49 4th of July Desserts That Never Go Out of Style

• Time Commitment: 3 hours and 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, make ahead, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 8

Filling a graham cracker pie crust with with strawberry ice cream and fresh fruit? 4th of July dessert has never been easier or more impressive. "[This is] a modern riff on the Jell-O and pretzel-based strawberry 'delight' our grandmas used to lovingly dish up," former PureWow senior food editor Katherine Gillen writes. "You might also know it as strawberry pretzel salad…though 'salad' is a stretch."

• Time Commitment: 50 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 8

This riff on North Carolina lemon pie features a crust made from crushed saltine crackers, to balance the sweet-tart filling. Even better? It's basically foolproof. "The pie takes almost no time to assemble and bake, making it ideal for beginner bakers," Gillen asserts.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 16

Your picnic won’t be complete without a little lemonade. The color comes from raspberries, but if you want a more classic lemon bar recipe, you can omit them. "The filling is thickened with flour instead of cornstarch, which means it’s guaranteed to set and won’t become weepy over time," Gillen explains. "The surface of the bars won’t be as glassy-smooth…but you’re topping them with a generous dusting of confectioners’ sugar anyway."

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, make ahead, kid-friendly
• Serves: 18

One bite and boom, you’re on a sunny Florida beach. Mini pies are actually superior to full-size, and not just because they’re cute. "They come together in a muffin tin and are quicker to bake and chill than the original full-size dessert, which means they’re in your mouth in less time too," Gillen says.

• Time Commitment: 2 hours and 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: sheet pan recipe, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 12

When it comes to crust, more is more, so a slab pie is naturally superior to all other types of pie. (It doesn’t hurt that it can feed a crowd on the Fourth.) "People are so afraid of slicing pie, but there’s no wrong way to slice this one," recipe developer Erin McDowell explains. "You can easily cut slivers or slabs, whatever portion your guests want."

• Time Commitment: 4 hours (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: no cook, make ahead, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 10

Consider this showstopper an easier, more modern version of flag cake. Everything is store-bought and you don’t have to turn on the oven—now *that’s* how you celebrate. The secret is to take your ice cream (or sorbet) out of the freezer about five minutes before assembling, so it's ultra spreadable but not too melty, and you can make those colorful layers with no fuss.

• Time Commitment: 4 hours (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly, no bake
• Serves: 8

Does it get any easier than twice-frozen fruit? Definitely not. Seeded watermelons have better flavor IMO, but if you can’t be bothered with seeds, pick one that’s seedless. And if you’re not sure how to cut a watermelon, now is your chance to learn.

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

Why should your oven have all the fun? If your grill is already hot from those July 4th recipes you served for dinner, make dessert on the coals, too. I won't tell you used store-bought cake (and the blueberry sauce and fresh whip will keep your guests from realizing).

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 6

Introducing a foolproof way to bake a pie. Without having to form a crust or worry about shrinkage, you’ll nail this classic 4th of July dessert. Just pile the fruit in the center, fold the edge over and bake. In the words of Ina Garten, how easy is that?

• Time Commitment: 4 hours
• Why I Love It: make ahead, crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 10

This is going to be everyone’s favorite way to eat peanut butter (if it isn’t already). If you want to work in some chocolate with shavings on top of the whipped cream, no one will complain. Use a store-bought graham cracker crust if you feel like a shortcut.

• Time Commitment: 3 hours (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: make ahead, kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8 to 10

You’ll never be too old to cool off with one of these patriotic pops. This version, made with berries and creamy coconut milk, is a treat both kids and grown-ups will love, and they don't contain any corn syrup or funky dyes like the store-bought kind.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy
• Serves: 6

Is this the most American dessert ever? The jury is out on that one, but it’s definitely true that baking mini pies in mason jars is going to win over the crowd. "When choosing an apple for this recipe, make sure to err on the crisp-tart side so the slices hold their shape and aren’t cloyingly sweet," former PureWow food editor Heath Goldman suggests. "Honeycrisp, Pink Lady and Granny Smith are all good choices." 

• Time Commitment: 5 hours and 30 minutes (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, kid-friendly, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 4

This DIY gem doesn’t require a shave ice machine or a flight to Maui. Instead, you’ll make a crushed ice mixture in your freezer and douse it in homemade fruit syrup. Did I mention it's crowned with toasted coconut for good measure?

• Time Commitment: 2 hours and 55 minutes (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: make ahead, kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 16

Bring on the sprinkles, chopped nuts and caramel sauce. If you want to make these sammies ahead of time, they’ll keep in the freezer for about a month...but I have a feeling they'll be a fleeting favorite at the barbecue.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 40 minutes (includes chilling time)
• Why I Love It: no bake, make ahead, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 10

If the color scheme works…bake it. (Or don’t, considering this decadent delight is actually a no-bake recipe, thanks to store-bought ladyfingers.) The fresh fruit is what makes it notably on-theme for the Fourth.

