From extreme freakshakes to crème brûlée and peanut butter cream pie: 14 of the most indulgent desserts EVER

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Autumn means puddings, puddings and more puddings - yay, autumn!

The clocks have gone back and the bobble hats have come out. Heck, you’ve even turned the heating on once or twice. Face it, summer is officially over.

But before you start blubbing, there's one word that can put a positive spin on all of this: PUDDING.

Yes, now that the winter chill has set in it is imperative that we all indulge in extra ladlefuls of hot fudge sauce slathered over chocolate marshmallow layer cake, and second helpings of buttery rhubarb crumble with lashings of fresh custard and cream. And if anyone asks, you’re insulating, that’s all. It’s just good sense.

To help you through winter and out the other side, Marks & Spencer has released an insanely brilliant new line of totally indulgent puds, including a Triple Chocolate Chip Cookie Pudding, a Banana, Pecan & Bourbon Caramel Pudding, a Pain au Chocolat & Orange Pudding, a Belgian Waffle Pudding with Apple & Blueberry Compote, and a pair of super-soft Chocolate Souffles.Take your pick*…

*we pick all of them.

And if you want to have a go at whipping up something gloriously gooey yourself, here are 14 of the most indulgent puddings ever...

1. Freakshake

Fabulous raw freakshake by Rawberry Fields 

Forget flavoured milk, this winter it's all about the turbo-charged milkshakes called freakshakes!  Over the top in practically every way, they are packed with every delicious ingredient you can possibly imagine, from brownies and pretzels to chocolate and whipped coconut cream. 

This awesome freakshake from the Rawberry Fields food blog is made with frozen bananas, almond milk, whipped coconut cream, raw chocolate, salted pretzels, and vegan brownies (yes, it's also vegan, believe it or not!). And it is just as scrumptious as it sounds. 

What’s more, it can be easily de-veganised using double cream, milk-based chocolate, butter-based brownies and vanilla ice cream. Taste-off?

For something similarly indulgent and multi-sensory, opt for one of M&S's brand new Melting Chocolate Domes (£4 for two), a rich chocolate brownie sitting on top of a thin and crispy feuilletine layer, filled with creamy milk chocolate ganache and all topped with a hollow milk chocolate dome. Heat up the accompanying rich chocolate sauce and pour it over the top to make the dome melt. A dessert to make your dinner party guests' mouths drop. (And then quickly open to inhale their pud.) 

M&S's new Melting Chocolate Domes are a real dinner party showstopper

M&S's new Dessert Menu includes Melting Chocolate Domes, comprising brownie, chocolate ganache and hollow domes which melt when you pour the hot chocolate sauce on top

They've also created a pair of Jaffa Melt in the Middle Puddings (£3 for two). Two rich chocolate puddings with melting middle orange centres. Sublimely gooey with just the right amount of zest. Two may not be enough for one....  

M&S's new Jaffa Melt in the Middle Puddings, £3 for a pack of two

2. Peanut Butter Cream Pie With Hot Fudge Sauce

This gooey, creamy, decadent slice of heaven from the wonderful food blog that is Annie’s Eats features a crunchy pastry crust, fresh bananas, a banana liqueur that makes the custardy filling taste even more banana-y, lashings of whipped cream, unctuous peanut butter, roasted peanut crumbs and hot fudge sauce. And it is just as ludicrously delicious as it sounds. As Annie herself says: ‘Fo’ shizzle, this pie is not messing around.’ 

Peanut Butter Cream Pie with hot fudge sauce by food blogger Annie's Eats, left, and M&S's new Banana, Pecan, & Bourbon Caramel Pudding, right

And if you're fond of banana and nuts, you'll LOVE M&S's new Banana, Pecan & Bourbon Caramel Pudding (£3, 285g), a soft, gooey and unbelievably moreishly banana sponge dotted with nutty pecan halves, all covered in a seriously delicious caramelly, Bourbon whisky toffee sauce. It's banana bread all dressed up for a really glamorous night on the tiles. 

M&S's new Banana & Spelt Pancakes

Alternatively, if you're looking for something delicious but a little bit lighter, try the new M&S Banana & Spelt Pancakes (£2.99 for six), American-style pancakes made with banana puree and spelt flour, making them a wonderful alternative breakfast treat (especially if you top them with crispy, smoked streaky baco, a drizzle of maple syrup and a dollop of crème fraîche....)

3. Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie With Caramel and Sea Salt

If you have a frying pan, you have no excuse not to make this gloriously moreish deep dish cookie with a hint of maple syrup and a sprinkling of sea salt, from exquisite food blog Pinch of Yum.  It is basically a chocolate chip cookie for giants - what's not to love?

