8 recipes to show off all your stunning summer produce

Every summer feels like we’ve entered a new golden age of baking. The markets are bursting with juicy stone fruits and gorgeous berries — and a world of buttery galette doughs and custardy claflouti await! This list of eight recipes progresses with the season, so whether you want to bake with your pint of berries right now or bookmark something for late peach season, we’ve got you covered for all your summer produce baking.   

Photography by Rick Holbrook; Food Styling by Kaitlin Wayne

1) Hot Summer Spoon Cake

This berry-rich cake was designed for lazy summer baking, but doesn’t compromise on flavor. Yes, you need to macerate your berries, but that’s an easy, hands-off task you can check off while you’re prepping dinner. Once you’re ready for dessert, it’s simply a matter of mixing together a tender almond flour-based batter. Thirty minutes later, you’ll have a casually elegant cake to devour by the spoonful.  

Kristin Teig

2) Berry Cream Tart

Creating a showstopping dessert isn’t difficult when you have an array of jewel-toned berries — no fussy icing piping or hard-to-find ingredients necessary. Here, a buttery tart crust encases silky pastry cream and a trio of fresh berries. To really give it a professional bakery-looking touch, you can brush the layer of berries with jam for a glistening sheen.

John Sherman

3) Plum and Ginger Galette

Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without a classic fruit galette. In this recipe, a whisper of ginger and allspice adds a bit of intrigue to the mild flavor of black plums. Now’s the time to perfect the art of the rustic fold-up crust.

Mark Louis Weinberg

4) Cherry Clafouti

This custardy French dessert beautifully pairs ripe summer cherries with the delicate aroma of almonds. The batter itself doesn’t lean too sweet, allowing the fruit and nuts to shine. The fruit component of this recipe lends itself well to going off-script, so fresh berries or stone fruit also make excellent substitutions.

Rick Holbrook

5) Spiced Peach Shortcakes

Looking for a creative spin on shortcakes? We’ve got some ideas. Here, juicy peaches are spiced with coriander, spooned onto almond flour-based shortcakes, and drizzled with hot (spicy) honey for an added kick. To really take your shortcakes over the top, serve these with bourbon-spiked whipped cream.

Our test kitchen recommends Mike's Hot Honey for a well-balanced spicy flavor that's not too intense. (Heads up: At King Arthur, we only recommend the products that we, as bakers, truly love. When you buy through external links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.) 

Liz Neily

6) Savory Zucchini Galette

A slice of this savory galette is a love letter to peak summer produce. Zucchinis and tomatoes are paired with herby ricotta and Parmesan filling to make an appetizer that would be equally welcome at a sunset picnic or backyard aperitivo hour.

Liz Neily

7) Just Too Easy Peach Cobbler

Using your stale bread for breadcrumbs is smart. But cutting them into cubes for a cobbler topping is smarter. In this simplified version of peach cobbler, a handful of basic ingredients (sugar, eggs, butter) transforms those bread cubes into a lovely, crisp cobbler topping, proving you don’t need expensive ingredients or fancy techniques to make an irresistible dessert.

Liz Neily

8) Fresh Tomato Tarts

The choice is yours: use up your bounty of heirloom tomatoes for a sliceable, shareable tart or portion them out into smaller individual tarts and use smaller cherry tomatoes instead. Either way, you’ll end up with juicy tomatoes bound by a cheesy filling and sheathed in a cream cheese-enriched crust.

For more warm weather-friendly baking, check out these 16 recipes to bake (or freeze) this summer.

Cover photo (Hot Summer Spoon Cake) by Rick Holbrook, food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.