• Time Commitment: 20 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, no bake, <30 minutes
• Serves: 4

It’s so simple, yet so delicious. Make sure you use the tastiest fruit possible, since there aren’t many ingredients. According to recipe creator Rebekah Peppler, the sugar is meant more to pull out the berry juices than to actually sweeten the dish, so if you’re using truly ripe strawberries, you shouldn’t need much.

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 6

Keep the coals glowing all night. You can make the cherry sauce up to five days ahead of your July 4th celebration, if you want to get ahead of the game. And feel free to sub pineapple for banana if you want a more traditional sundae.

• Time Commitment: 55 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 8

Ooh, pass the vanilla ice cream. Since the crust is made from store-bought puff pastry, you don’t need to be a pro-level baker to pull this one off. The in-season stone fruit, which is at peak deliciousness right now, does most of the heavy lifting.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly, kid-friendly
• Serves: 8

This 4th of July dessert is as easy as pouring batter over fresh fruit and baking until it's golden brown. The more berries, the merrier—you can use a blend of whichever you like most, or stick with whatever looks tastiest at the market.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: one pan, crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 8

Nothing beats a summer peach. Even better if you don’t have to deal with mixing, rolling, forming and chilling a pie crust. Here, you'll skip all the fussy kneading in favor of a crumbly biscuit topper.

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 20

A sparkler in one hand, a pie straw in the other. "They're fun and easy to make, packing big pie-like flavor into a simple preparation that's easy to master," McDowell notes. (Yes, even if you’re not good with pie crust.)

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy, make ahead
• Serves: 6

They’re miniature tarts filled with panna cotta instead of pastry cream, meaning you won’t have to fuss with your stand mixer. It’s heavy on the summer fruit, but light on effort, since the crusts start with store-bought shortbread cookie dough. (Smart, right?)

• Time Commitment: 8 hours and 30 minutes (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: make ahead, no cook
• Serves: 16

This cheesecake is delightfully cool and creamy, no oven (or fussy water bath) required. "With tons of key lime flavor and a classic graham cracker crust, it’s great to make in the summer when it’s too hot to turn on the oven," McDowell says. Make it the day before your July 4th celebration so it has enough time to set in the freezer.

• Time Commitment: 2 hours and 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

Your party guests will be snapping pictures for the ’gram as you slice in. Lucky for you, it tastes as good as it looks. (The trick to dying the dough is, once again, freeze-fried fruit.) "[The crust] might look tricky to accomplish, but it’s deceptively simple," Goldman writes. "But if you need more practice or are short on time, you can skip the decor and make a simple double-crust pie instead. Just make sure to cut a few slits in the top to vent the filling."

• Time Commitment: 3 hours (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: make ahead, <10 ingredients, kid-friendly
• Serves: 8 to 10

This calls for a farmers market trip. Use any seasonal fruit you like, such as peaches, raspberries or blueberries (or all three). Lemon will help them maintain their color and impart some acidity, while agave will make them sweeter and more blendable.

• Time Commitment: 3 hours
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 10

If you avoid the oven at all costs come summer, this 4th of July dessert has your name on it. While the fruit sauce does require some stove-top cooking, you could also use store-bought preserves or a jarred caramel sauce instead to make the task even easier.

• Time Commitment: 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients, kid-friendly
• Serves: 12

This 4th of July dessert is pure nostalgia. It uses freeze-dried strawberries, which means you don’t need much for a big fruit flavor and beautiful color. It’s easy to pull off and makes store-bought ice cream look super impressive. P.S.: It’s important to get the strawberries as finely ground as you can, so use a food processor or spice grinder.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly, kid-friendly
• Serves: 6

"Have biscuit dough, will travel," might become your new motto after you make this easy 4th of July dessert. Since there's not much more than fruit and topping here, it's worth making the biscuits from scratch (and don't forget to serve it with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream).

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, beginner-friendly, kid-friendly
• Serves: 8

The moist, tender crumb of this yellow cake (which gets its fluffy-yet-toothsome texture from Greek yogurt and cornmeal) is so easy to eat, you’ll want to go back for a second slice. Go ahead—it's basically a fruit salad, right?

• Time Commitment: 3 hours and 45 minutes (includes chilling time)
• Why I Love It: sheet pan recipe, gluten free, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

This riff on a trifle, starring your trusty baking sheet, is like the American version of the sorta-stuffy British dessert served in a crystal bowl. If that's not destined for an Independence Day spread, I don't know what is.

• Time Commitment: 55 minutes
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 8

Summer’s favorite vegetable goes sweet in this unconventional dessert. Fresh corn kernels are whipped up into a light-as-clouds pastry cream, and yes, it’s as good as it sounds. Fourth of July brunch, anyone?

• Time Commitment: 1 hour
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 10

Two desserts (pie and fruit crumble), united in streusel-topped harmony—aww. Feel free to swap in any berry you'd prefer; stone fruit would work here too. Either way, slices are best served with a side of ice cream, naturally.

