24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (2024)

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 Baked Alaska, and cinnamon-kissed apple pie ice cream sandwiches. With more than 20 incredible icy desserts to choose from, you're bound to find a new favorite.

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Frozen Creme Caramel

To make her crème caramel more refreshing, chef Amanda Hallowell serves it partially frozen, like a semifreddo. These can be frozen for up to a week.

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Mint Ice Cream

For a cool, refreshing dessert, look to this tasty mint ice cream from Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. This exceptionally creamy ice cream relies on two unexpected ingredients: corn starch (to help thicken it) and cream cheese (to make it scoopable).

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Strawberries and Cream Gelato Cake

As stunning as it is delicious, this creamy strawberry and sour cream gelato cake from Il Laboratorio del Gelato owner Jon Snyder is the perfect centerpiece for summer celebrations.

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Peach Ice Cream with Caramel-Bourbon Swirl

Tart, buttery, and sweet, the caramel-bourbon swirl here comes through in the best of ways, balancing the rich notes of crème fraîche in this silky, swirled ice cream. Fresh, ripe peaches add a great bit of texture in every bite.

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Banana Pudding Paletas

For this dreamy treat, pastry chef Paola Velez takes all the components you love about classic banana pudding — complete with vanilla wafers — and turns them into creamy paletas. With nutty browned butter, bits of banana, and crushed vanilla wafers held together by pudding, this refreshing dessert will keep you coming back for more.

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Pineapple-Coconut Soft Serve

With just five ingredients, this fluffy, effortless dessert comes together in minutes with a flavor reminiscent of a tiki co*cktail. For an adult version, swap a quarter cup of the coconut cream for the same amount of your favorite rum.

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Black Cherry–Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches

Homemade chocolate cookies encase store-bought black cherry ice cream for the ultimate ice cream sandwiches.

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Olive Oil Ice Cream

One of Portland, Oregon–based ice cream shop Salt & Straw's classic flavors, this Olive Oil Ice Cream is a perfect beginner batch to whip up. The combination of olive oil and whole milk results in a perfectly creamy and silky texture, no eggs or tempering required.

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Mud Pie

This decadent ice cream pie has a crunchy cookie crust, a fudgy chocolate-pecan layer, and lots of coffee ice cream. To top it off: a blanket of homemade hot fudge plus a generous heap of whipped cream.

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Rosewater and Saffron Ice Cream (Bastani Irani)

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (10)

This fragrant ice cream is redolent with flavor. It's traditionally served between two thin wafers to make ice cream sandwiches, and it's equally delicious on its own.

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Fresh Mint Stracciatella Semifreddo

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (11)

Fistfuls of fresh mint are steeped in the custard base of this semifreddo; a slow simmer releases the herb's oils into the base without leeching any color.

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Chocolate-Raspberry Icebox Cake

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (12)

This icebox cake is the answer to summer days when you want to serve a beautiful cake but it's too hot to turn on the oven. It's creamy, it's dreamy, and it's so simple to make. Crushed cookies, fresh raspberries, and layers of tart raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream transform into a gorgeous marbled layer cake in about 15 minutes — no frosting required.

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Salted Watermelon Ice Cream

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (13)

Nothing screams summer like slices of salted ripe watermelon, and this simple ice cream takes it to the next level.

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Mango-Cashew Kulfi Pops

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (14)

Canned mango pulp works better in these frozen ice pops than fresh mangoes because of its concentrated flavor, which helps cut through the rich cashews and sweetened condensed milk.

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Apple Pie à la Mode Ice Cream Sandwiches

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (15)

Top Chef winner Kristen Kish designed this dessert to honor both of her grandmothers, one known for her apple pie and the other for her snickerdoodles. Kish folds spiced apple pie filling into vanilla ice cream, then forms sandwiches with chewy snickerdoodle cookies.

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Boysenberry Oat Milk Sherbet

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (16)

The base of this delicious sherbet is made with oat milk, and it provides a surprisingly smooth texture. The berries are roasted to intensify their flavor and color, and when pureed and added to the oat milk base, the sorbet takes on a stunning color.

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Strawberry Granita with Sweet Pesto

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (17)

Chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson pairs a subtly tangy berry granita with honey-sweetened pesto in this refreshing summer dessert. Choose the sweetest, juiciest berries for the most flavorful granita.

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Baked Alaska

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (18)

Baked Alaska, the meringue-topped and torched layered ice cream cake, is a classic restaurant dessert, often served tableside with a fiery effect. Bring the sweet treat home with this simple step-by-step method that takes advantage of creamy (and customizable) store-bought ice creams and sorbets; a simple, buttery pound cake; and just enough time in the freezer between layers to ensure success.

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Hibiscus Snow Cones

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (19)

In this playful icy dessert, cookbook author Nicole A. Taylor riffs on tradition, using dried hibiscus blossoms to make a sweet, tangy syrup for a celebratory snow cone. Whipped cream and crushed pink peppercorns add a final flourish.

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Strawberry Mochi Ice Cream Sandwiches

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (20)

Pastry chef Jen Yee makes these fun and pretty sandwiches with a simple Japanese dough that combines sweet glutinous rice flour, sugar, water, and strawberry jam.

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Tropical Jackfruit–Ginger Ale Sorbet with Charred Pineapple

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (21)

Chef Sam Fore of the pop up Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites in Lexington, Kentucky, created this summer fruit dessert recipe for an icy, quenching sorbet of jackfruit, pineapple, and ginger ale. The sorbet has become an ever-present treat at her summer pop-up dinners, combining pineapple and jackfruit, both popular in Sri Lanka, with the spicy flavors of Ale-8-One, a Kentucky ginger ale.

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Royal Falooda

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (22)

There is no incorrect way to layer falooda, the milky, traditionally rose-flavored dessert beloved in India, Pakistan, and other parts of South Asia. This dessert stars bouncy cubes of rose jelly suspended in rose syrup–sweetened milk over layers of tender corn vermicelli and chewy chia seeds. A crowning scoop of vanilla ice cream adds a creamy finish.

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Bubble Sundaes with Peach-Blueberry Compote

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (23)

Inspired by bubble tea, chef Bill Kim tops his ice cream sundae with chewy tapioca pearls cooked in lemonade.

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Strawberry-Mango Paletas

24 Delicious Frozen Dessert Recipes (24)

When crafting new paletas for her company La Newyorkina, Fany Gerson's rule of thumb is this: If the colors of her ingredients go together, the flavors will, too. These bright, red-and-orange-hued ice pops are perfect to make when juicy strawberries are at their peak.

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