5 Basic Dessert Recipes

Searching through recipes, you see all kinds of variations and unique dessert recipes. However, finding just the basic recipes can be somewhat of a challenge. What if you don't want anything fancy? That's where this article comes in - here you'll find the top five basic dessert recipes. This is nothing more than simple recipes, with no extra ingredients. They make great every day desserts, or perfect dishes for those just learning to cook.

Sugar Cookies
This particular sugar cookie recipe is not the type you can roll out and make into shapes. It is a very simple recipe for "drop" sugar cookies, which means you spoon them onto a pan and bake.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

¾ cup sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Add flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Mix well and set aside.

2. In another bowl, whisk eggs. Add sugar, oil, and vanilla extract. Mix well. Stir in dry ingredients.

3. Roll into walnut-sized balls and place on baking sheet, pressing down slightly and dusting with sugar.

4. Bake at 400* for 8 minutes, or until cookies are light brown.

Pudding Pie

If you've never made a pudding pie using basic pudding mix, you are in for a treat! These pies are ridiculously easy to make, and extremely delicious. It only requires a pre-made pie crust and 3 ingredients!

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Instant Pudding (chocolate, butterscotch, etc - your choice)

1 ½ cup cold milk

2 cups Whipped Cream

1 Pie Crust (Your choice, but Oreo pie crust is suggested)

Instructions:

1. Beat pudding mix and milk with hand blender for 2 minutes.

2. Add pudding mixture to pie crust, top with whipped cream.

3. Chill for 3 hours or overnight.

Chocolate Cake

Even though it's much easier to buy a box of chocolate cake mix, sometimes you want homemade all the way. This recipe is super easy for a homemade chocolate cake, and doesn't take as much time and energy as you may think. Also included is an easy recipe for frosting to go along with this cake. Of course, you can use any kind you want, but what's included is a chocolate frosting recipe.

Cake Ingredients:

2 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1 c. water

3/4 c. sour cream

1/4 c. shortening (You may want to use easy-to-measure shortening in a package)

1 1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

Cake Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 x 9 inch pan.

2. Add all cake ingredients into large mixing bowl, and mix well by hand. Beat with a hand blender for 3 minutes at high speed, scraping bowl occasionally.

3. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool completely before adding frosting.

Frosting Ingredients:

1/3 c. butter

3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

3 c. sugar

1/2 c. sour cream

2 tsp. vanilla

Frosting Instructions:

1. Mix butter and chocolate thoroughly.

2. Blend in sugar.

3. Stir in sour cream and vanilla.

4. Beat until smooth.

Brownies

Again, while it may be easier to make brownies from a box, sometimes you just want to make it yourself. This is about as easy as it gets for brownies, and you can add your own additional ingredients if you like (such as chocolate chips, walnuts, etc.).

Ingredients

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Add ingredients in a bowl in order, mixing well.

2. Grease a 9x13 pan. Pour in mixture.

3. Bake at 350 for 20 - 30 minutes. Insert a toothpick, and if it comes out clean, it's done.

Cheesecake

Most cheesecake recipes use springform pans, but not everyone have these in their kitchens, since they are only used for cheesecake. This recipe does not require a springform pan, and does not even need to be baked!

Ingredients:

1 graham cracker pie crust

8 oz. soft cream cheese

1/3 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. sour cream

8 oz. Cool Whip, slightly thawed

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add sour cream and vanilla, and mix well. Fold in Cool Whip until well blended.

2. Pour into pie crust and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

I hope you've enjoyed these basic recipes for desserts, and have fun making your own variations!