What dessert can I make quickly and with limited ingredients?

[NoLostCause]

We have people coming round for Sunday lunch today. DH is doing a roast. I was planning on doing baked peaches with mascarpone but when DH went to the supermarket late last night there weren't any peaches.

I have to take DS1 to his swimming lesson this morning. We have to be there before the shops open. DH will be at home with DS2 (15 months) and will also be prepping all the roast bits so can't help.

I'll be home for just after 11am and will need to dry my hair/shove some make up on/get the kids dressed then will probably have about 30 minutes to prep something before guests arrive at 12pm.

At home I have the basics (flour, eggs, butter, sugar, cocoa powder) and then some tinned pears, a couple of apples and not much else. I can stop at the garage but a trip to the supermarket will take an additional 15 minutes off my already tight timescales!

What can I make that looks vaguely impressive in a very short timescale?

Do you biscuits? If so, I'd do a crumble.
Or maybe take that extra time to go to the shop and do an Eton Mess.

You could chop the apples and pears into an ovenproof dish, make a crumble topping with the flour butter and sugar, pick up cream/ icecream/ custard at the garage.

Actually you could serve the crumble with the mascarpone. No need to shop anywhere.

Definitely a crumble with the pears & apples. I do 50/50 flour & oats which adds a nice texture if you have any.

If you have pears, this is lovely and looks great in a big dish: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/squidgy-chocolate-pear-pudding

Lemon posset! Lemons, double cream and sugar (I think, been a while since I made it but it’s so simple and absolutely bloody delicious).

I would do apple and pear crumble.

Lemon curd Eton Mess.

Simple, nice and tart, looks great and three ingredients. Four if you buy some lemons to add finishing touches of grated zest.

Chocolate fudge pudding?

https://clairehuston.co.uk/2022/05/27/recipe-hot-chocolate-fudge-pudding/

Make a stack of pancakes.

Slice up the fruit, sprinkle with sugar and then when guests are almost ready for pudding put the fruit in the pancakes add the mascarpone and bake in the oven for 10 mins.

You could also use nutella and / or peanut butter.

What @KeepingKeepingOn posted, or the crumble.

Bit warm for crumble. Pear sponge and cream/icecream op.

Basic sponge mix, lay the pear in the bottom of the tin. Top with sponge mix and bake. Done.

I’d buy a dessert as I get stressed when little time available..

You could poach the pears in syrup made with water, sugar, dash of lemon juice and spice of choice. If you've got any port or sherry or liqueur in, you could add that to the poaching syrup too.
Serve with sweetened mascarpone.
If you want to be fancy and have the time, you could make a crumble mixture with some cocoa added and bake it in bits to make a crunchy topping ("chocolate soil" gets mentioned a lot on cooking programmes).

I do this crumble too. Doesn’t even require scales. Tastes delicious and is classic with roast.

Lemon posset - 3 ingredients. Eve's Pudding as you have apples with cream or ice cream.

Ooo I like the look of the pear one, thanks @KeepingKeepingOn - going to give it a go!

Hopefully the garage will have some cream/ice cream to go with.

Or I could definitely do a crumble, I think there's some ground almonds in the cupboard as well. Would probably need some more apples though for the amount of people.

chocolate crepes with pears

or Eve’s pudding with apples & pears

Do you have any chocolate? I always make warm/gooey chocolate chip cookies for dessert and then serve with ice cream or something cream-y

If you’ve got mascarpone- make a cheese cake- smash up biscuits (digestives or ginger biscuits), add melted butter, stick in bottom of baking tin in fridge. The mix mascarpone with some icing sugar and some flavour (vanilla, or lime juice works well), stick on top. Set, then arrange fruit on top or melt some dark chocolate, pour in swirls /shapes onto some grease proof paper and put in fridge to set, arrange in a haphazard way on top.

or pop into a supermarket on way back from swimming and buy a couple of cakes.

It’s delicious - never been any left when I’ve done it. Mascarpone or ice cream best I would say, or custard for the traditionalists 😄

magic chocolate pudding!

How about a chocolate self-saucing pudding. If you use a larger dish you can use the pears (drained) in the bottom before you put the batter on top, then the liquid. Use the hot oven after the roast is out. Serve with the marscapone or vanilla ice cream. A bit old fashioned but if the weather's not too warm it's pretty lush for little effort.

No chocolate, lemons or biscuits. And I'll probably have the baby on my hip so needs to be relatively easy to put together one handed!

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-pear-pudding