17 EASY PEASY Chocolate Desserts You Need in Your Life

Peeps! These are some of my all-time favorite chocolate desserts that I have collected all in one place (you’re welcome) so that they are easy to grab when the urge for chocolate hits (which, for me personally, is kind of 24/7 . . . ). I love ALL of these chocolate desserts equally (and they are all (relatively) easy-peasy as that is my way) but if I had to pick, some of my fave’s include my Ginormous Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Cup and my Chocolate Snacking Cake with Peppermint Buttercream and my Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Revel Bars and my Chocolate Sheet Cake with Coconut Seven Minute Frosting, on the off chance you were wondering. I think they are all really fab for any season and any holiday (though you could wait on the whoopie pies and snacking cake until Xmas – however, if you do not want to, I will love you for your boldness  . . . Enjoy these chocolate desserts o’mine, peeps, and please let me know what you think of them in the comments. XO

Decadent Chocolate Desserts

A Ginormous Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup for a Crowd
Spoiler alert, peeps: this ginormous milk chocolate peanut butter cup is basically the best thing I have ever made. Peanut butter and chocolate is my absolute favorite combo, and I think you can guess what my favorite candy might be.

Chocolate-Sugar Skillet Cookie
“Rich and gooey, this quick-to-make jumbo cookie is a chocolate lover’s dream. Try it warm with a scoop of ice cream, crème fraîche, or whipped cream.”

No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake
This no-bake cheesecake featured on The Spruce Eats. It’s tangy, smooth, rich and creamy, all nestled in a crisp cookie crust. It can be denser than its cooked brethren, but this recipe is lightened by loads of billowy whipped cream. It’s a recipe that has the ability to please die-hard cheesecake fans as well as those who find themselves on the fence about the decadent dessert.

Instant Pot “Death by Chocolate” Cheesecake
As the name implies, Death by Chocolate cheesecake isn’t messing around. It involves a buttery Oreo-cookie crust, a double-chocolate filling made with cocoa and melted chocolate, and a crown of the most luscious and silky chocolate ganache. But get this: All three call for just eight ingredients total (nine, if you count a pinch of salt), most of which are already sitting in your kitchen. You’ll find the recipe at thekitchn.com.

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie with Chocolate Whipped Cream
An easy-peasy no-bake pie is one of those desserts with tremendous bang for its buck, and this peanut butter chocolate one is no exception. All three components — the crust, the filling, and the topping — are made in the food processor, meaning it’s all prepped and assembled and ready to chill in the fridge in just 10 minutes. It also means you only have one thing to clean. Check out the recipe at thekitchn.com.

Chocolate Cakes and Cupcakes

Chocolate Sheet Cake with Coconut Seven-Minute Frosting
I have always loved the combo of chocolate and coconut – and if the chocolate is in the form of a devil’s food cake (rich and dark and moist) and the coconut is in the form of a seven-minute frosting (basically marshmallow cream disguised as frosting), I am in cake heaven.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Pink American Buttercream
This recipe for the most delicious of chocolate cupcakes with pink American buttercream — piped into rosettes — is from my friend Amanda Faber’s fab cake book, Cake Portfolio. Amanda is a cake “artist,” and the book is filled with different cakes, frostings and design ideas that you can mix and match to your heart’s content.

Chocolate Carrot Loaf Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Whipped Cream
A truly delicious chocolate loaf cake is a thing of beauty and everyone should have a recipe for one in their back pocket. Because many of us have this one in said pocket, I am not now going to try and reinvent the wheel. Instead, I am providing you with another chocolate loaf, for your other pocket, and this one includes carrots.

Coconut Chocolate Icebox Cake
This chocolate icebox cake is pretty special. Not only is the combo of coconut and chocolate a fantastic one, but the cream in this cake is actually made in part from real coconut milk – so the coconut flavor is legit. It’s also super easy to throw together, calling for store-bought chocolate wafer cookies and this easy peasy coconut whipped cream described above.

