The Ultimate Lazy Persons Guide To Dessert

It's safe to say I have a huge sweet tooth and love baking. But I'm also incredibly lazy and hate long complicated recipes. Can't be bothered to bake but crave something sweet? Have an almost empty fridge? Years of searching for minimal recipes has boiled down to these brilliant ideas. Most of these recipes are my own adapted versions, but the two recipes with Nutella in I have altered from kirbiescravings. Hereth lies my ultimate guide (all 5 ingredients or less):

1) Flourless Nutella Cake

What you need: 4 large eggs, 240g Nutella

What to do: Beat the eggs on the highest speed in a mixer for about 6 minutes until it has tripled in volume (essential that it triples in volume otherwise the recipe won't work). 

Melt the Nutella in the microwave in a large glass bowl for around 20 seconds. Add 1/3 of the egg mixture in a gently stir until no egg mixture remains.

Do this for another 1/3 of the egg mixture. And the last 1/3. You must do it in 3 batches otherwise the the air will escape the mixture.

Pour mixture into a greased 6 inch pan and bake for 20-25 minutes in an oven at 180 degrees. Wait until it's fully cooled before eating otherwise it tastes a bit eggy. Clearly I whisked my eggs a little bit too much, because my cake cracked at the top (whoops).

2)  Flapjacks

What you need: 40g sugar, 110g butter, 2 tbsp golden syrup, 175g oats

What to do: melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan. Once it's melted take it off the heat, add the oats and mix.

Pour into a greased tin and bake for 10-20 minutes in a oven preheated to 180 degrees. Cut into squares after cooled.

3) Rice Pudding

What you need: 50g rice, 30g granulated sugar, 500ml milk 
(optional: raisins,coconut, cashews- whatever floats your boat)

What to do: Boil the milk in a pan. Once it's boiling, add the uncooked rice.

Keep it boiling on medium heat for around 10 minutes (basically until the rice is cooked) occasionally stirring to make sure the milk doesn't burn.

Then add the sugar, raisins and coconut, stirring in. And voila! You can eat it hot or refrigerate and eat cold.

4) Brownie In A Mug (my personal favourite)

What you need: 3 tbsp plain flour, 3 tbsp Nutella, 2 tbsp milk, a pinch of baking powder

What to do: Mix all the ingredients in a mug. Whisk until there are no lumps of flour.

Put in the microwave for 1 minute. For this one (obviously wait a bit for it to cool) eat it straight away, because it will go hard if you leave it too long.

5) Rocky Road

What you need: 100g butter, 300g plain chocolate, 3 tbsp golden syrup
 (optional: biscuits, marshmallows, raisins, whatever you want)

What to do: melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a pan.

Once melted, take it off the heat. Add the broken biscuits, marshmallows etc. Pour into a tin and put in the fridge for about an hour.

Once set, cut into squares.

6) Jam Tarts

What you need: 50g butter, 100g plain flour, jam

What do do: Use your fingers to rub the butter and flour together, which after a few minutes will rub into a dough. (If the crumbs aren't sticking together, put in a couple drops of water)

Roll out the dough and use a cutter to cut into circles. Push the cut out circles into a cupcake baking tray, moulding the dough into the shape of the tray.

Put a tablespoon of jam into each one. Put the tray into a preheated 180 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes.

7) Pancakes

What you need: 100g plain flour, 2 eggs, 1 cup milk 

What to do: Whisk all the ingredients in a bowl. Wipe an oil soaked tissue across a frying pan on medium heat. Fry pancakes and enjoy (with lemon and sugar of course, is there any other way?)