So we like to make one and pretend we’re a giant and then eat the entire thing. Don’t judge us. It’s what the giants would have wanted. 

Deep dish chocolate chip cookie with caramel and sea salt, left, and the M&S Triple Chocolate Cookie Pudding in the cooking stages, right

If you haven't got the time or the energy or the inclination to cook one of these beauties, M&S's brand new Triple Chocolate Cookie Pudding (£4, 490g) will do the trick. An enormous and wonderfully decadent soft-baked chocolate cookie sitting on top of a heavenly layer of gooey chocolate fudge sauce. I mean, what more could you want from life? Perfect for an indulgent Friday night in. Or an indulgent Saturday night in. Or an indulgent Sunday night in. Or, well, absolutely any time you like.

The M&S Triple Chocolate Cookie Pudding, left, and the cheesecake parfait with blueberry filling, right

4. Cheesecake Parfait with Blueberry Filling

Sometimes the simplest recipes are best – especially when you’re serving six people dinner and you only got home from work an hour ago. This creamy, fruity, zesty pud from food blog Damn Delicious is basically an individually potted no-bake cheesecake layered with blueberry compote. The only thing you need to be able to do is whip cream. *Immediately gets electric whisk out of cupboard*

M&S Plum & Blackberry Jelly

And if fruit's your thing, M&S's new Autumn Fruit Sponge Puddings (£2 for two) should be your first port of call. A pair of light and fluffy vanilla flavoured sponges topped with an autumnal plum, blackberry and damson compote. Ideal with a lovely vanilla custard or a spoonful of fresh cream to complement the tangy, jammy fruit.

Once you've sampled that, go for the new M&S Plum & Blackberry Jelly (£3.50, 570g), a super-fruity plum and blackberry jelly with raspberries and pomegranate hidden inside and an apple and ginger dressing running through it. Perfect served with a creamy vanilla ice cream or a warm custard to cut through the sweet, zesty fruit. Because nobody ever really gets over their love for jelly and ice cream.

5. Cookie Dough Cake Balls

Everyone from Homer Simpson to your granny loves uncooked cookie dough. It’s the law. So the whole world smiled when student food blogger Izy Hossack posted her recipe for these cute cookie dough cake balls on her mouthwatering food blog Top With Cinnamon. A bit like a cake pop, these are SO much better than a cake pop, because they have a cake layer, a frosting layer, and a raw cookie dough layer. All your Christmases, basically. 

Top With Cinnamon's gooey, chewy cookie dough cake balls covered in chocolate

For a similar chocolate/pasty hit, try M&S's Chocolate Fondant & Williams Pear Tart (£6, 530g). Golden all butter pastry topped with an autumnal pear compote and a rich chocolate fondant filling, topped with pear halves and a sticky caramel drizzle. And not a soggy bottom in sight. Whip this elegant dessert out at the end of a dinner party and you'll end your evening with a lovely, indulgent, chocolatey bang.

M&S's new Chocolate & Williams Pear Tart is simple, classy, but devilishly chocolaty

6. Russian Honey Cake

Never heard of a Russian Honey Cake? You haven’t lived, my friend. Thanks to the unspeakably marvellous Smitten Kitchen, this layered treat is now ready and waiting to be cooked by each and every one of you RIGHT AWAY. It’s formed of eight wafer-thin cake layers, a bit like giant biscuits, all sandwiched together with a sour cream and condensed milk frosting, then coated in cookie crumbs made from leftover scraps. Is your mouth watering yet? 

The elaborate and glorious Russian Honey Cake from incredible food blog Smitten Kitchen

7. Mint Chocolate Cake

Four layers of gooey, sour cream-spiked chocolate cake held together with a peppermint cream frosting, sprinkled in chocolate shavings? It’s enough to make you skip dinner entirely and move swiftly onto dessert. This recipe, which was invented by clever Katy and shared on her seriously lip-smacking food blog My Dish Is Bomb, is a real dinner party showstopper. And SO much better than a measly after-dinner mint.

8. Vanilla Doughnuts with pumpkin pastry cream

The Vanilla Bean Blog is fast becoming one of our favourite foodie blogs, and it was these sensational vanilla doughnuts with pumpkin pastry cream that first led us into their warm, welcoming and sinfully sugar-coated arms. And if you’re nervous about making doughnuts you can always use the pumpkin pastry cream to fill a pie. Or you could just eat it straight out of the saucepan with a spoon. (We won’t tell.)

