · 5 h
Dobos Torte🌍 Eastern European recipes · Dessert · 2 h 10 min
Dulce de Leche🌎 Latin American recipes · Dessert · 2 h 35 min
Éclairs🇫🇷 French recipes · Dessert · 3 h
Egg Tarts🇨🇳 Chinese recipes · Dessert · 1 h 45 min
Fig and Honey Yoghurt🌍 Mediterranean recipes · Dessert · 10 min
Flan🇪🇸 Spanish recipes · Dessert · 10 h 25 min
Flan Mexicano🇲🇽 Mexican recipes · Dessert · 10 h 15 min
Galaktoboureko🇬🇷 Greek recipes · Dessert · 3 h 30 min
Gizzada🌎 Caribbean recipes · Dessert · 1 h 35 min
Greek Walnut Baklava🇬🇷 Greek recipes · Dessert · 7 h 45 min
Île Flottante🇫🇷 French recipes · Dessert · 2 h 45 min
Jalebi🇮🇳 Indian recipes · Dessert · 1 h 50 min
Key Lime Pie🇺🇸 American recipes · Dessert · 4 h 30 min
Kheer🇮🇳 Indian recipes · Dessert · 1 h 40 min
Kladdkaka🌍 Nordic recipes · Dessert · 1 h
Kulfi🇮🇳 Indian recipes · Dessert · 10 h 10 min
Loukoumades🇬🇷 Greek recipes · Dessert · 1 h 35 min
Malva Pudding🌍 African recipes · Dessert · 55 min
Medovik🌍 Eastern European recipes · Dessert · 14 h 40 min
Melktert🌍 African recipes · Dessert · 3 h 40 min
New York Cheesecake🇺🇸 American recipes · Dessert · 14 h
Orange and Olive Oil Cake🌍 Mediterranean recipes · Dessert · 2 h
Panna Cotta🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Dessert · 4 h 50 min
Pão de Ló🇵🇹 Portuguese recipes · Dessert · 1 h 25 min
Peach Cobbler🇺🇸 American recipes · Dessert · 1 h 20 min
Picarones🌎 Latin American recipes · Dessert · 3 h 10 min
Pistachio Baklava🇹🇷 Turkish recipes · Dessert · 5 h 30 min
Profiteroles🇫🇷 French recipes · Dessert · 1 h 10 min
Pudim de Leite🇧🇷 Brazilian recipes · Dessert · 7 h 45 min
Pumpkin Pie🇺🇸 American recipes · Dessert · 4 h 30 min
Quindim🇧🇷 Brazilian recipes · Dessert · 3 h 25 min
Rasmalai🇮🇳 Indian recipes · Dessert · 5 h 40 min
Revani🇹🇷 Turkish recipes · Dessert · 2 h 55 min
Risalamande🌍 Nordic recipes · Dessert · 13 h 10 min
Rødgrød med Fløde🌍 Nordic recipes · Dessert · 2 h 30 min
Sticky Toffee Pudding🇬🇧 British recipes · Dessert · 1 h
Suspiro Limeño🌎 Latin American recipes · Dessert · 2 h
Sütlaç🇹🇷 Turkish recipes · Dessert · 5 h 30 min
Appeltaart🇳🇱 Dutch recipes · Dessert · 4 h 25 min
Poffertjes🇳🇱 Dutch recipes · Dessert · 1 h 35 min
Tarte Tatin🇫🇷 French recipes · Dessert · 1 h 30 min
Brigadeiro🇧🇷 Brazilian recipes · Dessert · 1 h 30 min
Pastéis de Nata🇵🇹 Portuguese recipes · Dessert · 1 h 30 min
Tiramisù🇮🇹 Italian recipes · Dessert · 4 h 30 min
Custards and milk puddings: the eggs, milk and sugar family
A large share of the world’s desserts is milk, eggs and sugar handled gently. Crème brûlée is baked in a water bath, crema catalana is thickened on the hob, and flan, flan Mexicano and bánh flan are all set over caramel and turned out.
Rice pudding travels just as far. Mexican arroz con leche is cooked with a cinnamon stick and condensed milk, while Portuguese arroz doce is finished with egg yolks and served cold with cinnamon dusted over in a lattice. Dulce de leche takes little more than milk and sugar and cooks them for hours into a spreadable caramel.
Pies, pastry and cakes: why exact amounts matter
Pastry leaves the least room for improvising. A flaky pie crust depends on cold butter left in visible pieces, choux for éclairs on beating eggs into a cooked flour paste, and strudel dough on being stretched thin enough to read through.
Apples alone go four ways here: American apple pie under a lattice, deep Dutch appeltaart packed into a springform, apfelstrudel rolled around apples, raisins and buttered breadcrumbs, and apple crumble, the easy one, under a rough topping of flour, butter, sugar and oats. For the pie, mix tart and sweet apples; for the crumble, Bramleys cook down into a soft, sharp purée under the topping.
Carrot cake and Brazil’s bolo de cenoura show how far one ingredient can go. The first is spiced, with walnuts and cream cheese frosting; the second is an unspiced orange sponge made in a blender and covered in chocolate glaze.
Desserts to make ahead for a party
Chilled desserts suit a host because they have to be made in advance. Crème brûlée must be cold before the sugar is burnt on top at the last minute, flan sets overnight while its caramel turns to sauce, and banoffee pie needs only its bananas and cream added before serving.
For a buffet, small sweets go further than one cake. Brigadeiro and beijinho are rolled into bite-sized balls, brownies are chilled and cut into neat squares, and cannoli are filled at the last moment so the shells stay crisp.
Frequently asked questions
- What dessert can I make in 10 minutes?
- Fig and honey yoghurt takes 10 minutes and no cooking: ripe figs torn over thick Greek yoghurt, drizzled with honey and finished with pistachios, orange zest and a pinch of cinnamon. It is only worth making when figs are soft and in season. For something warm in under an hour, churros con chocolate and arroz con leche each take about 45 minutes.
- What is the difference between Spanish and Mexican flan?
- Spanish flan is a firm custard of eggs, milk, lemon peel, cinnamon and vanilla, baked slowly over dark caramel. Flan Mexicano is blended from condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream cheese and eggs, which makes it denser, creamier and richer. Both are chilled overnight and turned out so the caramel runs down the sides, and both are tagged gluten-free.
- What is banoffee pie?
- Banoffee pie is a British dessert: a base of crushed digestive biscuits, a thick layer of toffee made by boiling condensed milk, sliced bananas and softly whipped cream with grated chocolate. The name joins banana and toffee. It was created at the Hungry Monk restaurant in East Sussex in 1971. Stir the toffee constantly as it boils, because condensed milk burns quickly.
- Which desserts are gluten-free?
- The desserts tagged gluten-free here are crème brûlée, crema catalana, flan, flan Mexicano, bánh flan, arroz con leche, arroz doce, beijinho, dulce de leche and fig and honey yoghurt. A recipe carries the tag only when every non-optional ingredient is free of gluten. The pies, cakes and pastries all use wheat flour, so they do not.
- What are brigadeiros?
- Brigadeiros are the Brazilian birthday sweet: condensed milk, cocoa powder and butter cooked in a pan until the mixture pulls away from the base in one mass, then cooled, rolled into balls and coated in chocolate sprinkles. The whole skill is knowing when to stop cooking. Beijinho is the white version, made with grated coconut and crowned with a clove.