I’m the kind of person who will never say no to a sweet treat, and sometimes there’s nothing more fun than making that sweet treat yourself. But I’m also a broke college girly with plenty of homework and not a lot of time on my hands.
So, necessity being the mother of creative solutions, I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite easy, cheap, and delicious sweet treat recipes that require very little prep and ingredients. Enjoy!
peanut butter truffles
Starting strong with what is arguably my favorite of all the little sweet treats I’ve made. I’m a sucker for peanut butter, and as you might guess from the name, that’s most of what these truffles are. As long as you also have maple syrup, almond flour, vanilla extract, and melted chocolate for a coating, these little bites take no more than about twenty minutes to pull together.
I’ve tried several recipes, made a few adjustments, and ultimately came up with this formula:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- ¼ cup almond flour
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- About 70g dark chocolate, melted (sometimes I need more!)
Directions:
- Mix peanut butter, maple syrup, almond flour and vanilla extract together until completely combined
- Roll into balls (roughly a tablespoon each)
- Let sit in the freezer for 10 minutes
- Melt the chocolate
- Dip balls in the melted chocolate
- Return to freezer for another 10 minutes
- Enjoy!
This recipe yields about 16 truffles. I like to throw some sprinkles on top before the chocolate cools and hardens, or if you happen to have some flaky sea salt on hand, that also makes for a fun garnish.
no-bake peanut butter chocolate oat cups
I know I just said those peanut butter truffles were my favorite, but these No-Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Oat Cups might just have them beat. I’ve also experimented with and tweaked this recipe a bit, and as an after-lunch treat (or an any-time-of-day treat), it hits hard.
This recipe requires a few more tools than the last, but trust me, they’re worth it.
Ingredients:
For the base:
- 70g rolled oats
- 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- Pinch of salt
For the peanut butter layer:
- 100g smooth peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
For the chocolate topping:
- 70g dark chocolate, melted
Directions:
- Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers
- Mix all the base ingredients in a bowl
- Press oat bases evenly into the wrappers
- Freeze for 15 minutes
- While the base is in the freezer, mix the peanut butter and maple syrup in a bowl to create the middle layer (I sometimes put the peanut butter in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it)
- Spread evenly over the oat bases
- Top with melted chocolate
- Refrigerate until hardened and enjoy!
Again, you can top these with flaky sea salt. I think they taste better after a day or two, when the oats have had time to soak up some of the moisture from the syrup.
If you want, you can also melt some more peanut butter and drizzle it over the tops of the cups after the chocolate has cooled!
CHocolate jam bites
Not everyone enjoys the combination of fruit and chocolate, which I can understand (even if I don’t agree). But I think these Chocolate Jam Bites are well worth a try, even if you’re skeptical. They’re a bit more time-consuming than the previous two recipes (requiring 1-2 hours in the freezer to set before being coated in chocolate). For that reason, I’ve only made these once, but they were undeniably delicious.
I made the mistake of only allowing the jam patties to sit in the freezer for an hour before trying to dip them in chocolate. The result, while still tasting good, was a lot messier than it needed to be. If you have some assignments to do that can fill the two hours of waiting, I would highly recommend giving these treats a try!
3 ingredient peanut butter cookies
Part of my goal in compiling this list of sweet treat recipes was to think of ingredients that a person might already have on hand, or that could be applicable to multiple recipes. For that reason, I’m returning once more to peanut butter.
All you need for these 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies is 1 large egg, 1 cup of peanut butter, and 1 cup of white sugar. (Plus an oven, baking sheet, parchment paper, and a large bowl.) The recipe makes 16 cookies, perfect for sharing with friends or enjoying with a nice, hot coffee. They’re simple, sure, but simple is delicious, and you can’t beat a 20-minute prep and cook time.
Cake mix cookies
These cookies have nothing in common with the other treats I’ve talked about (no peanut butter!), but they’re so good that I couldn’t leave them out.
In my opinion, Cake Mix Cookies are a work of genius, and part of their appeal is just how highly customizable they are. You can use just about any kind of cake mix (I prefer Betty Crocker) in just about any kind of flavor, and subbing the vanilla extract in the recipe for lemon, strawberry, almond, peppermint, or espresso extract can easily shift the recipe to complement the flavor of cake mix you choose to use.
The variety doesn’t end with extracts, either. You can mix in dark chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, or peanut butter chips to your heart’s content, top with sprinkles, or throw in a bit of pumpkin spice and cinnamon for a fall flavor profile.
Rolling the balls of dough in a thick layer of powdered sugar before baking turns ordinarily delicious cookies into aesthetically pleasing crinkle cookies. Additionally, you can whip up a very simple glaze with nothing but a cup of powdered sugar, 1-2 tablespoons of water or milk, and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract to drizzle over the cooled cookies. The possibilities feel endless!