Frozen Dessert

The best thing about this icy, tart-and-sweet treat might be how little forethought it requires. You can use any flavored yogurt on hand.

Purchased ice cream becomes a party-worthy dessert with the addition of homemade caramel sauce and a little toasted coconut.

Street vendors throughout Mexico's beach towns sell cold fresh fruit served in a plastic bag with bits of ice in it to keep the fruit chilled. This dessert is as take on that, as well as a refreshing end to any meal. Feel free to experiment by pouring a bit of tequila over the ice to create an instant margarita.

Editor's note: This recipe is adapted from Gabrielle Carbone, coproprietor of The Bent Spoon ice cream parlor in Princeton, New Jersey. This pretty, striped cake can be assembled either from freshly made sorbet and ice cream or from leftovers. If you make the components fresh, it's helpful to have more than one freezer bowl for your ice cream maker or a self-freezing machine. If you don't, remember that some models demand that you freeze the bowl overnight between batches. You can make the batches on successive days, packing each flavor into the pan as it's done, then freezing the pan and the bowl until you're ready to make the next batch. Try to keep everything that you use in the preparation of this cake — even your cake stand or serving plate — cold. This will help the cake look better longer, especially on a hot day. The simple, fresh flavors of the sorbets and ice cream don't need much embellishment, but crushed Newman's Own Organic O's (the organic take on Oreos) or chopped candied ginger make a nice addition and help separate the layers.

After such a substantial meal, you'll want to keep things light for dessert. A little fancier than a fruit salad yet almost as easy, this cool combination of musky cantaloupe and honeydew gets an unexpected fillip from icy granita. Don’t worry if the granita melts faster than you expect—it will slump into a lovely sauce over the fruit.

The citrusy flavor of the juicy South American naranjilla, which resembles a small orange, shines bright in a cool, sweet-sharp counterpoint to the volador. Frozen fruit purées—increasingly available in a wide range of varieties—are a great way to introduce yourself to fruits that are difficult to find fresh. Bonus: Making ice cream with them is a breeze.

No need to wait for the ice cream truck. These colorful homemade pops capture the warm-weather synergy of ripe strawberries and creamy vanilla.

As befitting a diner dessert, this ice cream is thick and rich and perfectly accents the apple tartlet. Cinnamon ice cream generally falls into three categories: infused via cinnamon sticks during the milk warming; ground cinnamon added during the milk warming; and ground cinnamon added at the very end. You can't get a real cinnamony flavor from the sticks alone, and adding ground cinnamon too early makes for a very strange texture. The third option lends a nice flavor and texture and leaves the custard pleasantly speckled.

This recipe comes from Katrina and Carmelo Turillo, owners of La Divina Gelateria in New Orleans.

A lovely little palate cleanser.

In this grown-up float, "sorbato" (a cross between sorbet and gelato) stands in for the ice cream, and bubbly Prosecco is used in place of soda.

Use your favorite nuts, candies, or cookies to coat the bananas.

In Korea, dessert often means a simple piece of fruit. This ice cream, though more complex, rings so clearly of mandarin oranges that we think an exception may be made. Sesame seeds, valued in Korean cooking for their medicinal properties, thread their way through the frozen custard as nuggets of honey-sweetened brittle. When making a large amount of ice cream, as this recipe does, it's imperative to churn the mixture in two batches, so ice crystals don’t form.

Candy turtles—chocolatecovered caramel and pecan candy—meet graham-cracker-crusted ice cream pie.

Today's new comfort dessert is anything that combines salty and sweet. The Creamsicle-like semifreddo is delicious with the salty, nutty brittle. Keep in mind that the semifreddo needs to be frozen overnight.

An entirely new kind of sundae: A light ice cream flecked with crunchy, bitter cocoa nibs is topped with a creamy chocolate-caramel sauce and a sprinkling of spicy, tangy peanuts.

Spumoni trumps all others as the ideal frozen treat: It's richer than gelato, lighter than ice cream, and smoother than frozen custard. The inspiration for this classic flavor combination came from L & B Spumoni Gardens, in Brooklyn, a favorite spot for this tricolor treat.