Peeps! It is spring desserts time!! Meaning all the recipes that call for spring fruit are ready to be made by you (and me). I tried to pick only my faves for this collection, but if you have seen me on TikTok, then you know I have a lot of favorites. Spring desserts can and (should) also include chocolate on occasion, so I have added a couple of chocolate forward spring desserts to this list, as well. Finally, just because one of my recipes did not make the cut here, does not mean that it is any less deserving of your attention. So give my list of fruit desserts a peek for even more ideas . . . XO
My Favorite Spring Desserts
Strawberry Rhubarb Galette with Cream Cheese Crust
You might think of a galette as the lazy-baker’s pie, and you might not be wrong. For those of us who love the combination of buttery pastry and lightly sweetened fruit, but don’t totally love the time spent rolling out a perfectly round circle of dough that is the perfect 1/8-inch thickness, and then transferring said circle (without ripping it, mind you) to a pie plate, and then delicately and decoratively crimping its edges, and then praying that said perfectly crimped edges do not slump and collapse once baked, well, let me just say this strawberry rhubarb galette is for us.
Blueberry Baked French Toast
There are several things I love about baked French toast, one of them being the simplicity of the ingredients and secondly that it’s one of those dreamy baked goods that you make ahead of time! The night before, you slice the bread, layer it in your pan, combine all the remaining ingredients, whisk, pour over the bread, and sprinkle on some blueberries. Place the pan in the fridge for the night so the bread can soak up the custard, and in the morning, you do nothing but pop it in the oven and then enjoy!
Strawberry Hand Pies (Baked)
Hand pies have all the attributes of a pop tart that you love: portable, amazing crust to filling ratio, adorable (yes, some of us think pop tarts are adorable), and all the attributes of a pie: flaky and buttery crust coupled with yummy, over the top, seasonal fruit fillings. And these little strawberry numbers? To die.
Berry Scones
This is my recipe for an uber-buttery scone with tons of “lift,” a bit of a tang, a deliciously crusty exterior and the most perfect, not too cakey/not too dry/crumbly crumb. And here’s to hoping you’ll bake them about a billion times.
Blueberry Buttermilk Snack Cake
Inspired by my mother-in-law’s blueberry buckle, this uber-moist cake is studded with blueberries and topped with a crispy, buttery crumb. It was one of my husband’s favorite treats growing up, and now my boys have deemed this snack cake rendition one of their favorites, too.
Blueberry Sour Cream Muffins
These sour cream muffins are sweet, but not overly so. The sour cream in the batter adds the subtlest tang and makes for an uber-tender muffin and a hefty glug of vanilla is the perfect compliment to the berries. The oil and extra yolk make for the moistest of breakfast treats. And, finally, they have the most gorgeous, sparkly tops from a hefty teaspoon of raw sugar sprinkled upon each and every one.
Grasshopper Whoopie Pies
Whoopie pies are, and have always been, one of my favorite sweet treats. My love for them stems from my childhood addiction to Drake’s Devil Dogs (a Hostess-like packaged chocolate cake filled with whipped cream and shaped like a dog bone). Whoopie pies are the less-dry, round version of that which my after-school memories are made.
Jam Shortbread Icebox Cake
Here’s the thing: this jam shortbread icebox cake recipe can be made with ANY fruit you have on hand (be it fresh or frozen) that can be cooked down into a compote (berries work best) – as what this recipe is truly about is making a delicious jammy compote, cooling it, adding it to cream and layering it with crushed shortbread cookies.
Lemon Velvet Sheet Cake
My paternal grandmother made a “lemon velvet” sheet cake that was just spectacular. It was super moist, super lemon-y, had that perfect sweet/tart balance, and a to-die-for lemon-sugar glaze that kind-of/sort-of shattered in your mouth each time you took a bite. This is my nod to her recipe.
Rhubarb Crumb Cake
The crumb cake of my dreams: A super moist, soft and fluffy cake with chunks of rhubarb suspended throughout, and the most buttery of crumb toppings, complete with a combo of sugars and just a touch of spice (ie: cinnamon). It’s a perfect addition to a list of spring desserts.
Grasshopper Cookie Sandwiches
These cookies are crispy, deeply chocolate-y, just slightly sweet, and a tad salty to combat the sweetness of the minty filling. As for the filling, it tastes like Oreo filling, albeit mint-flavored. I decided to make these grasshopper cookie sandwiches extra creme-filled when I was scooping out the filling and used a slightly too-large scoop – but once I’d done that, there was no going back.
CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH STRAWBERRY MARSHMALLOW FROSTING
Honestly, Peeps, I could not be more excited about sharing this chocolate sheet cake recipe with you, as it includes two of my favorites: chocolate cake and marshmallow-like frosting (there’s a reason I loved Hostess Suzy-Qs as a kid and some things just never change). The chocolate sheet cake is essentially one-bowl (my fave) and the marshmallow frosting, too, is super easy and one-bowl(ish), save for the strawberry puree that you throw together in a blender.
Deep Dish Rhubarb Pie
This pie has a whopping 8 cups of rhubarb (we’re talking deep-dish here, people), a generous amount of both light brown and granulated sugars (I’ve got a sweet-tooth after all), and being a rhubarb purist, nary a spicy-addition save for cinnamon. The crust for my pie’s bottom is my own favorite pie crust and the crumb, a perfect blend of buttery sugary deliciousness.
Mini Strawberry-Rhubarb Galettes
This galette thing? Kind of exactly what I needed to bring my pie game to a whole new level. Galettes are super easy to make. You roll out dough to whatever size you desire, plop down some pie filling, leaving a border, and fold the sides up and, just slightly, over the edge of the fruit. Voila: galette. I also have a recipe for a full-size strawberry-rhubarb galette with a cream cheese crust.
PB&J Hand Pies
I love hand pies. They’re cute and portable, and kind of the perfect vehicle for getting flaky buttery crust and fruit into one’s mouth. I also love PB&J sandwiches – preferably on white bread with chunky PB and strawberry (or raspberry) jam. And so, I’ve married my love of hand pies and my love of PB&J.
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (Traditional and Slab)
This pie has a sweet, but not too sweet, filling with just the right amount of hold-together-ness and no discoloration (cornstarch can make fruit look murky). The pepper adds an amazing zing (don’t be afraid to give the grinder a few serious turns). In short, a go-to filling that will convert all the mixed-berry pie lovers out there to the very special world of strawberry rhubarb.
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
My absolute favorite flavor of ice cream when I was a kid was mint chocolate chip. But not any mint chocolate chip ice cream, I loved mint chocolate chip ice cream fro Baskin Robbins. I loved everything about it — the green color, the creaminess, the mint/chocolate flavor combo — but what I really loved the most, was the size of the chips. This is my own version of my favorite flavor!
Strawberry Basil Turnovers
Basil and black pepper each couple beautifully with strawberries. In this recipe I call for cooking the fruit before filling the flaky pastry, as I find it makes for a more flavorful filling and one that doesn’t leak quite as much as its uncooked brethren. The pie dough is made in the food processor and as long as you are mindful about not over processing the dough, this makes for the tenderest of butter-based doughs.
Strawberry Malted Milkshakes
Homemade strawberry ice cream is the bomb. That’s a given. But a malted milkshake with homemade strawberry ice cream?? I kid you not: mind blowing. And this is coming from a malted milkshake obsessive who never even orders strawberry.
