Whether it’s rich homemade ice cream, a fruity granita, or cooling paletas, frozen desserts are the ultimate warm-weather treat. In this roundup you’ll find all sorts of freezer-friendly recipes, including a tropical five-ingredient soft serve that comes together in minutes, classic meringue-topped Baked Alaska, and cinnamon-kissed apple pie ice cream sandwiches. These incredible icy desserts are sure to sweeten summer days.
No-Churn Vanilla Frozen Yogurt
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Shell Royster
Make rich and creamy frozen yogurt in minutes without an ice cream maker. You’ll need four hours to freeze the dessert, then serve it with strawberries and/or strawberry syrup.
S’mores Icebox Cake
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
This no-bake dessert channels all the best parts of the campfire classic with graham crackers, chocolate fudge, and toasted marshmallows swirled into store-bought vanilla ice cream.
Black-and-White Milkshake
Greg DuPree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
As purists know, this classic diner-style milkshake is not a combination of chocolate and vanilla ice cream but a creamy vanilla milkshake with just the right amount of rich chocolate syrup. This version from F&W Food Editor Paige Grandjean is topped with plenty of whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.
Chocolate Ice Cream
Food & Wine / Photo by Stacy Allen / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Tucker Vines
Make a custard with both cocoa powder and 70% dark chocolate for this rich, smooth, creamy, and intensely chocolatey ice cream.
Banana Pudding Paletas
Pastry chef Paola Velez turns nostalgic banana pudding into a festive frozen treat using all the classic components — nutty browned butter, bits of banana, pudding, and crushed vanilla wafers — all decorated with white chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles.
Summer Peach Sorbet
Food & Wine / Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
Using macerated, very ripe peaches is the key to the surprisingly creamy texture of this three-ingredient sorbet from chef Geri-Martha O’Hara.
Miso Caramel Blondie Sundae
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
It takes just a small amount of savory white miso to temper the sweet butterscotch notes in the blondies that are the base of this ice cream sundae — they’re topped with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, butter toffee peanuts, and a homemade peanut butter stracciatella whipped cream.
Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream Sandwiches
Food & Wine / Photo by Stacy Allen / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Tucker Vines
Serve a tangy no-churn cream cheese ice cream between cakey red velvet cookies with this recipe from chef Taffy Elrod. Plan for six hours of freeze time.
Royal Falooda
A variant of the ancient Persian dessert faloodeh, this Indian Mughlai falooda is a rose-flavored delight. It layers freshly made cubes of rose jelly suspended in rose syrup–sweetened milk with tender corn vermicelli, chewy chia seeds, and a crowning scoop of vanilla ice cream, plus a garnish of pistachios and rose petals.
Baked Alaska
Classic and infinitely customizable, Baked Alaska never fails to impress. Make your own buttery pound cake for the base, then layer on a trio of store-bought ice creams and/or sorbets before swirling meringue over the top and torching until golden.
Cherry-Lime Ice Pops
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Use tart cherry juice, lime juice, and simple syrup instead of Kool-Aid for an updated version of thrills, the frozen, no-frills treats that gained popularity in Savannah, Georgia, in the 1970s.
Fig Gelato
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Jillian Knox
Dried figs give this rich and creamy gelato a deep, caramelized flavor and subtle sweetness. Author Katie Quinn gives the option to use light brown sugar instead of white in the fig sauce, for a deeper, more molasses-forward intensity,
Frozen Citrus “Soufflé”
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Christine Keely
Layer silky lemon custard with orange zest–infused whipped cream and tangy lemon curd for this make-ahead frozen dessert.
Old-Fashioned Banana Split
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
The classic whiskey cocktail informs the flavors in this frozen, fruity dessert. Orange, cherry, and malted chocolate shell toppings shatter atop mounds of boozy whiskey ice cream. For a kid-friendly banana split, use chocolate or caramel ice cream instead.
