Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth with These Desserts to Make in April
From no-bake recipes to classic comfort desserts, we’ve got all of the sweets to savor in April.
Iain Bagwell
With random warm days and still spring showers, April will bring with it a bounty of fresh ingredients. On those warmer days, it’s helpful to have a few ways to whip up dessert without turning on the oven. This month, we’re taking advantage of seasonal fruits to help elevate simple desserts that require minimal prep in desserts like chocolate-dipped apricots and strawberries served with Fromage blanc.
When the sun sets and the temperatures drop a bit or on one of the rainier days April is bound to bring, switch on the oven for bakes that can be indulged in for a few days. Our recipe for chocolate banana bread is sure to satisfy with a single slice or try chocolate lace sandwich cookies. Pop a few of the cookies, filled with melted chocolate, in the freezer for a cool treat to eat later in the week when the temp rises again.
If brunch is on the calendar this month, swap muffins a fruit-forward blackberry almond tea cake, or go even easier with powdered stuffed dates—a simple dessert to make in advance as well.
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Before summer arrives and strawberry and rhubarb make their way into a pie together, let rhubarb shine on its own in a crostata spiced with ginger. And it wouldn’t feel like summer’s on the horizon without at least one recipe for a frozen delicacy. This month we’re savoring Salt & Straw’s head ice cream maker, Tyler Malek’s, roasted strawberry coconut soft serve; a deliciously dairy-free treat.
Find all of our favorite dessert recipes to make throughout the month of April below, and for savory sides and mains to finish out your menu, click here.
Blackberry-Almond Tea Cakes
Serve these buttery little cakes for breakfast or as a midday snack with a cup of hot tea. You can substitute about 1 1/2 cups of raspberries (also coming into season) for the blackberries if you like.
Powdered Stuffed Dates
The filling on these is simple, lemon zest and walnuts, which adds zing and crunch to the already sweet and soft date.
Tyler Malek’s Roasted Strawberry and Coconut Soft-Serve
Tyler Malek, head ice cream maker for Salt & Straw, is known for inventive flavors like this one. Roasting makes the berries extra juicy, and coconut cream makes the soft-serve nice and rich. It’s a great choice for vegans. For ice-cream-parlor styling, you can pipe the soft-serve into ice cream cones using a large pastry bag fitted with a wide star tip, or just scoop it into bowls.
Hazelnut Shortbread Bars
With their buttery cookie base and caramelized pecan pie-type filling, these bars are nothing short of addictive. Chopping some of the nuts and leaving others whole creates a pretty mosaic effect.
Mini Rhubarb Ginger Crostatas
The filling in these pies is on the tart side, so they’re especially good with vanilla ice cream. Semolina flour in the dough is optional but adds complexity and crunch.
Chocolate Lace Sandwich Cookies
“I call these the ‘backache’ cookies because I always make a double batch, sitting hunched over at the table,” says Fran Pepoon of Roseville, California. She has been baking these chocolate cookies, which have a subtle hit of orange and vanilla. Two tips: The cookies tend to stick and spread, so be sure to use a nonstick baking-sheet liner or parchment, and don’t bake more than 12 cookies on each sheet.
Honey Custards with Blood Oranges and Candied Lemon
The honey gives these silky custards by Yigit Pura of Tout Sweet Pâtisserie in San Francisco a gentle, aromatic flavor. We opted for making them in standard-size ramekins, but Pura also likes to bake them in slightly smaller sake cups.
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