Instant Pot Chocolate Desserts

Fudgy, Flourless Instant Pot Chocolate Cake
A PSA for all the chocolate cake–loving, Instant Pot–owning folks in the crowd: this gorgeous, uber-fudgy, flourless chocolate cake is destined to become your new fave. The cake is about as easy-peasy as they come, what with its fab one bowl–ness and short ingredient list, and has the silkiest of textures, due to the uniquely moist cooking environment that is the IP. The cake, in fact, manages to straddle both a homey, fudgy brownie vibe and an elevated, sliver-of-chocolate-cake-post-fancy-French–restaurant–meal one. Find the recipe on food52.com.

Instant Pot Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust
Ok, so this isn’t totally a chocolate dessert, but I couldn’t leave it off this chocolate desserts round up. If you dig the combo of peanut butter and chocolate, are cheesecake-friendly, and possess an Instant Pot, this black-bottomed beauty has your name written all over it.

Milk Chocolate Desserts

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Revel Bars
I first learned about “revel” bars in the June/July issue of Cook’s Country and I was instantly smitten. I had never heard of such a bar, and was intrigued. Essentially a revel bar is a bar cookie made from oats and nuts. It is one of those bars where the topping is merely a crumbled up version of the flattened and pressed base, resulting in an awfully quick assembly.

Milk Chocolate-Peanut Butter Truffles
As you may know, I am a huge fan of anything involving peanut butter and chocolate, and if you add Rice Krispies into the mix, well then I am truly just over the moon. These easy-peasy candies, or, as I like to refer to them when I’m feeling fancy, “truffles,” are an excellent treat to gift a host or hostess, to bring to a potluck, to have on offer when friends come round, or, to enjoy straight from the freezer whenever the urge hits (which, in my house, is basically always). The recipe can be found at mainstreetmag.com.

Oh Henry Bars
These are Oh Henry Bars and I think you will like them if you’re into chocolate and peanut butter and flaky sea salt and chewy oatmeal-type things. And, yes, they are similar to Scotcheroos, if that’s what you were thinking! Get the recipe on thekitchn.com.

Mint Chocolate Desserts

Chocolate Snacking Cake with Peppermint Buttercream
If you dig simple, moist chocolate cakes with only a handful of ingredients and an unadulterated, deeply chocolate-y flavor, have I got a treat for you. My recipe for chocolate snacking cake not only checks all the above-mentioned boxes, but it also comes with a secret ingredient. Get the recipe here. 

Peppermint Chocolate Whoopie Pies
Here’s why you should add Peppermint Chocolate Whoopie Pies to your holiday baking regime: The cookies are fast and easy to make, the buttercream is a breeze, and people go berserk for them. Moreover, you can freeze the pre-filled cookies and refrigerate the buttercream kind of indefinitely, ensuring you have whoopie pies at a moment’s notice (provided you bring your buttercream to room-temp prior to assembly). You can also assemble and decorate and then freeze them, so they’re ready to pull out and serve whenever you desire. I love a do-ahead dessert, always have and always will.

Super-Stuffed Mint-Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
These classy sandwich cookies are beloved by everyone and they’re easy on the eyes, too. I developed the recipe for rachaelraymag.com.

Chocolate Cookies

Mini Chocolate Pavlovas
Mini chocolate pavlovas have so many attributes going for them, I hardly know where to begin. First, I love the textural contrast of the crispy exteriors and soft, marshmallow-y, slightly chewy interiors. They are deeply chocolate-y which is just a win-win (obvs). They use up extra egg whites which (because I am so fond of adding yolks to cakes for extra richness) I always have a stash of in my fridge. And only call for a minimum of ingredients which you likely have lying around.

Jumbo Chocolate Sugar Cookies
This chocolate sugar cookies recipe is a keeper. Uber chocolatey (from cocoa powder and chips – was tempted to boost the chocolate flavor even more, with some melted chocolate, but decided against it), chewy (from a bit of corn syrup and a yolk), moist and molasses-y (from the brown sugar) and crackly (from the granulated, plus raw, sugar coating). I’m hoping these will become your go-to when the chocolate craving hits, and am confident that whether making them while hobbling around your kitchen on one leg, or moving around effortlessly on two, these will satisfy that craving in spades.