Frozen Dessert

The sorbet can also be made with pluots or plumcots (plum-apricot hybrids).

Almond extract deepens the flavor of fresh cherries in this summertime treat.

A ripe peach eaten over the kitchen sink is hard to beat, but this comes mighty close.

This dessert is like a frozen mousse, which helps explain its name: semifreddo, or "half-frozen."

This frozen treat is low in calories and fat. You can top it with mango and crystallized ginger, if desired. If freezing overnight, thaw briefly in the microwave, stopping to stir, or let the frozen yogurt stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.

Rhubarb and strawberries usually meet in late-spring pies. This dessert plays on the combination's sophistication. When roasted, rhubarb becomes more intense in flavor and color while still retaining its shape. Rose water contributes a floral delicacy (use it sparingly; a little goes a long way), and strawberry sorbet imparts a cool note.

Just a few minutes in a hot skillet gives the sauce a complex flavor. If you've got an extra minute or two, skip the chocolate chips and garnish the sundaes with chocolate curls shaved off the edge of a chocolate bar with a vegetable peeler.

Calvados—Normandy's celebrated apple-cider brandy—is heady stuff, and by that we mean it has the power to transport you to a French bistro or farmhouse kitchen. This digestif-and-dessert combination would be sensational after a roast pork dinner.

Leave it to the French to come up with the classiest way of doing an ice cream sundae. Hide the grown-up coffee ice cream inside a crisp puff of pastry (the same dough that cream puffs are made from), then drizzle it with full-bodied chocolate sauce.

We like to use California apricots (sometimes labeled "Pacific") in this dessert. They tend to be a deeper orange, and they have a tang that's occasionally lacking in the Turkish or Mediterranean varieties.

To prevent curdling, be sure to cool the ice cream custard to room temperature before adding the buttermilk and crème fraîche.

If you're stopping at a Greek market for ingredients, grab some butter cookies.

We love to make sorbet when local berries are in season. The Simple Sugar Syrup keeps in your fridge for weeks.

Blood oranges have a thinner and less bitter peel than navel oranges, so it's okay to eat—as in this dessert.

With its warm, gooey goodness, this dessert will bring bananas Foster to mind. You'll have some sauce left over, which will be handy because, we assure you, you'll be in the mood to have this again the next night—if not sooner.

Make the custard, toast the nuts, then let the ice cream machine do the rest.