15 Summer Desserts So Good, You’ll Forget About the Heat Wave

Show off the best of your ripe, sweet, and tart summer fruit with these recipes for pies, cobblers, parfaits, and more fresh fruit desserts.

By
Yasmine Maggio
Yasmine Maggio
Yasmine Maggio
Associate Editor
Yasmine is an Associate Editor at Serious Eats. Her work has been featured in Women’s Health and on L’Officiel USA, and she recently graduated from New York University with a master's in journalism. You can find her at Bleecker Street Pizza on any given weekend.
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The Serious Eats Team
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Published June 25, 2025
Eton mess desserts in glasses, layered with cream and strawberries

Serious Eats/Amanda Suarez

I’m thankful to pie for being a year-round treat. While its outer layer can vary from a flaky and crispy crust to a buttery graham cracker one, the base is just the canvas for any filling imaginable, from fluffy ice cream to rich chocolate. But come summer, when farmers markets are overflowing with perfectly ripe, sweet, and tart fruit, I want nothing more than to fill my pie base with all the berries and stone fruit I can get my hands on.

But the dessert applications of summer fruit don't end at pie. Here, we've rounded up more than a dozen of our favorite desserts featuring summer fruit—many of them don't even require turning on the oven. From classics like blueberry pie and blackberry cobbler to a no-bake strawberry pie and a gorgeously sloppy Eton mess, these are our favorite desserts to show off the best of our summer fruit.

  • Fresh Fruit Tart

    Overhead view of fruit tart

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    This beautiful, pâtisserie-worthy fruit tart conveys a sense of occasion—and it does so deliciously.

  • Peach Crisp

    Overhead view of peach crisp served with ice cream

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    With a jammy filling of vanilla-scented peaches beneath a topping of whole-wheat flour, oats, and pecans, this peach crisp tastes like the best of summer.

  • Eton Mess

    Layered Eton Mess dessert with cream and strawberries in glass cups, spoons on side

    Serious Eats/Amanda Suarez

    With heaps of whipped cream, ripe berries, and crisp-tender meringues, this easy-to-assemble parfait is everything we want in a summer dessert.

  • The Best Cherry Pie

    20160608-cherry-pie-vicky-wasik-14.jpg
    Vicky Wasik

    Once the fuss of pitting your cherries is dealt with, the rest of this pie filling comes together quite easily. A mix of sweet and sour cherries is key to creating a sweet-tart fruit mixture, and you can even mix fresh and frozen berries for an ideal filling. And thanks to Stella’s four-to-one ratio of fruit to sugar, the tapioca starch gelatinizes the filling, allowing it to cook at the same rate as the crust. No more soggy crusts or soupy, gloopy fruit fillings.

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  • Summer Strawberry Pie

    20150625-Summer-Strawberry-Pie-beauty-1-Yvonne-Ruperti2.jpg
    Yvonne Ruperti

    The secret to this no-bake, no-cook summer pie is gelatin, which thickens the filling without the use of a stovetop or oven. To ensure a fresh flavor, make sure to seek out the best strawberries you can find. Macerating the strawberries softens their texture and draws out their liquid, helping bind the pie filling once it’s mixed with strawberry purée. Everything is held together in a buttery graham cracker crust, further eliminating the need for an oven. Each slice delivers juicy, fresh-picked strawberry flavor.

  • Knickerbocker Glory

    Knickerbocker glory dessert with strawberries, cream, and a wafer in a glass

    Serious Eats / Larisa Niedle

    Featuring vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries, whipped cream, and a fan wafer, the knickerbocker glory is a summer staple across the United Kingdom, and it belongs on your next patio dinner menu too.

  • Freeform Peach Pie (Galette)

    20160713-peach-galette-vicky-wasik-11.jpg
    Vicky Wasik

    A galette is like the low-key, laid-back, French cousin of pie—it offers the same fruity filling and flaky crust but without all the work. Although ripe summer peaches don’t normally hold up well in the oven, the short baking time in this recipe makes them more suited for the galette’s filling. You’ll want to cut your peaches into thick slices to prevent them from getting mushy. And without the need for a pie plate, you’re left with a galette that’s crispy on the outside with a tender, juicy filling.

