There are a TON of reasons you might want to make a dessert without having to turn on your oven. Maybe your oven isn’t working quite right, or is too full of other, more important things (like a Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham). Maybe you’re cooking with kids and don’t want them going in and out of a hot oven. Maybe it’s just too dang hot out (or inside your apartment, radiator heat’ll get ya!), and you want to avoid turning on the oven at all costs. Whatever the reason, these 70 no-bake desserts are for you.
Some dessert recipes are inherently no-bake, like truffles, ice cream, or fudge, and we’ve included a number of our favorites here. Others are easy shortcuts to more complicated desserts, and that’s where the meaning of no-bake really shines. Love cheesecake, but hate water baths? Yeah, us too. Make our no-bake blackberry cheesecake bars, our no-bake pumpkin cheesecake, or our lemon-blueberry mini cheesecakes, or our banana pudding cheesecake bars instead. More of a cake or pie fan? Try our éclair cake, our chocolate fluffernutter pie, our lemon icebox cake, or our mint chocolate chip pie. They’ll scratch that itch without having to roll out dough or deal with cake layers. We will say, while making these recipes themselves is a lot easier, there is often a bit more patience required—check to see if these need to set up for a few hours/overnight and plan accordingly. Your future self will thank you.
While these are no-bake, that doesn’t necessarily mean no-cook. We’ve included some recipes here that are cooked on the stove, or involve minor heating up of ingredients (more power to you to melt your chocolate in the microwave). Some, like our buckeyes, our no-bake oatmeal cookies, or our chocolate-covered strawberries, are still crazy easy to make. Others, like our peanut brittle, halva, or chocolate almond toffee take a little bit more finesse (and sometimes a candy thermometer). Even so, we think they’re the kind of recipes you should have in your dessert arsenal, and make a great addition to any dessert table, year-round. (Hot tip: They also make awesome holiday gifts!)