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8 Amazing No-Bake Desserts You Can Make Without An Oven

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Yaya Norazman •  May 19, 2020

[Updated 28 Apr 2022]

Baking simple recipes at home is a great way to past the time. Not only will you get to brush up on your skills as a baker, but you'll also end up with a delicious treats at the end of the day. In this article, we've lined up amazing homemade no-bake dessert recipes for you to choose from. So if you got the sweet tooth lately, worry not-- we've got you covered as always!

No-Bake Desserts Without An Oven!

Fried delights

1. Bombolone Doughnuts

Fondly known as Bombolini, these airy, puffy doughnuts need no further introduction. The recipe itself has come a long way, influenced by Austrian and Bavarian pastry-making styles that make it what it is today.

If you're familiar with making doughnuts of any kind, this shouldn't be rocket science for you ? Whatever you fill them with, they make amazing snacks (especially when they're warm and fresh!) without many prepping steps. Try this straightforward recipe by Linda from The Dutch Baker, complete with the essential tips to ensure your doughnuts turn out the way you imagined them to be.

#HHWT Tip: We suggest preparing the dough and filling the night before and let it chill in the refrigerator until the next morning. This allows gluten strands in the dough to relax and encourage even distribution of moisture content, guaranteeing buttery soft doughnuts, oozing with your preferred filling ?

2. Fried Ice Cream Sandwich

Want an effortless, 15-minute dessert idea? You've got it. Frankly, the thought of having a warm, bread 'shell' with frozen confectionery as a filling sounded technically impossible to me at first, but it turns out to be really simple to make! If you have extra bread in the pantry, this bit is for you to try at home.

Aiesas wrote this 4-step recipe for Instructables.com featuring only white bread and ice cream as ingredients. By sandwiching a scoop of your favourite ice cream in between 2 slices of bread and sealing the outlines using a mug/glass, you'll get that curry puff-like pastry with a sweet, cold surprise inside! If the deep-frying lifestyle isn't for you, you can still enjoy this ball of stripped-down decadence - Cooking Classy shows you how in this article. No frying is involved in the latter, in case you're wondering! Crushed cornflakes are used as a substitute for the crisp the fried bread gives, so there's less guilt when you snack on these ?

No-bake Cakes

3. Cheesecake

No-bake cheesecakes have been an obsession for me lately, all thanks to how easy it is to whip up one. Of course, you can order one too - that's why we dished on these 12 halal cake deliveries in Singapore. The fact that it's a heavy dessert which can be frozen for a long time (up to 3 months ?) makes no-bake cheesecakes even more appealing. Baked ones are fine, but they run the risk of overmixing, over/underbaking, etc. With this no-bake version, all those complications are out the window.

The cake itself has a lot of variety, from biscuit-based recipes such as Oreo cheesecake and Lotus Biscoff cheesecake to fruit-based recipes like blueberry cheesecake and mango cheesecake. To help you get started, Sally's Baking Addiction featured a simple 4-step recipe for the perfect basic no-bake cheesecake. The stars of the show include a Graham cracker base, lots of cream cheese and dollops of heavy cream!

#HHWT Tip: If you can't find Graham crackers on your grocer's shelves, Digestives biscuits are the perfect substitute that is widely available in our region.

4. French Mille Crepe Cake

Mmhmm, crepe cakes! A classic French dessert that appears tough to make, but in reality, it's quite the opposite. Local crepes like thosai and 'ketayap' are a common breakfast/tea time delicacy that you and I have come across and probably are a big fan of. Essentially, a Mille Crepe cake's pretty much the same!

How does it work, you ask? Light crepe batter is briefly sauteed and stacked on top of each other, each layer alternated with frosting or whipping cream. If you've never made crepes in general, Natasha's Kitchen shows how to prepare 15 layers of crepes in 2 simple steps. All you need is a good non-stick pan to ensure, well, your crepe does not stick to the pan! You can layer the crepes as many as you'd like to achieve the ideal cake height. Once you've mastered the basic recipe, why not go for the endless variations? The popular ones are rainbow crepe cakes and Matcha crepe cakes.

#HHWT Tip: Want to avoid the crepes from slipping off? It's always better to chill your Mille Crepe cake overnight prior to serving. Low temperature helps firm up the cream, hence the structure of the cake!

