- There is nothing like a tall glass of iced tea on a hot summer day – except, perhaps, an ice cream cone filled with Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt‘s Sweet Tea Ice Cream. This creamy dessert is inspired by southern sweet tea and is easier to make than you might think. It starts by infusing sweetened cream with black tea. Eggs are whisked in to the cream mixture to finish the base and everything is poured into an ice cream maker to churn into a very velvety, very summery ice cream.
- I love all pineapple-related desserts, so Divine Cuisine’s Pina Colada Tarts caught my eye the moment I saw them. These individual tarts feature a coconut custard topped with thin slices of pineapple, which caramelizes when the tarts are baking in the oven. The tarts use a puff pastry base, which makes prepping them quite easy because you can use storebought pastry and still get excellent results.
- The Banana Bread Baked Donuts from Love & Custard are a fun way to use up overipe bananas that doesn’t involve getting out your loaf pan. The donuts are made with mashed banana and greek yogurt, which gives them a soft texture and plenty of banana flavor. They’re lightly spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla. Once baked, the donuts are topped with a browned butter and browned sugar glaze that is just about irresistible and will take your donuts – or actual banana bread, if you want to use it as a glaze for another favorite recipe – to the next level.
- If you’re a coffee drinker, you’ll want to try The Kiwi Cook‘s recipe for Coffee and Kahlua Creme Caramel the next time you need a dinner party dessert. Creme caramels are easier to make than you might think and, while they’re often made in one classic flavor (vanilla – nothing wrong with that!), it’s easy to infuse them with all kinds of other delightful flavors. This one starts by infusing cream with coffee beans, giving the dessert an elegant coffee flavor while maintaining an ultra-creamy base. A generous splash of Kahlua is added, along with some vanilla extract. It’s like an after dinner drink and a dessert all rolled into one!
- Recipe Throwback: As much as I enjoy making traditional pies, pie bars are much easier to serve if you’re going to be entertaining more than a few guests. In the summer, you can’t go wrong with a batch of my easy-to-make Buttermilk Pie Bars. This recipe – which I originally posted 6 years ago! – starts with a buttery shortbread crust and is topped with a custardy buttermilk pie filling that is lightly flavored with nutmeg and vanilla, both flavors that will compliment the natural tang of buttermilk. The bars can be cut into squares and served as finger food at your next gathering, or plated and topped with fresh berries and whipped cream to dress them up!