• Time Commitment: 1 hour
• Why I Love It: kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 12

These light and tender cupcakes might be your cutest barbecue guests yet. The biscuit-like batter, whipped cream topping and fresh fruit are a match made in 4th of July heaven. The whole process takes less than an hour, so you can get on to more important things...like eating cupcakes.

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 15

You have a baking sheet and an oven, right? Just add graham crackers, chocolate bars and marshmallows et voilà, s’mores without a campfire. Line the sheet pan and you'll barely have any cleanup. And the crowd goes wild.

• Time Commitment: 10 minutes
• Why I Love It: no cook, beginner-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

If you’re not that into sugary dessert, it doesn’t get any easier (or more festive) than setting out a carefully arranged tray of seasonal fruit. This arrangement includes cherries, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries and grapes, not to mention apples and bananas for the white stripes.

• Time Commitment: 35 minutes
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly, make ahead
• Serves: 16

Great things come in small packages, like these bars. Why? Because they’re small, you can easily eat more than one. You can also make them in advance of your summer soirée, and with mostly pantry staples to boot.

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, no bake, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 30

You can form your own cups with store-bought phyllo dough, but most groceries also sell premade ones that are already baked for maximum convenience. To fancy these up a touch, use homemade whipped cream in place of the Cool Whip.

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, beginner-friendly, kid-friendly
• Serves: 6

Strawberries and blueberries are essential for these indulgent bites, but a campfire is not. Use your grill if it’s still hot from cooking dinner, or take the party inside and make them in your oven. I'll be having mine with raspberries, TYVM.

• Time Commitment: 4 hours and 45 minutes (includes chilling time)
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 24

No holiday is complete without a big plate of cookies for guests to nibble on. These are guaranteed to bring the party (especially if you finish them with sparkler-inspired, glittery sprinkles). In fact, they're so cute that you could also put them into glassine envelopes for take-home treats at the end of the night.

• Time Commitment: 40 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients, kid-friendly
• Serves: 4

If only all desserts could be this easy to pull off. "Roasting your strawberries really concentrates their flavor, and in this easy recipe, you just layer them and put ice cream on top," McDowell says. "It looks fancy and everyone will think it took a lot of effort, but really, you can just throw this together on a weeknight."

• Time Commitment: 2 hours and 40 minutes (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, kid-friendly, make ahead
• Serves: 8

Can you tell that roasting fruit is the secret to better baking? Here, caramelized peaches and brown sugar bring summery sweetness to tangy Greek yogurt. "You don't have to wait for the layers to set before you pour the next one," McDowell tells us. "Just swirl the peaches and Greek yogurt together to marble them, then pop them into the freezer."

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 20 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly, make ahead
• Serves: 12

Behold, true works of art. The marble effect on the glaze is as easy as swirling a few colors with a toothpick, but it looks ultra-impressive. Use modest amounts of red and blue to keep the doughnuts on-theme without muddying their appearance.

• Time Commitment: 5 minutes
• Why I Love It: <30 minutes, no cook, <10 ingredients
• Serves: 1

These floats are sweet and simple, so you can easily scale the recipe up to serve a crowd. If you can’t find strawberry soda, try substituting black cherry instead. You can also swap in a berry-flavored sorbet for ice cream, if you'd prefer.

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, <30 minutes, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

It’s ready in 15 minutes and starts with store-bought cake, so there’s almost zero fuss involved. (That leaves you more time to focus on the fireworks, of course.) Even simpler, the filling is mostly instant white chocolate pudding and Cool Whip.

• Time Commitment: 2 hours
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 6

Your guests might never get over these cute star cut-outs, which take the place of a traditional lattice crust in this 4th of July dessert. The filling contains a quarter cup of bourbon, but you can leave that out if you’re serving it to kids.

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why I Love It: crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly, make ahead
• Serves: 12

These picture-perfect cupcakes can double as a centerpiece before you and your party guests devour them. Here, looks are deceiving, because each cake is studded with sweet cherries for a jammy, fruity surprise center.

• Time Commitment: 2 hours
• Why I Love It: special occasion-worthy, crowd-pleaser, make ahead
• Serves: 8

Layers of pie dough stars are so much more festive than regular old crust, and your guests will surely ooh and ahh over them at first glance. If you have leftover scraps, make pie-crust cookies and sprinkle them with sugar (that's a treat for the baker, if you ask me).

• Time Commitment: 2 hours (includes freezing time)
• Why I Love It: <10 ingredients, make ahead, beginner-friendly
• Serves: 24

Coolest dessert at the barbecue? Hands down, no contest. Make an extra batch to keep in your freezer all summer long. I won't blame you for having these for breakfast on a hot morning either; they're mostly fruit, granola and yogurt, after all.

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why I Love It: beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser
• Serves: 8

Hello, gorgeous. For the most aesthetically pleasing char marks, make sure your grates are clean and preheated before placing the fruit on the grill. The warm-spiced brioche crumble on top merely gilds the lily.