While summer desserts hold a special place in our hearts, we know how easy it is to get bored of even your most tried-and-true favorites. To help get you inspired for your next picnic or late-night craving, we’ve rounded up our sweetest summer recipes, from a cool, creamy, no-bake icebox pie to a warm peach cobbler bursting with summer fruit.
Icebox Banana Pudding Pie
This banana pudding pie is just as refreshing as it sounds: not only is it cool and creamy, but it also comes together entirely in the fridge after layering the ingredients in a pie dish—no need to turn on the oven. Store bought vanilla wafer cookies and instant vanilla pudding mix make this a truly low-effort, high-reward summer dessert.
Olive Oil Cake With Brûléed Stone Fruit and Chantilly
Light, tender-crumbed, and fragrant, olive oil cakes pair well with almost any summer fruit. Susana Querejazu, Pastry Chef of Lutie's at Commodore Perry Estate in Austin, tops hers with sliced stone fruit—your choice of apricots, plums, peaches, or whatever’s seasonal and in abundance near you—which she brûlées in our Carbon Steel Frying Pan until crunchy and caramelized.
Blueberry Pound Cake with Lime Glaze
This recipe doubles up on the blueberry flavor: in addition to folding sweet peak-summer blueberries into a buttery pound cake base, Chef Sarah Seghi of Austin’s Eberly also turns them into a homemade compote—made by simmering the berries with sugar and lemon juice until they just start to break down—for serving on top. The cake is finished with a piquant lime glaze to perk things up even further.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Diamonds
These chocolate and peanut butter diamonds from our friends at Milk Bar are yet another fool-proof summer dessert. Aside from melting the chocolate and coconut oil over the stove, there’s absolutely no cooking involved: just layer the melted chocolate and peanut butter over a base of crushed Rice Krispies cereal, then allow everything to firm up in the freezer before slicing and enjoying.
Peach Cobbler
The only surprising thing about Chef Chris Shepherd’s classic peach cobbler recipe is how insanely delicious it tastes. Chef Shepherd whips up a simple, buttery biscuit dough to complement—not overpower—the juicy, fragrant summer peaches, resulting in what we think qualifies for the dictionary definition of a summer dessert.
Blueberry Slab Pie
Trying to make a homemade butter pie crust during the height of summer may seem a little like tempting fate—but it’s 100% doable. To make recipe developer and certified dessert person Claire Saffitz’s blueberry slab pie recipe, you’ll start with cubes of extra-cold unsalted butter and a cup of ice water to keep the dough nice and chilly, then pop it in the fridge for a couple of hours before rolling out. A lot of work? Yes. Worth it for this fruit-filled showstopper of a slab pie, guaranteed to be the highlight of your July 4th get-together? Also yes.
Peanut Butter and Banana S’mores
If you’re not already an outdoorsy person, these s'mores may be tasty enough to inspire a lifestyle change: along with the usual chocolate and marshmallow fillings, there’s also peanut butter and banana inside each one. Yes, they’re rich. No, they’re not too much.
Brookie (Brownie Cookie)
While certainly on the sweeter side, these picnic-perfect bars stop just short of being overwhelming. Along with chopped bittersweet chocolate, Chef Audrey Scheib of The Salty Donut adds toasty brown butter to the cookie dough to keep things balanced. Of course, we wouldn’t fault you for adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
Ready to Cook?
Some folks prefer to spend their summer camping in the mountains rather than sunbathing on the beach. In the same way, some dessert lovers prefer a low-effort treat to a full-on baking bonanza. Whichever description suits you best, we wish you a summer full of sweet, sweet baking success—which can be made easier with our stunning Porcelain Bakeware that makes a gorgeous serving vessel in addition to a workhorse baking dish.
