Seven Of the Best Easy No-Bake Summer Desserts
What’s that? You want an indulgent dessert without having to switch the oven on? We’ve got it sorted. Whether you’re after a 2-minute ice cream sandwich or a healthy chocolate mousse tart, take a look at these…
No-Bake Cheesecake
This blueberry cheesecake from the blog Sass and Veracity isn’t baked in the oven - you just combine the ingredients for the filling, pour it into a tart case lined with a crushed biscuit base and chill until set. Perfect if you’re feeding a crowd, as you can make it the day before and just pile the fresh berries on top before serving. Beautiful.
Ice Cream Sandwiches
A quick-fix dessert for hot, sunny days. Just scoop out your favourite ice cream and sandwich between - well, anything really. We’ve used chocolate chip cookies but you could use toasted waffles, brioche slices or biscuits. Try different flavour combos too - chocolate cookies with mint ice cream, for example - and roll the finished ice cream sandwiches in sprinkles or drizzle with chocolate or toffee sauce. You could even put out all the ice creams, cookies and sprinkles and get everyone to help themselves, mixing and matching the different flavours.
Chocolate Mousse Tarts with Lemon Cashew Cream
No. Wait. Chocolate mousse tarts that are healthy? Yep. And they were created by Emily from the blog This Rawsome Vegan Life. They’re made using good things like avocado, cacao powder and dates on an oaty crust. She’s topped them with a lemon cashew cream. It might look like these are complicated to make, but the recipe is actually quite simple - no baking, just some blending and pressing the crumbs into the tin to make the base. Give it a try.
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Frozen Blueberry Yoghurt
Frozen yoghurts have less fat than traditional ice creams and they’re really easy to make at home. This blueberry frozen yoghurt is from the blog Cookie and Kate - it’s packed full of juicy blueberries, honey and lemon - and the best bit? Kate says that as the honey never completely freezes, this frozen yoghurt is scoopable straight from the freezer. Now that’s what we like.
Coconut and Almond Ice Cream Sundae
Vanessa, from the blog Vegan Family Recipes created this coconut and almond ice cream sundae - an indulgent but healthy pud for warm, sunny days. She says that the melted chocolate hardens, forming a shell, as soon as it touches the cold ice cream - or you could drizzle it in fudge sauce if you prefer.
Raspberry Panna Cotta
Raspberries and coconut work so well together and have a summery feel, so try this dairy-free raspberry panna cotta, made using coconut milk. Panna cotta isn’t complicated to make - there’s just a bit of heating, stirring and then blending before you pour the mixture into ramekins to set. Oh, and don’t skip the raspberry sauce - Eileen says it “elevates this dessert to pure ‘lick the plate’ awesomeness.”
Frozen Chocolate-Dipped Bananas
It’s not just the kids who will love these, everyone will want to get their hands on one. And you can prepare them ahead of time as well. These chocolate-dipped bananas were made by Elizabeth, of the blog Sugar Hero - and they’re really simple to make. All you need are some bananas, lollipop (or cake pop) sticks and some melted chocolate and sprinkles to decorate them with. A really fun idea for a DIY summer pud - have the bananas on sticks ready-frozen and pass them round for your guests to dip them in chocolate and choose their own sprinkles.