Tarts & Pies

5. Banoffee Pie

Hailing all the way from England, Banoffee Pie aka banana and toffee pie is a timeless British classic recipe that is rich and caramel-y sweet at the same time. It's made of pie base, filled with caramel and topped with banana slices and whipped cream.

Erren's Kitchen featured her rendition of Banoffee Pies; one that trades the usual sugar + butter + cream for sweetened condensed milk + salt to make the toffee-flavoured caramel! This results in a creamier concoction with a slight caramel saltiness to it. Adding a bit of crunch factor i.e pecans, walnuts, chocolate shreds etc, helps complement the rest of the texture-rich pie. Yum indeed!

#HHWT Tip: Bananas oxidise, bruise and break down rather easily once peeled, and that can affect the period your pie is best enjoyed! If you're planning to save it for more than a day, keep the pie chilled or frozen and only add the banana slices and whipped cream prior to serving.

6. Fruit tarts

You've probably read our easy Raya-ready pineapple tart recipe. Tarts are such versatile baked goods perfect for any festivities and occasions, thus we thought, "why not feature them again in this piece, with a tweak on the tart variation?"

Easy to enjoy and absolutely divine to look at, fruit tarts have its own fanbase, especially when served as tidbits at parties and gatherings. The mini ones can be devoured in one go, and you can hardly go wrong with what's in them. Fruit slices with chocolate? Nuts? Cream cheese? Have them in a tartlet and all is well again in the world ?

Complete with a tutorial video, Laura In The Kitchen shared her recipe of making a no-bake fruit tart. Laura incorporated strawberry jam in her recipe, and it's a great way to cut through the common one-dimensional taste of fruit tarts. Just like the cheesecake, Graham cracker base is used instead of the usual pastry tart base so no oven-baked step is needed. Convenient AND crunchy? You bet.

#HHWT Tip: If your grocer's market ran out of the usual 'fruit tart fruits' i.e kiwi, strawberries etc, why not opt for a mix of local-tropical fruits that are in the season instead? ??Imported fruits are good, but in-season produce is fresher and tastes even better!

Local favourites

7. Ondeh-ondeh/Klepon

Now, how do you introduce Ondeh-ondeh exactly? The sophisticated way would be 'Pandan-infused glutinous rice balls with palm sugar, coated with coconut shreds'. Too long? 'Chewy palm sugar-filled bombs' is a lot simpler, isn't it? ?

Growing up as a 3rd generation Nyonya, this tea time favourite is a dessert I'm familiar with and enjoy making especially during Ramadhan. There are a lot of recipes for this cute, mochi-like desserts, but I'd personally recommend this one by Rasa Malaysia. It requires 5 simple, common 'kueh' ingredients you can find in your local grocer shops. Ondeh-ondeh's signature green colour comes from blended pandan leaves, so you know it's all au naturel in here!

For those of you who prefer less 'bite' in their Ondeh-ondeh, this recipe by Huang Kitchen incorporated mashed sweet potato that makes the texture softer. Omitting tapioca flour will also give the same result of Ondeh-ondeh that is chewier and less firm. This is also a good way to add variation to your 'kueh' - the orange sweet potato used in this recipe gives these little chewy balls an orange-brown appearance.

8. Bubur Cha Cha

Speaking of sweet potatoes, another amazing no-bake dessert that incorporates this ingredient is Bubur Cha Cha. This playful, vibrant yet healthy bowl is a medley of palm-sugar infused coconut milk base, sweet potato, taro, tapioca flour jelly and sago. When something so colourful can be served cold or warm, you have to get your hands on it ?

The base of this dessert can either be white or light brown. If you prefer the former, give this recipe by Malaysian Chinese Kitchen a try. The latter can be achieved by adding palm sugar, as written by Linda from RotinRice.com, who also incorporated plantain to add a soft, sweet bite into the mix. When boiled together with pandan in the coconut milk, plantain makes the 'bubur' more fragrant and tastes even better.

That's all, guys! Apart from the fried desserts, these are all ideal to be eaten when chilled. We know it's been scorching hot lately so hopefully, these no-bake desserts will help you get through your long days without adding more effort into it!