Mint chocolate cake from My Dish Is Bomb, left, and delicious vanilla doughnuts with pumpkin pastry cream, right

9. Flourless Chocolate Cake

Rich, dark, dense, fudgy and oozing, this flourless chocolate cake from The Kitchen Cooperative is the ultimate cake for chocolate lovers. The recipe is quite unusual: it involves folding beaten egg whites to make it rise as high as possible in the oven, then compressing it with plates as it cools to make it really squidgy inside. Perfect for gluten-free eaters and almost impossible to ruin: if you undercook it, it will still taste like a gorgeous brownie.

Of course, if you're worried about overcooking it, plump for M&S's new Double Chocolate Sponge Cake (£3, 285g), a beautifully marbled chocolate sponge with a sachet of rich and gooey chocolate sauce to drizzle all over the top. Just to make things double delicious.

The Kitchen Cooperative's flourless chocolate cake, with a gorgeously gooey middle, left, and M&S's new Double Chocolate Sponge Cake, right

10. London Fog Vanilla Cake with Caramelised Crisps

Light and fluffy, then covered in Earl Grey buttercream frosting and caramelised potato crisps, this cake from much-lauded recipe hub I Am A Food Blog is the ultimate salted caramel indulgence. It has all the good flavour and texture sensations – sweet, salty, soft, crunchy - and you won’t be able to stop eating after one slice. Trust us. 

The London Fog Vanilla Cake from I Am A Food Blog is topped with Earl Grey buttercream icing and moreish caramelised crisps

 Similarly light and fluffy are the new Belgian Chocolate Souffles from M&S (£3.50 for two). These babies are heavenly dark chocolate souffles made with Belgian chocolate, for those times when you simply haven't got the energy to figure out how in the name of Mary Berry you actually make a souffle*.

 *Which is all the times.

M&S's new Belgian Chocolate Souffles from their new Dessert Menu Collection

11. Crème brûlée

No collection of scrumptious pudding recipes would be complete without a crème brûléee, that classic set French custardy dessert with the crispy lid. We can almost hear the spoon going ‘crack!’ as it bashes it open to reach the glorious goo within. The Kitchen Cooperative’s recipe is super scrumptious,super easy, and if you don’t have a blowtorch then popping the pud under the grill for five minutes before serving works just as well.

The Kitchen Cooperative's crème brûléee, left, and M&S's Pain Au Chocolat & Orange Pudding

M&S have also just released a similarly creamy Pain au Chocolat & Orange Pudding (£4, 395g), a creamy chocolate custard pudding made with pain au chocolat pieces on a zesty orange compote. (Which technically counts as one of your five-a-day, right?) Think bread and butter pudding's REALLY naughty older cousin.

12. Cinnamon Blueberry Slab Pie

The clever soul behind the How Sweet It Is foodie blog (that’s Jessica Merchant to you) has concocted a dreamboat of a dish she calls cinnamon blueberry slab pie. It is basically the most perfect criss-cross pie we’ve ever encountered, is best eaten hot, hot, hot, and looks absurdly beautiful with a scoop of ice cream melting on top of it. Thirds? 

Cinnamon blueberry slab pie, left, and spiced churros, right, are perfect puds for a chilly day 

And if you like blueberry, try M&S's new Belgian Waffle Pudding with Apple & Blueberry Compote (£4, 390g), a double cream custard pudding made with sweet and buttery M&S Belgian waffles, all sitting on a super-seasonal sticky apple and blueberry compote. I mean, what's not to love? Our new favourite Sunday brunch treat. 

The new M&S Bramley Apple & Blackberry Sponge Cake

And for a fruity Sunday evening, it has to by the new M&S Bramley Apple & Blackberry Sponge Cake (£3, 285g) a delicate vanilla sponge marbled with tangy blackberry puree, accompanied by a sachet of British blackberry and apple compote. A very grown up pudding, perfect for a night in by the fire.

13. Spiced Churros

Choux pastry, deep fried, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, then dunked in thick chocolate ganache? My word, do Spaniards know what they’re doing when it comes to desserts or WHAT. This exquisitely easy recipe for crunchy, squidgy churros comes from award winning food blogger Emma, the clever cook behind Poires Au Chocolat, and is so delicious you’re going to find yourself cooking them all day, every day until spring. Time to restock your cinnamon supplies.

14. Funnel Cake

Deep-fried, sweet vanilla dough sprinkled with icing sugar? Yes, please. The Smitten Kitchen’s recipe for funnel cake (so called because the better was traditionally poured through a funnel into the hot oil) will have you weeping with joy… and then running to the shops to stockpile cooking oil.

Funnel cake, which is basically cake batter fried in a pan and then sprinkled with icing sugar, is one of our favourite recipes from the Smitten Kitchen food blog