OK, so you signed up to bring dessert to that neighborhood potluck, family reunion or backyard cookout. But geez, it's been so hot, and the very idea of firing up the oven to bake a cake or pie for an hour or more just makes you swoon and fan yourself like Blanche Dubois.
Icebox desserts are your go-to in the sweltering season. Cool, rich and ever-so-easy to prepare, they're fast, take little or no cooking, and wait patiently in the refrigerator until you call them to the table. And any of them makes a festive, cooling treat for any summer parties coming up.
Creamy lemon icebox pie, an old Southern standby, has the texture of Key lime pie, but gets its potent zing from a double hit of lemon _ both freshly squeezed juice and finely grated zest. It's fabulous after a meal of grilled fish or anything, really, where a citric bite to refresh the palate would be welcome. Rev it up with a gingersnap crust and a garnish of crystallized ginger. Clouds of whipped cream are the traditional accompaniment.
The Brits know how to use berries in their high season, and a berry mix stars in a traditional summer pudding. It's not pudding in the American sense, of course; to the English, the word "pudding" just means dessert. A juice-soaked bread exterior conceals an interior that is nothing but fruit, a wee bit of sugar and lemon juice to sharpen the berries' flavor. It's among our favorite purple desserts.
A deliriously rich chocolate pate, served with or without a light hazelnut cream sauce, is the perfect conclusion to a light supper that might otherwise be uninteresting _ salad, say, or chilled soup. Make it up to a week in advance, or freeze and thaw when you need it. The hazelnut cream also makes a surprising and superb dressing for fruit salad.
It can be your little secret, how easy these pleasing desserts are to make. Tip yourself into your favorite chair, prop up your feet and enjoy a tall glass of iced tea or a generous pour of wine.
And if someone catches you humming "Summertime, and the livin' is easy," just smile mysteriously.
