The July 4th BBQ menu is always the same—in fact, we bet there would be protests if you alternate any of the customary offerings, including grilled hot dogs, mouthwatering burgers, charred corn on the cob, or Grandma’s coleslaw.
To really flex your creativity this holiday, try your hand at whipping up a delicious dessert spread! Here are 5 sweet recipes for Fourth of July to help get you started.
Be sure to click on the recipe links for full instructions, prep and cook times, ingredient quantities, and serving sizes.
1. Arizona Sunshine Lemon Pie
Celebrate your country and your home state with a tangy-sweet dessert. Perfect for marking the arrival of summer, an Arizona sunshine lemon pie can be made with just a large lemon, eggs, melted butter, pure vanilla, granulated sugar, and a premade, unbaked pie crust.
Leaving the rind intact, first, cut your lemon in small chunks and remove the seeds. Then, in a blender, throw in your lemon chunks, eggs, butter, vanilla, and sugar, and let everything whir until the resulting mixture is smooth and creamy.
Pour the mix into your unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. As you’re monitoring your citrusy dessert in the oven, note the crust. If it becomes too brown but the pie is not quite done, take it out of the oven, cover it gently with tin foil, and resume baking for the remaining amount of time.
We recommend serving this delicacy with a paper-thin lemon wedge—and if you’re so inclined, a dollop of whipped cream!
2. Cheesecake with Red Prickly Pear Jam
Raise a glass to freedom—preferably, one with cheesecake, vanilla mousse, and red prickly pear jam!
Dessert meets desert. With Arizona being the home to the prickly pear cactus, this recipe for the Fourth of July pays lovely homage to the Grand Canyon State.
Depending on if you’re a baking novice or a desserts pro, you may choose to buy a whole cheesecake and instant mousse mix from your favorite grocery retailer or create these two elements from scratch. But whatever you do, don’t skimp on the prickly pear jam—go homemade!
Wearing protective gloves, rinse and rub the prickly pears under running water to de-prickle your fruit. Cut each pear in half and scoop out the pulp and seeds. Transfer the contents into a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds. Strain the pulp and seeds with a cheesecloth, gathering the cheesecloth into a pouch and squeezing out the juice into a medium saucepan—reincorporate the leftover pulp and seeds with the prickly pear juice.
Over medium heat, add powdered fruit pectin and lemon juice, bringing everything to a rolling boil that can’t be stirred down. Stir in some white sugar and amaretto liqueur until they’re completely dissolved and continue stirring until the jam is reduced by half.
At this point, remove the jam away from your cooktop and skim off any froth that may have formed. You can adjust the desired thickness of your jam by adding another half-teaspoon of pectin and boiling for another minute. Once you’ve achieved making the jam of your dreams, serve it on top of single layers of cheesecake and vanilla mousse.
3. Lavender and Blackberry Swirl Ice Cream
It’s no secret that lavender is a coveted addition to fancy desserts and botanical cocktails, but did you know desert lavender is native to our beloved AZ? Reap the tasty benefits of this edible flower with a dessert that can help you combat the July 4th heat.
For a homemade ice cream that is equal parts sweet and tart, combine the specified amounts of blueberries and granulated sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. We adapted this recipe to include one handful of lavender flower heads—sprinkle them into this pan.
Stir and mash the berries, and gradually add cornstarch. After a few minutes, remove the pan from the heat and strain the puree to get as much juice out as possible. Chill this concoction in your refrigerator.
Again, over medium heat, combine whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Stir occasionally until the mixture starts bubbling around the edges. For detailed steps describing how to incorporate egg yolks and form a custard base to chill and then pour into an ice cream maker, refer to the recipe.
Once the custard base has been churned for about 20 minutes and has reached a soft-serve stage, layer a few scoops of your ice cream with the cold blackberry-lavender puree. Cover and store your dessert in the freezer for 5 hours prior to serving.
4. Red, White, and Blue Carrot Cake
For a dessert that is as classic as Americana imagery—and that looks patriotic—we humbly suggest making your very own carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, fresh raspberries, and bodacious blueberries. We’d hurry because, in Arizona, blueberries are only in season until the end of July.
Take heed to this cake recipe with a hefty ingredients list composed of dried currants, carrots, all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cloves, pecans (or walnuts), eggs, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, and vegetable oil.
If you’re feeling up to the task, try fashioning your very own frosting! In a large bowl, combine the specified quantities of cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt. Using a hand mixer, mix on low speed until the ingredients are combined and increase the speed, beating until the frosting is aerated and light. Gradually scatter powdered sugar and mix on low to combine.
Once the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase the speed again until the frosting is fluffy. Once your cake is cooled from baking, spread the frosting with artistic swirly motions. Finally, as you carve your carrot cake for easy serving, top each slice with a raspberry and a blueberry or two.
5. Chocolate- and Caramel-Dipped Apple Slices
While apple pie is quipped to be the quintessential American dessert, we implore you to make like General Washington crossing the Delaware River and embark on a daring journey—for your taste buds. Lo and behold: crisp apple slices dipped in caramel and chocolate.
Serendipitously, in Arizona, apples are ripe for the picking from July through September, so the timing for this simple dessert is, like the fruit, nothing short of sweet.
To make the chocolate versions, melt semisweet chocolate chips and coconut oil together over a double boiler, and, one at a time, dip skewered apple slices (Granny Smith, Pink Lady, or Honeycrisp apples are our recommendations) into the chocolate so that they’re at least three-quarters coated.
After letting the excess chocolate drip off the skewer, press one side of each slice into your choice of either a small bowl of chopped peanuts or a small bowl of shredded coconut. On a baking sheet, lay each skewer down, on the non-peanut or non-coconut side, and store them in the refrigerator until the chocolate hardens.
You can replicate the process for caramel-dipped slices—just microwave caramel squares candy and heavy cream or milk in 30-second intervals to whip up the yummy coating.
For all your kitchen needs, check out our digital catalog of cooking, refrigeration, and dishwasher appliances. Our experts are always happy to help—give us a call today!
From our family at Spencer’s TV & Appliance: Happy Independence Day!