  • Classic Cherry Clafoutis

    20150530-cherry-clafoutis-daniel-gritzer-7.jpg
    Daniel Gritzer

    Don’t be fooled by the fancy French name—this sweet cherry clafoutis delivers maximum results with minimal effort. Eggs, milk, sugar, and flour come together to make a simple batter, which is then poured over fresh cherries that sit in the bottom of the baking pan. If you want to bring out the fruit flavor even more, you can add a splash of cherry brandy to the batter. Once it's puffed and browned from the oven, serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and a dollop of whipped cream.

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  • The Best Blueberry Pie

    7:04

    How to Make the Best Blueberry Pie

    As far as classic pies go, blueberry ranks pretty high (right next to apple). Our recipe uses two types of blueberries—wild and cultivated—to create an intense berry flavor. Complete with a golden, flaky crust, this pie is an easy and reliable way to get dessert on the table and in the stomachs of our loved ones (and ourselves).

  • Late-Summer Mixed-Fruit Pie

    20160713-mixed-fruit-pie-vicky-wasik-12.jpg
    Vicky Wasik

    The fruit in this pie lends itself well to interpretation—you can use whatever mix of berries and stone fruit you like to create your perfect sweet-and-sour filling. However, we recommend using a kitchen scale when experimenting to keep your measurements accurate. Our version combines plums, cherries, blueberries, and gooseberries for a jammy, sweet-tart filling nestled under a golden, flaky crust.

  • Blackberry Thyme Galette

    20140610-blackberrygalette-004.JPG
    Carrie Vasios Mullins

    We threw tradition out the door with this galette, opting for a tangy cream cheese–based dough instead of the usual sweet French pastry one. The dough is flavored with thyme to contrast the sweet flavor of the blackberry filling, adding complexity. And thanks to the help of a food processor, it all comes together easily. Before adding the filling, sprinkle the dough with sugar to create a barrier, preventing a soggy crust. Once it's baked, you’ve got yourself a tender, tart, and rustic dessert that has summer written all over it.

  • Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

    20170410-rhubarb-strawberry-crisp-vicky-wasik-23.jpg
    Photograph: Vicky Wasik. Video: Natalie Holt

    We’re big fans of rhubarb crisp, but we wanted to create a dessert that's a bit sweeter, with a more complex flavor. So, we sought out the best strawberries we could find and combined them with the rhubarb. To further enhance the complexity of flavors, we added anise seed and five-spice, which complement the rhubarb, along with elderflower, which heightens the aroma of both fruits. Whole wheat flour is used for the streusel to create a graham cracker–like flavor, which beautifully tops off the gooey, tender fruit.

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  • Classic Biscuit-Topped Peach Cobbler

    20150825-peach-cobbler-vicky-wasik-37.jpg
    Vicky Wasik

    Whipping up the perfect peach cobbler is much simpler than you might think. The peaches are combined with lemon juice, bourbon, nutmeg, and almond extract while cornstarch thickens the peach juices just enough. A simple syrup glaze browns the biscuit topping, leaving you with a moist and tender cobbler to keep in your summer dessert rotation.

  • Easy Stovetop Fruit Crisp

    20141103-Stovetop-Fruit-Crisp-Yvonne-Ruperti.2.jpg
    Yvonne Ruperti

    If you’re in need of a quick dessert, this fruit crisp comes together in under 30 minutes. The juicy plum filling is made on the stovetop, and the dish gets its crisp from toasted streusel—meaning there’s absolutely no baking required. For a touch of nuttiness, we add hazelnuts to the streusel, though any nuts, such as pecans, almonds, or walnuts, will do. You can have a buttery, supple crisp in no time whenever you need to satisfy those pie cravings, stat.

  • Old-Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler

    2:35

    How to Make Blackberry Cobbler

    Though we’re partial to the ripe, sweet summer fruit from the farmers market, sometimes we’re stuck with the supermarket stuff. But fear not—just a few simple tricks can help you make the most of them. In this case, if you find yourself with sour or underripe blackberries, a handful of raspberries will help round out their bite while a pinch of baking soda will help neutralize any excess acidity. A dash of cinnamon brings out the natural flavor of the blackberries, as they become warm and jammy under a light and crispy biscuit crust.

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