Refreshing Summer Dessert Recipes

By The editors of MidwestLiving.com
Carson Downing

Our 36 recipes for summer sweets offer ideas for ice cream desserts, refreshing pies, summer-inspired cakes, fruity bar cookies, shortcake and more.

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Cherry Brownies a la Mode

Carson Downing
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Traverse City's famous tart cherries get double billing in this sundae--baked in the brownies and spooned on top. But there’s another local fruit hiding here. Chef Adam Raupp of Mission Table restaurant adds a little Riesling to the sauce.

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Kiwi Summer Limeade Pie

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Refreshing and creamy, this make-ahead pie from Susan Meier of Omaha combines tropical flavors with macadamia nuts and kiwifruit. It was one of the finalists at Midwest Living's® first Best of the Midwest cook-off.

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Choose-a-Fruit Fools

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No one knows how fools (a centuries-old blend of whipped cream and fruit) got their playful name. Maybe it's because, with just 4 ingredients, you'd be foolish not to make one!

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Gooey Butter Bars

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Traditionalists may grumble, but we think topping St. Louis-style gooey butter bars with fresh berries is a stroke of midsummer genius.

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Baby Citrus Cheesecakes

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These cupcake-size treats are a fantastically simple alternative to a full-size cheesecake. You could also garnish them with fresh raspberries or blueberries.

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Pint-Size Grasshopper Icebox Cake

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A fluffy, summery, make-ahead 6-inch dessert with just four ingredients? Sold.

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Strawberry "Cool Brûlée"

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This deceptively good, weeknight-easy dessert has a topping of yogurt and whipped cream with raw sugar that looks like creme brulee, but requires no cooking.

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Peaches and Cream Tart

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Rather than hide gorgeous, peak-season peaches under a piecrust, line them up in sunny formation on an easy base of purchased puff pastry and sweetened cream cheese. We arranged our peaches in stripes, but you can spread them out rustically if you prefer.

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Butterscotch Brickle Pudding Pops

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Chopped pecans and toffee bits add delightful crunch to creamy pudding pops. If you don't have plastic freezer-pop molds, use 5-ounce paper cups. Cover the filled cups with foil, make a small hole in the foil with a knife and insert a wooden stick.

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S'more Pie a la Marshmallow Crème

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Cream cheese brings body and richness to so-chocolatey mousse filling. More wow comes from the blend of marshmallow crème and crème de cacao draped over the top.

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Pink Lemonade Strawberry Shortcake

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Pink lemonade concentrate gives a summery twist to classic strawberry shortcake. 

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Peanut Butter Oatmeal Biggies

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Our chewy, saucer-size cookie is delicious by itself, but for a warm-weather treat, it makes generous ice cream sandwiches when filled with tiny scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

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Mini Peach Melba Ice Cream Cake

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Crystallized ginger adds unexpected zip to frosty peaches, raspberries and ice cream.

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Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Elderflower Cream

Carson Downing
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To "bring the smell of the field" into this dessert, chef James Bloomfield of Alliance restaurant in Traverse City, Michigan, infuses whipping cream with fresh elderflowers. Get the same effect with a splash of St-Germain.

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Pina Colada Cupcakes

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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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Summer Breeze Lime Pie

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A triple dose of lime-zest, juice and curd-gives this dreamy pie its refreshing flavor. The pretzel crust adds unexpected salty punch.

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Raspberry Swirl Angel Food Cake

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A subtle swirl of fresh raspberries infuses this homemade angel food cake with light fruit flavor. Like all angel food cakes, it has no fat or cholesterol.

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Tropical Ambrosia Shortcake

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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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Peanut Butter-Fudge Pie

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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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Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

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

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Black Forest Freezer Pie

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This layered dessert combines cream cheese, powdered sugar and whipped dessert topping over vanilla ice cream in a graham cracker crust. When you're ready to serve the pie, spoon on cherry pie filling, and drizzle with fudge topping. The recipe is from Friske's Farm Market near Ellsworth, Michigan.

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Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Sundaes

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Quickly warm pineapple in butter and brown sugar, then spoon the softened fruit over crumbled pound cake and dulce de leche ice cream.

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Peach Upside-Down Cake

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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.

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Lemon-Cream Cheese Pie

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This creamy lemon pie, a longtime reader-favorite recipe, is a signature dessert at Al's Oasis, a family restaurant along the east bank of the Missouri River in Chamberlain, South Dakota.

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Honey-Rosemary Shortbread Cookies

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Chicago chef Myk Banas created these utterly delicious and subtly sophisticated cookies.

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Creamy Peach Yogurt Pie

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Juicy peach slices mix with peach jam to make an ultra-easy topping for this no-bake yogurt pie.

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Cherry Phosphate Icebox Pie

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A humble pie if you ever saw one, this unassuming potluck star has an almondy crust and a yogurt-based filling that mimics the acidic tang of a phosphate. Amaretti (Italian almond cookies) are available at large supermarkets. You can substitute graham cracker crumbs.

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Triple-Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

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Layer ice cream with a mixture of cookie crumbs, chocolate pieces and pecans to make this striped frozen dessert.

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Pistachio Pavlova with Fresh Berries

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Mildly nutty meringue cradles fresh berries in this classic dessert named for a ballerina. Use your favorite nut to flavor the meringue. Our Test Kitchen recommends pistachios, almonds or pecans. Any fruit works: blueberries, kiwi, bananas.

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Vanilla Cake Batter Ice Cream

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Cake and ice cream go together like peanut butter and jelly-so why not combine them in one sweet scoop?

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Blueberry Almond Bars

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At the Marshall County Fair's annual Blueberry Bake-A-Rama in Plymouth, Indiana, Lori Van Der Weele took home the Grand Champion award with this recipe that combines blueberries, butter, white baking pieces and almonds.

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Ice Cream Chocolate Shell

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This super-easy homemade ice cream topping doesn't harden quite as fast as that magical store-bought stuff, but it packs a lot more chocolate flavor. Plus, it's totally customizable with different flavors of chips! Store it in the pantry to zap in the microwave whenever you want to crack your spoon into something delicious.

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Root Beer Float Ice Cream Sandwiches

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Stirring crushed root beer barrels into sugar-cookie dough adds irresistible sparkle and spot-on float flavor-especially when you add scoops of vanilla ice cream between two cooled cookies.

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Chocolatey Frozen-Mint Dessert

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This refreshing make-ahead dish from a Witten, South Dakota, reader combines a chocolate graham cracker crust with chocolate chip mint ice cream and a homemade chocolate sauce. Try different combinations of ice cream and crust for your own dessert invention.

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Ice Cream Cookie Cake

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We created Ice Cream Cookie Cake in honor of Indiana, the top ice cream-producing state in the Midwest. You can mix and match cookies and ice cream to make this frosty, no-bake treat that's also an easy make-ahead dessert.

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Tropical Fruit Freeze

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This slushy ice tastes like a sweet snowball. Just freeze the ingredients together in a container. Then let it stand at room temperature 30 to 60 minutes before scraping off the icy mix.

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