50 Quick & Easy Desserts That Cost Pennies per Serving

Somewhere in the middle of every month, the budget gets tight and the first thing I used to cut was dessert. Then I realized that was backwards. A tray of homemade cookies costs less than a single store-bought box, feeds the whole family, and fills the house with a smell no bakery can match.

What I did not have was a collection of desserts that were honestly cheap. Plenty of recipes call for a bag of this, a jar of that and some specialty chocolate you will never use again. I wanted recipes built on flour, sugar, eggs, butter, oats, peanut butter and a bag of chocolate chips, the things most of us already own.

That is what is in this book: 50 quick and easy desserts, each priced out in plain words, most costing between 10 and 60 cents a serving.

What is inside

• 50 desserts: cookies, bars, brownies, blondies, no-bake treats, sheet cakes, mug cakes, puddings, cobblers, crisps, pies and frozen treats
• the cost per serving (or per cookie, bar or brownie) on every recipe
• ingredient lists with exact quantities
• short numbered methods with oven temperatures and bake times
• one money-saving tip on every recipe
• a 53 page PDF in letter size, easy to print

There is no alcohol and no special equipment. A couple of baking sheets, a 9 by 13 pan and a mixing bowl cover nearly everything.

Three desserts from the book

• Peanut Butter Cookies: $0.15 per cookie
• Chocolate Sheet Cake: $0.35 per serving
• Peanut Butter Haystacks: $0.10 per haystack

The peanut butter cookies need only six ingredients and no flour at all, which makes them my emergency dessert. The haystacks come together on the stovetop in about fifteen minutes with no oven, which makes them perfect for a hot day or a school bake sale.

The baking tips that save recipes

I added a short welcome page with the habits that make budget baking work. Spoon flour into the cup and level it instead of scooping, which keeps cookies from turning into bricks. Use room temperature butter and eggs unless the recipe says otherwise. Set a timer for the early end of the bake time, because ovens run hot and nobody wants dry brownies. Those three habits fix most baking disasters.

Saving money on baking

Every recipe has its own tip. Buy oats from the bulk bin or the big canister. Use cottage cheese or store-brand peanut butter without losing anything in the final dessert. Buy chocolate chips in the large bag and use a little less than the recipe asks when the cookies are loaded anyway. Small moves add up when you bake every week.

The book is an instant PDF download. Print the pages you like, keep the rest on your tablet.

Want it with the 50 Slow Cooker Dinners too? The bundle is $9.97 for both books.