Sunny day sweets ~ New news

No-bake cheesecake

Use fresh blueberries or raspberries when they are in season. (Recipe)

No-bake cheesecake

Use fresh blueberries or raspberries when they are in season. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick for The Boston Globe

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Strawberry pie

It’s easy (but your guests won’t guess), and as delicious as it is beautiful. If you need a reason to celebrate, it’s the arrival of fresh local strawberries. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick

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Rhubarb crumble cake

Rhubarb makes a fine cake. This one consists of three layers — cake topped by fruit, topped by crumble — and takes a little longer than a plain cake to bake. (Recipe)

Sally Pasley Vargas

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Plum kuchen

As the fruit bakes on top, the pieces soften to a jammy consistency, which contrasts nicely with the crisp crust. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick

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Lemon-mint granita

This granita is only lightly sweetened, so the taste is a little tart. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick

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Pomegranate and Meyer lemon granita

Granita is a simple homemade ice. Combine all of the ingredients and place them in a stainless roasting pan in the freezer. Scrape the pan regularly to create snowy ice crystals during the freezing process. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick for The Boston Globe

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Cherry Pie

Two Fat Cats Bakery in Portland, Maine, uses sour cherries for this classic, but the season is very short. You can use sour cherries from a jar, but with markets full of fresh cherries, it seems a shame to get fruit from a jar. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm-Goodnick

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Popcorn balls

Use plain, unflavored popcorn. Add the caramel mixture to the popcorn first, then the peanuts, so the nuts do not sink to the bottom of the bowl. You need a candy thermometer to make the caramel. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick

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Individual Italian parfaits

Similar to cannoli filling, this sweetened ricotta mixture, layered with crushed amaretti cookies and toasted hazelnuts, is a unique twist on a classically layered parfait dessert. (Recipe)

Jillian Bernardini

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Blueberry slump

This is a slump, an old dessert that uses ordinary toasting bread cut into triangles and layered in a dish with blueberries and lemon cooked with sugar. The bread soaks up the berry mixture and gives the pudding a little heft. (Recipe)

Sheryl Julian

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Lime-butter sour cream cake

With lively flashes of lime, this tall, buttery cake uses a technique called blooming, in which grated lime rind and juice are combined to intensify the citrus flavor. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm-Goodnick

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Apple-blackberry cobbler

Make this old-fashioned fruit cobbler in a skillet with an ovenproof handle and serve it in the same dish, with its rustic, sweet-biscuit crust. (Recipe)

Sally Pasley Vargas for The Boston Globe

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Strawberry triangles with mascarpone cream

The pastry is a delicious sweet French tart dough, which comes together nicely, from Dorie Greenspan’s book “Baking.” Roll it out on parchment paper, then slide the paper onto a baking sheet. (Recipe)

Michele McDonald for The Boston Globe

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Strawberry gratin

If your fruits are not perfect, make a gratin by layering them in a baking dish with custard, then broiling until bubbling. (Recipe)

Jonathan Levitt

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Orange-scented meringues

Light and crispy, with softly chewy interiors, meringues are a dainty confection to accompany fruit or poached fruit. (Recipe)

Sally Vargas for The Boston Globe

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Strawberry-rhubarb pie

A classic New England favorite, strawberry-rhubarb pie ushers in pie season. Roll this buttery pastry between sheets of parchment paper, which makes it easier to handle. A lattice top is traditional. (Recipe)

Sally P. Vargas for The Boston Globe

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Peaches and cream

It doesn’t get any easier than this. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick

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Icebox cake

Layer Jell-O chocolate pudding, graham crackers, Cool Whip, and maraschino cherries. Keep it in the icebox for a couple of hours to soften the layers until the texture became creamy and the crackers cake-like. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick

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Strawberry ricotta tart

Something more offbeat is a strawberry cheese tart. Fill a sheet of baked puff pastry with a lightly sweetened, lemony ricotta, then bake it again, and serve with strawberries. (Recipe)

Jonathan Levitt

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Blueberry buttermilk tea cake

Big handfuls of fresh blueberries belong in a buttery cake, tender with buttermilk. The dark blue rounds float in this vanilla-scented batter and create juicy pockets of flavor. (Recipe)

Karoline Boehm Goodnick

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