25 Genius Summer Desserts That Couldn't Be Easier

It’s the season of strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, and watermelons—oh, I could go on. All this is to say: It’s the season of dessert.

In the interest of eating as much of this as possible, while spending as much time in the sun as possible, we’ve gathered our 25 easiest summer sweets, all 100% Genius–approved. Over the years, every recipe made our own Genius Kristen Miglore go, “Whoa!” for one reason or another. Think: lemon juice to thicken no-churn ice cream, or a one-ingredient chocolate mousse, or a deep-dish pie that comes together in 10 minutes. Whoa.

How many of these can you make between now and September?

1. Atlantic Beach Pie

This pie takes every shortcut in town and doesn’t apologize for it. Instead of making butter-based pastry from scratch, you turn to Saltines. And instead of making a stovetop custard, you combine sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks. And instead of making meringue, you whip cream.

2. Slab Pie

If you don't have a pie pan but do have a sheet pan, you're in luck with this crispy-edged slab pie. Martha Stewart uses a foolproof, food-processor dough and fills it with anything from sour cherries to peaches.

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3. No-Bake Nutella Cheesecake

Oh, Nigella, you know us so well. Her cheesecake stars a buttery crumb crust with a Nutella–cream cheese filling and plenty of toasted hazelnuts on top. “Don’t be tempted to let the cheesecake come to room temperature before serving,” Nigella writes. “It slices and tastes better with a bit of fridge-chill on it.”

4. 10-Minute Lime Cracker Pie

Like a Key lime pie, but it comes together in 10 minutes, and gets served out of a casserole dish (yippee!). You can thank Ritz crackers, which give this pie its creamy, cakey structure. Besides that, all you need are sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, and lime juice and zest.

5. Olive Oil Cake

If you have two bowls and a whisk, you have all the special equipment you need to whip up this community-favorite cake, with a crackly crust and ultra-moist center. It’s the perfect foundation for slouchy whipped cream and sugared summer fruit.

6. Meringue Gelato Cake With Chocolate Sauce

“Much of the wonder of this dessert may lie in its semi-homemade ease,” writes our resident Genius, Kristen Miglore. “You’re doing little more than bashing up store-bought meringues and folding them into whipped cream.” Where can we sign up?

7. Strawberry & Butterscotch Whipped Cream Cake

This is pastry chef Jami Curl's simplest-ever vanilla cake: You can go from scooping flour to tearing off a hunk of warm shortcake in under an hour, and top it any which way: fresh berries and cream, frosting and sprinkles, or her pitch-perfect strawberry compote and brown sugar whipped cream.

8. Fudgy Chocolate Eggplant Cakes

What started as a way for cooking school owner Ian Knauer to use up 80 pounds of eggplant turned into a rich, moussey cake that needs no oil, cream, or butter (and whizzes together superfast in a blender). Trust us on this one.

9. One-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

Yes, the one ingredient is chocolate. The other honorary ingredient is water. How the heck do these two turn into fluffy, creamy mousse? A lot of science and a little magic. You’ll see.

10. Greek Yogurt Chocolate Mousse

Another chocolate mousse miracle. This time, it’s all about Greek yogurt, which gets combined with a milk-based chocolate ganache. Serve with a dollop of orange marmalade on top, or whatever jam you like best.

11. One-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream

Frozen bananas plus a food processor equals, uh, ice cream? Could’ve fooled us. I love adding tahini to the mixture and drizzling honey on top. And yes, you can definitely eat this for breakfast.

12. Frozen Yogurt

An ingredient list so simple, you could memorize it: 1 quart whole-milk yogurt, 1 cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon kosher salt. Just whisk, chill, and churn (whoa you can memorize the instructions, too).

13. No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream

You don’t need an ice cream machine to make great coffee ice cream. All this recipe needs is a whisk—to turn heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, instant espresso, and espresso liqueur into fluff—and a freezer.

14. Cardamom & Rose Water Kulfi

Traditional Indian kulfi “takes hours of vigilant simmering and stirring to reduce milk down to a quarter of its volume,” writes Kristen. This version from cookbook author Meera Sodha skips all that and uses heavy cream and evaporated milk instead.

15. No-Churn Fresh Lemon Ice Cream

While most no-churn ice creams rely on sweetened condensed milk for custardiness (see #12), this one harnesses the power of lemons instead. Their acidic juice naturally thickens heavy cream, creating something as creamy as it is bracing.

16. Strawberry Lemon Sorbet

This was the very first Genius Recipe we fell in love with back in 2011, for good reason. Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray taught us that just strawberries, sugar, and a whole lemon slushed together in a food processor don't make a bitter mess, but a sweet-tart sorbet that sings with summer fruit.

17. Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Old-school chocolate chip cookies ask you to pull out a stand mixer and soften butter and cream it with sugar. This vegan version from the bakery Ovenly calls for a more relaxed, bowl-and-spoon method instead. Keep baked cookies in the freezer for spontaneous ice cream sandwiches.

18. Instant Aged Balsamic Vinegar

You already know that you love hot fudge and caramel sauce on ice cream, but did you know that you love syrupy balsamic vinegar, too? You do. Go on, try it.

19. Spicy Chocolate Chip-Hazelnut Cookies

Cookbook author and molecular biologist Nik Sharma invented these crisp-chewy cookies as a nod to Nutella, but in so doing he also streamlined the chocolate chip cookie process to a one-bowl, summer-friendly endeavor (and made it gluten-free, to boot).

20. Slow-Roasted Strawberries

Toss strawberries with sugar, stick them in a 250°F oven, wait for three-plus hours. Which is to say: Do next to nothing, wait three hours, get the best-ever topping for vanilla ice cream.

21. Roasted Cantaloupe

Don’t let a lackluster cantaloupe get you down. By cubing and roasting it, you end up with the intense, sweet flavor you were after in the first place. Perfect to spoon on top of mint ice cream.

22. No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

These classic boiled—read: not baked—cookies, shared here with extra handy tips from chef Scott Peacock, are perfect for melty ice cream sandwiches—and any bits stuck to the pot can be crumbled over, too.

23. Crème Fraîche Whipped Cream

Plain whipped cream is great. This is better. Nancy Silverton adds a spoonful of crème fraîche, which both makes the flavor more complex (tangy! cultured!) and the look more elegant (shiny! smooth!).

24. Yogurt Whipped Cream

Just like Nancy’s recipe (see #18), but with yogurt instead—and more of it. By using half cream, half yogurt (unstrained and strained both work), you end up with something confidently tangy and tart. Pair with extra-sweet, juicy-ripe fruit.

25. Raspberry Ripple Sandwich

Let’s make dessert toast a thing. This Genius creation comes by way of English food writer Nigel Slater. All you have to do is sweeten and whip cream, swirl in mashed berries, and plop this on warm toast. It’s the sort of why didn’t I think of that? dessert to make on a weeknight, over and over, just because it’s that easy, and that good.

Got a genius recipe to share—from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Perhaps something perfect for beginners? Please send it Kristen’s way (and tell her what’s so smart about it) at [email protected].