The Great British Bake Off 2021: Pinch of Nom Dessert Week Inspiration

Bakers! Grab your rolling pin. Dust off your apron. It’s time to visit the tent for a fourth time…

If you’ve been loving this series of The Great British Bake Off as much as us, you’ll know that it’s ‘Dessert Week’. Eek, we really can’t wait to see what the bakers come up with!

We’ve been thinking a lot about our favourite low calorie dessert recipes. If dessert is your favourite part of any three course meal, you’re going to love this list. 

Whether you’re someone who always chooses the creamy option, the fruity option or the Biscoff option, we’ve got plenty of pudding inspiration for you. You won’t believe they’re all slimming friendly! 

(Psst! You’ll want to scroll for the cheesecake section.)

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Bake it ‘til you make it

These desserts are all about minimal time and effort. There’s no technical challenge here – just light, tasty ingredients and super simple methods. 

Light, sweet and creamy, it’s hard to believe our Banoffee Tiramisu recipe is only 257 calories per serving. Really! We’ve kept the calories down using reduced sugar chocolate and caramel dessert toppings.

After 15 minutes of prep, let them rest in the fridge for 2 hours or until they’re ready to eat. Easy peasy!

Why not make a dessert in honour of this week’s sticky toffee technical? Our Toffee Apple Pies are full of toffee, caramel-y sweetness and they’re ready in under an hour.

We’ve used filo pastry rather than shortcrust because it’s so much quicker to work with and WAY lower in calories. It also adds a delicious crunchy texture that pairs perfectly with a smooth pouring of custard. Delish!

If you want something simple to make that has the ‘WOW’ factor, our Chocolate Mud Pie takes less than an hour to prep and refrigerate. Instead of using heaps of dark chocolate, we’ve done a nifty swap for coffee granules that adds a dark chocolate-y bitterness to the mixture. 

This recipe is high in protein and low in carbs, so it’ll leave you full and satisfied. You’ll be swatting impatient hands away from the finished result! Just look how good it looks…

We’d recommend using a fine grater for the nutty topping. It’ll make the grated bits of dark chocolate for this recipe (and others!) go so much further.

The cream of the crop

Who doesn’t love cream? It’s the ingredient that instantly levels up any dessert or hot chocolate. Ordinary cream is a little high in calories, but don’t worry – we’ve found low-fat alternatives that work just as well in every single one of these recipes.

Who doesn’t love a good, traditional English Trifle? Our trifle recipe is super quick to make and only 64 calories per serving. You can’t really argue with that.

We’ve made sure to use fat free banana and custard yoghurt with a squirt of reduced fat aerosol cream for the creamy top layers. Our recipe uses raspberries, but you can always use strawberries if you prefer.

Banana Cream Pudding comes in at 236 calories per ramekin – that puts it firmly in our Everyday Light category. We love serving up puds in ramekins because they look great for dinner guests and they keep the portions even. 

We love how indulgently thick and creamy this banana-based pud is. Whisking the hot milk into the eggs is the only tricky part. If you don’t get the knack right, you could end up with scrambled eggs. Don’t worry! Our recipe guides you through.

How about a dessert you can drink? Our Biscoff Cookie Milkshake is far lower in calories than full fat versions. You’ll only be drinking 225 calories through your straw with this one (and that includes the cream topping!).

We’re obsessed with the caramel-y flavours that come from the Biscoff spread and crunchy bits of Biscoff biscuit. Sounds good, right? 

A batch made in heaven

When you want a dessert but you don’t want a faff, it’s so handy to have a tasty treat in the freezer that’s good to go. We’ve picked out a couple of recipes that will keep until you’re ready to enjoy them.

Everybody loves brownies! Our Chocolate Brownies are rich, chocolatey and the perfect dessert with a dollop of low fat cream or custard.

They’re SO simple to make. Prep the mixture and bang them in the oven until they’re slightly risen with a gooeyness in the middle. You can even experiment and mix up the flavours by adding orange zest or mint.

These will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days in an airtight container, but if they go a little stale you can always freshen them up with a few seconds in the microwave.

You’ll want a good baking tin so that your batch is well-cooked and delicious. We’d get one like this with a non-stick coating so the brownies are easy to remove from the tin.

With just 5 ingredients, Chocolate Mousse is one of the simplest desserts you can make. For a few extra calories, you can add some sprinkled bits of biscuit too. The crumbs level it up into more of a deconstructed cheesecake.

Your batch of mousse will keep in the fridge for a few days as a go-to accompaniment with strawberries or any other fruit you prefer. You can keep it in the freezer too, just make sure you follow the freezing guidelines outlined in the recipe.

Say cheese… cake!

These are the dessert recipes most likely to earn you a Hollywood handshake. They’re rich, creamy and still totally slimming friendly. To top it off, they’re not super challenging to make (but they look and taste like they are)!

Halloween is on the horizon which means embracing autumnal flavours. Our Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake is the perfect addition to the dinner table if you’ll be hosting a spooky soirée. It looks ghoul-worthy as a centrepiece or you can divide it into 24 mini cheesecakes for a buffet. 

You can even use tinned versions of pumpkin or butternut squash if you don’t want to buy fresh. SO handy!

Raspberry and Blueberry Cheesecake is a dessert recipe you can rely on for special occasions year-round. For just 259 calories per slice, it’s a fruity, creamy cheesecake that’ll always go down a treat. 

To give it a little something extra that Prue would approve of, we’ve flavoured the biscuit base with honey, cinnamon and lemon. Yummy!

A cake tin with a loose bottom is always best for cheesecake, like this one from Amazon…

Last but certainly not least, our Biscoff Cheesecake recipe is a real showstopper! Lovers of Biscoff’s subtly spiced, caramelised flavours will be obsessed. We’ve used Biscoff biscuits with Biscoff spread to get ALL the deliciousness into the mixture. And it’s still only 234 calories per serving!

We’ve kept this hugely popular slimming friendly recipe low on calories by using a few clever low fat swaps. You can’t freeze this one, but leftovers won’t be an issue. Trust us!

Feeling inspired?

What’s your showstopping dessert speciality? Tell us what you would make if you were a contestant in Great British Bake Off 2021 over in our Facebook Group. With almost 1 million members, it’s the place to be if you’re looking for some moral support or inspiration on your slimming journey.