Fruit Dessert

Here's an opportunity to enjoy the best summer fruit. Serve this dessert with butter cookies from the bakery.

These individual Pavlovas are inspired by the popular Australian dessert (named for the Russian ballerina), which combines crisp meringue with whipped cream and assorted fruit. It's easy to form the cups with a pastry bag, but if you don't have one, try this technique: Drop the meringue by half-cupfuls onto the baking sheets, then use the back of a spoon to create a deep, wide indentation in the center of each.

From the Inn at Perry Cabin—St. Michaels, Maryland. At the inn, this classic English dessert comes with clotted cream. A blend of whipped cream and sour cream is a nice substitute.

Puff pastry as strudel dough is even faster and more convenient than phyllo dough. A scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen vanilla yogurt is great alongside.

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

When you brush the bottom pie crust with an egg wash, you keep the fruit from making the pie soggy as it bakes. By sprinkling the top crust with sugar, it makes for a great sugary crust.

Jamie Oliver This dish was created by my mum, Sally Oliver, on the occasion of the birth of her second granddaughter, Daisy Boo Oliver. Be sure the rhubarb you use is nice and juicy, and lay it, pretty side down, over the syrup so it looks nice when you take the cake out of the pan.

As Italian restaurants continue to grow in popularity, so does tiramisù. We updated this dessert made of triple cream cheese from Italy (mascarpone), ladyfingers, espresso and cocoa powder by adding nuts and tangerine juice and serving it frozen.

Miss Toklas frightens her readers when she says this dish takes four days to prepare. Actually, the labor involved is insignificant.