Summer Desserts

Instead of piling this pillowy Pavlova with just fresh berries, Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple grills some of the berries in a packet, so they get deliciously juicy.

Pastry chef Maggie Leung's reimagined cheesecake is super-versatile: Its three components—the creamy, tangy cheesecake custard, the crunchy cornmeal shortbread and the fresh blueberry compote—are fantastic together, but each can be used in lots of other ways. Try the custard with any fresh fruit, serve the shortbread with sorbet or drizzle the compote over ice cream.

A classic Italian panzanella (bread salad) combines juicy tomatoes and bread cubes. Here, Chris Cosentino swaps in stone fruits like apricots and peaches for the tomatoes. Then he pushes the dessert over the top by dolloping the "salad" with an airy zabaglione, a frothy sauce of egg yolks whipped with sweet dessert wine.

When making fruit crumbles, pastry chefs prepare the components separately, then bake them together quickly so the topping stays crispy. F&W’s Grace Parisi follows that example.

These popsicles are a great fat-free snack, made with lots of naturally sweet watermelon and only a little sugar. They can be frozen in special popsicle molds or in standard ice cube trays (three cubes equals one serving). Joy Manning has them whenever she feels the temptation to visit the gelato shop around the corner from her apartment.

A classic British dessert of pureed fruit folded into whipped cream, a fool is one of the first things Peter Ting learned to make after moving to England in 1976. To give this one a little extra sophistication, he macerates (soaks) half the blackberries overnight in Calvados, then tops the fruit with dollops of whipped cream he's mixed with blackberry puree. The leftover macerating liquid would make a delicious drink mixed with sparkling water or Champagne.

"Every house has an herb garden," says Daniel Humm of Ticino, the southern region of Switzerland. Accordingly, he infuses roasted peaches with honey-rosemary syrup. The mascarpone in the ice cream reveals the strong Italian influence on Ticino's cuisine.

These strawberries, macerated in lime and honey, become a bracing summer dessert when served over a scoop of lemon sorbet. The whole thing can also go into the blender with a shot of rum to make an excellent frozen daiquiri.

"Ice cream sandwiches are universally popular, and everyone loves peach ice cream, too," Linton Hopkins says. "To make this recipe really Southern, we use pecans in the crispy cookie."

This elegant tart is a great option for cooking in the bare-bones kitchen of a mountain cabin, since it doesn’t require a special pan. Kelly Liken uses Colorado plums, which she loves for their “beautiful tartness.” Even when ripe, the plums are somewhat tangy, thanks to Colorado’s cool nighttime temperatures. Any firm-but-ripe plums will work perfectly here.

Jeni Britton's easy sugar syrup can be mixed with almost any fruit puree and churned in an ice cream maker to make sorbet. During the summer, she loves sorbets made with locally grown heirloom melons and ruby-red sour cherries.

For anyone who comes home from the farmers’ market with an overabundance of stone fruits, this pie from pastry chef Lori Baker is the answer. You can fill it with any combination of apricots, peaches, plums, cherries or nectarines.

Cake flour is the secret ingredient in this lusciously light shortcake. Make sure that you use pure cake flour as opposed to self-rising cake flour, which is similarly packaged. This dessert is at its best within 30 minutes of assembly.

This is an excellent grown-up version of an ice cream sundae, made with lush nectarines cooked in bourbon. The best part: the crisp, buttery pound-cake croutons.

Watermelon is a great source of vitamin C. Here, Marisa Churchill turns it into a fat-free granita, which she drizzles with a fragrant cardamom syrup.

Free-form tarts (sometimes called crostatas) are an easy, quick-to-prepare way to use up seasonal fruit.

Make-Ahead Tip: The ice cream sandwiches can be frozen for up to 1 week.

Excellent-quality puff pastry (F&W likes the Dufour brand) makes all the difference to this minimalist fruit dessert. Berries simmered in a little sugar become a slightly gooey, fresh-tasting topping.

Jeremy Sewall adds a little candied ginger to the tart's crust for a hint of spice; feel free to add more or omit it altogether.

Jessica Theroux drizzles apricots with honey before roasting (plums and peaches work well, too) and crumbles store-bought amaretti (Italian cookies made with egg whites and almond flour) for a crispy topping.

Using fresh-squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice makes all the difference in these sweet-and-tart pops.

Aromatherapists take advantage of the calming powers of both chamomile and lavender. Melissa Rubel Jacobson steeps the flowers in a syrup for antioxidant-rich berries.

Gerard Craft tops strawberries with batter and bakes them until the fruit is warm and jammy and the cake is airy, with a wonderful, crisp crust.

Actress Debi Mazar and her chef husband, Gabriele Corcos, give these mocha ice pops a silky, ice cream–like texture by folding whipped cream into the coffee-infused chocolate before molding and freezing.