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  1. Midwest Living
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  4. Refreshing Summer Dessert Recipes

Refreshing Summer Dessert Recipes

By Midwest Living editors Updated November 21, 2022
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Cherry Brownies a la Mode
Credit: Carson Downing

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

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Cherry Brownies a la Mode

Cherry Brownies a la Mode
Credit: Carson Downing
View Recipe this link opens in a new tab

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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Mojito Bars

Mojito Bars
Credit: Carson Downing
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Jacob Van Patten pours a refreshing summer cocktail into his creative take on lemon bars, which took the overall blue ribbon at the Iowa State Fair.

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S'Mores Squares

S’Mores Squares
Credit: Jason Donnelly
View Recipe this link opens in a new tab

These bars are a grown-up spin on a campfire classic: buttery graham cracker crust, chocolate mousse, toasty meringue.

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Choose-a-Fruit Fools

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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Kiwi Summer Limeade Pie

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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Earl Grey Strawberry Shortcakes

Earl Grey Strawberry Shortcakes
Credit: Carson Downing
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Tea leaves speckle the shortcakes and infuse the whipped cream, giving this favorite summertime dessert a pinkies-up twist.

Related: Throw a Strawberry Party With These Fresh, Fruit-Forward Recipes

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Gooey Butter Bars

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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Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ice Cream Sandwiches
Credit: Carson Downing
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These ice cream sandwiches will take you back to hot summer days as a kid. Use a light touch when you assemble them, as the rich cookies are a bit fragile.

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Baby Citrus Cheesecakes

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

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"

Strawberry Cool Brulee
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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

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

Butterscotch Brickle Pudding Pops
Credit: Blaine Moats
View Recipe this link opens in a new tab

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

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

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

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

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

Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Elderflower Cream
Credit: Carson Downing
View Recipe this link opens in a new tab

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Sundaes
Credit: Blaine Moats
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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

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

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

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

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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S'Mores Squares

S’Mores Squares
Credit: Jason Donnelly
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These bars are a grown-up spin on a campfire classic: buttery graham cracker crust, chocolate mousse, toasty meringue.

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Triple-Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

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

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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Blueberry Almond Bars

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

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

Root Beer Float Ice Cream Sandwiches
Credit: Blaine Moats
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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

Mint bars
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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

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

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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By Midwest Living editors

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    Skip slide summaries

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    View All

    1 of 39 Cherry Brownies a la Mode
    2 of 39 Mojito Bars
    3 of 39 S'Mores Squares
    4 of 39 Choose-a-Fruit Fools
    5 of 39 Kiwi Summer Limeade Pie
    6 of 39 Earl Grey Strawberry Shortcakes
    7 of 39 Gooey Butter Bars
    8 of 39 Ice Cream Sandwiches
    9 of 39 Baby Citrus Cheesecakes
    10 of 39 Pint-Size Grasshopper Icebox Cake
    11 of 39 Strawberry "Cool Brûlée"
    12 of 39 Peaches and Cream Tart
    13 of 39 Butterscotch Brickle Pudding Pops
    14 of 39 S'more Pie a la Marshmallow Crème
    15 of 39 Pink Lemonade Strawberry Shortcake
    16 of 39 Peanut Butter Oatmeal Biggies
    17 of 39 Mini Peach Melba Ice Cream Cake
    18 of 39 Angel Food Cake with Strawberries and Elderflower Cream
    19 of 39 Pina Colada Cupcakes
    20 of 39 Summer Breeze Lime Pie
    21 of 39 Raspberry Swirl Angel Food Cake
    22 of 39 Tropical Ambrosia Shortcake
    23 of 39 Peanut Butter-Fudge Pie
    24 of 39 Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
    25 of 39 Black Forest Freezer Pie
    26 of 39 Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Sundaes
    27 of 39 Peach Upside-Down Cake
    28 of 39 Lemon-Cream Cheese Pie
    29 of 39 Honey-Rosemary Shortbread Cookies
    30 of 39 Creamy Peach Yogurt Pie
    31 of 39 S'Mores Squares
    32 of 39 Triple-Chocolate Ice Cream Cake
    33 of 39 Pistachio Pavlova with Fresh Berries
    34 of 39 Blueberry Almond Bars
    35 of 39 Ice Cream Chocolate Shell
    36 of 39 Root Beer Float Ice Cream Sandwiches
    37 of 39 Chocolatey Frozen-Mint Dessert
    38 of 39 Ice Cream Cookie Cake
    39 of 39 Tropical Fruit Freeze

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