Black Cherry–Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches
Think of these as chocolate-covered cherries in ice cream form. Store-bought black cherry ice cream gets layered between sheets of homemade chocolate cookie to make the ultimate ice cream sandwiches.
Pineapple-Coconut Soft Serve
Frozen pineapple chunks and coconut cream blend into a smooth and airy soft serve that’s sweetened with agave nectar in this almost effortless dessert. It’s an irresistible warm-weather treat.
Chocolate-Raspberry Icebox Cake
Layers of raspberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate cookie crumbs are topped with whipped cream and fresh raspberries for the ultimate cold, creamy treat.
Mango-Cashew Kulfi Pops
Kesar mangos are prized for their rich, sweet, deep-colored flesh. Blend their canned pulp with velvety cashews, condensed milk, heavy cream, and cardamom- and mint-infused milk mixed with saffron to make these special ice pops.
Boysenberry Oat Milk Sherbet
Salt and Straw co-founder Tyler Malek combines a creamy oat milk base with roasted boysenberry puree to make this sensational plant-based sherbet. You’ll need 12 ounces of fresh or frozen boysenberries to re-create it at home.
Prickly Pear Paletas
Once you get your hands on prickly pears, these summery treats take 20 minutes to prepare and can be frozen for up to three weeks.
Tropical Jackfruit–Ginger Ale Sorbet with Charred Pineapple
Chef Sam Fore of Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites in Lexington, Kentucky, caramelizes fresh pineapple under the broiler until it develops a lightly charred flavor to top this icy, quenching sorbet of jackfruit, pineapple, and ginger ale.
Hibiscus Snow Cones
Serve snow cones at home with a sweet, tangy syrup made with dried hibiscus blossoms, whipped cream, and crushed pink peppercorns. You’ll need a home ice-shaving machine.
Peach Ice Cream with Caramel-Bourbon Swirl
Use two pounds of the season’s best peaches to make this irresistible ice cream — they’re blended with lemon-infused cream and tangy crème fraîche to balance out their inherent sweetness. A swirl of buttery bourbon caramel puts this frozen treat in the adult category.
Strawberry Granita with Sweet Pesto
Yes, you absolutely can (and should!) serve pesto for dessert. Here, chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson pairs a subtly tangy berry granita with vanilla-flecked, honey-sweetened pesto for a refreshing summer treat.
Strawberry-Mango Paletas
For these brightly colored pops, La Newyorkina’s Fany Gerson adds interest to the base of ripe mangoes and strawberries with fresh lime juice and a hint of salt.
Apple Pie à la Mode Ice Cream Sandwiches
As an homage to her grandmothers, Top Chef winner and host Kristen Kish designed this dessert to represent both apple pie and snickerdoodles. An aromatic apple filling is swirled into vanilla ice cream, then the mixture gets sandwiched between two homemade cookies.
Strawberries-and-Cream Gelato Cake
A stunning riff on the classic flavor combination, this ice cream cake includes layers of strawberry sorbet and strawberry gelato frosted with sour cream gelato. You can make your own ice cream or use an assortment of store-bought flavors — it’s a showstopper either way.
Rosewater and Saffron Ice Cream (Bastani Irani)
As the world’s priciest spice, saffron makes for an especially luxurious ice cream, contributing a pretty golden hue and an earthy, floral flavor that’s complemented here by rosewater and dried rose petals. If you’d like, stick with Persian tradition and press it between two thin wafers for an irresistible ice cream sandwich.
Mud Pie
Think of this pie like a sliceable ice cream sundae: It’s got a chocolate wafer cookie crust, a fudgy chocolate-pecan layer, plenty of coffee ice cream, a blanket of hot fudge, whipped cream, and a dusting of shaved chocolate.
Frozen Crème Caramel
Chef Amanda Hallowell’s icy take on this elegant dessert classic is a refreshing way to end a summertime dinner party. It’s made in the usual baked custard fashion, then frozen overnight and thawed for half an hour before serving.
