30 easy desserts in 20 minutes
Most desserts ask for an hour in the oven or a night in the fridge. These do not. Every sweet thing here is ready to eat in 20 minutes or less.
Updated October 2026 · ranked by popularity
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1. Chewy chocolate chip cookies
Big, chewy chocolate chip cookies with golden edges and soft centers, made with melted butter so there's no softening or chilling. Makes 12.
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2. Snickerdoodles
Soft, chewy snickerdoodle cookies with crackly cinnamon sugar tops and a little tang from cream of tartar. No chilling, so they go from bowl to cookie jar in 20 minutes.
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3. Soft sugar cookies (no chill)
Thick, soft sugar cookies with crisp golden edges and a hint of almond, rolled in sugar and studded with holiday sprinkles. No chilling and no rolling pin.
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4. Rice Krispie treats
Classic soft, chewy marshmallow treats made with just butter, marshmallows and crispy rice cereal, pressed gently into the pan and cut into squares.
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5. Peanut butter blossoms
Soft peanut butter cookies rolled in sugar and crowned with a milk chocolate kiss pressed in straight from the oven. The classic holiday cookie tray favorite.
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6. Chocolate-covered strawberries
Juicy strawberries dipped in glossy melted semisweet chocolate and striped with white chocolate. Set in the freezer, they're ready in 20 minutes.
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7. Christmas crack (saltine toffee)
Saltine crackers baked under bubbling brown sugar toffee, then covered in melted chocolate and pecans. Sweet, salty and impossible to stop eating.
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8. Oreo balls
Crushed chocolate sandwich cookies mixed with cream cheese, rolled into truffles and dipped in white chocolate. Three ingredients, no baking, ready for the cookie tray.
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9. Peppermint bark
A layer of dark chocolate and a layer of creamy white chocolate, topped with crushed candy canes and snapped into shards. Homemade holiday bark in 20 minutes.
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10. Copycat Wendy's chocolate Frosty
Our take on the Wendy's Frosty: vanilla ice cream, milk and cocoa blitzed into a thick, mellow chocolate soft-serve you eat with a spoon. Five minutes.
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11. Cannoli dip
Sweet whipped ricotta and mascarpone with vanilla, orange zest and mini chocolate chips. All the flavor of cannoli, served with broken waffle cones and cookies for dipping.
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12. Puppy chow
Rice cereal coated in melted chocolate and peanut butter, then shaken in powdered sugar. The crunchy, snowy snack mix is ready in 10 minutes.
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13. Quick chocolate mousse
Melted dark chocolate folded through softly whipped cream for a light, spoonable mousse you can eat right away. No eggs, no chilling, topped with raspberries.
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14. Apple pie egg rolls
Cinnamon apple pie filling wrapped in egg roll wrappers, fried until shatteringly crisp and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Apple pie you can eat with your hands.
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15. Molten chocolate mug cake
A rich, gooey-centered chocolate cake made in one mug in the microwave, with a hidden square of molten dark chocolate. Five minutes from craving to spoon.
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16. Ten-minute tiramisu cups
Coffee-dunked ladyfingers layered with a whipped vanilla mascarpone cream and a heavy dusting of cocoa, in glasses and on the table in ten minutes.
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17. Lemon and sugar crepes
Thin, lacy crepes straight from the pan, sprinkled with sugar and a good squeeze of lemon, then folded into quarters. Simple and perfect.
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18. Stovetop apple crumble
Soft cinnamon apples cooked in a saucepan and showered with a buttery oat and almond crumble toasted golden in a skillet. No oven needed.
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19. Pecan pie bites
Store-bought mini phyllo shells filled with a buttery brown sugar and pecan filling and baked until set. All the flavor of pecan pie in one bite.
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20. Affogato
A scoop of vanilla gelato 'drowned' in a shot of hot espresso. The Italian dessert that doubles as after-dinner coffee, ready in five minutes.
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21. Chocolate fondue with fruit
A silky dark chocolate and cream fondue made in one small saucepan, served warm with strawberries, banana and grapes for dunking. Ready in 13 minutes.
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22. Edible cookie dough dip
Egg-free brown sugar cookie dough made with heat-treated flour and loaded with mini chocolate chips. Scoop it up with graham crackers and pretzels.
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23. Grinch fruit skewers
Green grapes, banana slices, upside-down strawberries and a mini marshmallow on a stick, stacked to look like a little green face in a Santa hat.
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24. No-bake strawberry cheesecake parfaits
Layers of buttery graham crumbs, a fluffy whipped cream cheese filling and juicy macerated strawberries. All the cheesecake flavor, none of the baking.
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25. Rum balls
No-bake holiday rum balls made from crushed vanilla wafers, pecans, cocoa and dark rum, rolled in powdered sugar. Ready to eat as soon as they're rolled.
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26. Santa hat strawberries
Strawberries piped with a fluffy vanilla cream cheese filling and topped with their own tips to look like little Santa hats. A no-bake holiday bite.
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27. Cinnamon sugar chips with fruit salsa
Crisp cinnamon sugar tortilla chips baked until golden, with a bright strawberry, apple and kiwi salsa for scooping. A fresh, crunchy movie-night treat.
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28. S'mores dip
A pan of melted milk chocolate under a lid of toasted, gooey marshmallows, baked until bubbling and scooped up with graham crackers. Made for sharing.
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29. Pumpkin spice mug cake
A soft, warmly spiced pumpkin cake made with canned pumpkin puree and cooked in a mug in the microwave. Top with whipped cream and a pinch of spice.
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30. Caramelized bananas with ice cream
Bananas seared in bubbling brown sugar butter until sticky and golden, spooned warm over vanilla ice cream with toasted walnuts.
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For the fastest fix, a mug cake takes about five minutes from start to spoon. For a crowd, a chocolate fondue or a tray of no-bake cups feeds everyone with almost no effort.