The Best Dessert Recipes For Your Next Potluck

Vanilla ice cream, gooey fudge sauce and peanuts sit on a chewy rice-cereal crust. Trust us, it's out-of-this-world-perfect for potlucks or family dinners.

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A Mexican standard and guaranteed backyard crowd-pleaser, our brown-sugar sheet cake is soaked in milky syrup, chilled, then topped with whipped cream and berries.

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Cocktail meets cupcake with the tropical marriage of pineapple preserves, crunchy macaroon bits and toasted coconut. We bet you won't even miss the rum.

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The flavor of these bars from Connie Siegel of Wisconsin will take you right back to your school lunchroom! If you don't like grape jelly, strawberry would work well, too.

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Purchased puff pastry adds to the ease of this dessert recipe, but the real star is the filling the pairing of sweet apples and tart cranberries. Homemade icing rounds out this crowd-pleasing potluck pie.

Related: Cranberry Recipes to Try This Season

This rich potluck dessert is made in the slow cooker for a unique twist on classic s'mores. With graham crackers, chocolate pieces and marshmallow creme, it's messy and fun and great for kids.

Related: Divine Slow-Cooker Desserts

This classic potluck dessert includes a crushed pretzel crust, a layer of sweetened cream cheese, and a top layer of strawberry gelatin and strawberries. 

This crowd-pleaser is easier than it looks. (You only make one batter.) Garnish the strawberry-frosted cake with double-dipped berries to hint at the festive stripes hiding inside.

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These soda-shop-cute cupcakes are inspired by the whimsical treats served at Designer Desserts Bakery in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Graham crackers form the base for this bar cookie with layers of marshmallows, brown sugar, almonds and coconut. "I've made these cookies since 1984," says Georgine Simmonds of Genesee, Michigan. "They're one of my family's favorites."

Classic shortcake meets church-basement standard ambrosia salad in this surprising and crowd-pleasing dessert that's packed with tropical fruit flavor.

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We used a cake mix in the crust for this creamy chocolate dessert from the former Chocolate Cafe and Coffee House in Missouri. The recipe makes a generous 24 bars, so it's perfect for a potluck.

Related: Decadent Chocolate Desserts

Prep time is just 10 minutes for this easy summer dessert mix of strawberries, light frozen whipped topping, prepared strawberry topping and pound cake. 

The family behind Illinois' Rendleman Orchards has amassed some great peach recipes in 135 years of growing peaches. This cake is no exception. Peach slices and brown sugar form a moist base for the tender, square cake--and when flipped over, that base becomes the topping. We like the cake warm with ice cream.

Related: Sweet-and-Juicy Peach Recipes

This recipe from Judy Reynolds of Bloomington, Indiana, was the $10,000 winner in our first Best of the Midwest cook-off. Start with a Hoosier staple—popcorn—and stir together these sweet-salty snack bars. Homemade caramel sauce helps makes them a standout.

Related: Prizewinning Reader Recipes

White chocolate and macadamia nuts give traditional brownies a flavor and color makeover.

For this party-special cupcake, combine white cake mix, orange-flavor gelatin, orange juice, and cheesecake-flavor instant pudding and pie filling mix. Cream cheese frosting gets a flavor punch from orange gelatin and shredded orange peel.

The key to a perfect homemade brownie is not overcooking it. Rather than a toothpick test, trust your eyes and nose to tell you when the brownie is set. The center will stay ever-so-slightly moist.

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These bars taste like apple pie in a baking pan. "You can't go wrong with these," writes one of our website reviewers. "I've taken them to all kinds of events and they are always the first dessert to go!"

Mix buttery pound cake, creamy vanilla pudding, soft cream cheese, and fresh strawberries or blueberries for a rich comfort-food dessert. To trim calories, try making it with angel food cake, fat-free pudding, and low-fat or fat-free cream cheese.

Sweet and tart, these moist, powdered-sugar-topped dessert bars will disappear fast.

Related: Luscious Lemon Desserts

These fantastic potluck bars come from Patrice Hurd of Bemidji, Minnesota. She won the grand prize in a Best of the Midwest Recipe Contest. Patrice says they're a twist on her grandmother's cracker bars. They cut beautifully and brim with salty-sweet-nutty-chocolately flavor.

Linda Roberts of Rapid City, South Dakota, tops her buttery cream cheese, coconut coated cookie with fruit jam. This recipe was a finalist in our first Best of the Midwest cook-off.

Fruit fillings complement the sweetness of other bar cookie ingredients. Blueberry-Almond Bars was a grand champion award recipe at the Marshall County Fair's annual Blueberry Bake-A-Rama in Plymouth, Indiana. 

Zesty lemon peel adds zing to this fruit bar cookie; almond extract and brown sugar give it extra sweetness.

Layers of cheesecake, raspberry filling, almonds and coconut form dessert bars perfect for summer picnics and potlucks.

Related: Mouthwatering Raspberry Desserts

Dollop a mixture of shredded coconut and sweetened condensed milk on brownie batter for a fun flavor variation on traditional fudge brownies.

Related: Try Our Crazy-Simple Coconut Macaroons

These big cookies—loaded with chocolate chips and nuts—were a customer favorite at the former Krista's Kitchen Bakery/Cafe in Portage, Wisconsin. The cookie bakes crisp on the outside, cakey inside.

Related: 6 Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

Combine sweetened Brie and cream cheese with fresh blueberries for this no-bake dessert designed for single-serving cups.

Related: Blueberry Recipes

Purchased sugar cookie dough stands in as the pizza crust for this dessert, and cream cheese, assorted fresh fruit and chopped almonds are the toppings. This recipe includes amaretto, which can be replaced with milk and almond extract to make the dessert more kid-friendly.

It's not easy satisfying everyone, but this cookie from the Midwest Living® Test Kitchen tries to meet the challenge! It's packed with oatmeal, chocolate, peanut butter and nuts.