29 Labor Day Desserts for a Sweet Finish

Dessert ideas to close out your Labor Day cookout.

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Vicky Wasik

As much as I want to deny it, summer is coming to an end. In Southern California that doesn't really mean putting away the grill, but even here folks like to get one last cookout in before fall hits. Saying goodbye to grilling weather also means saying goodbye to summer fruit, so Labor Day is the time to get in one last cherry pie, blackberry cobbler, or batch of strawberry ice cream. Or if you've spent too much time thinking about the savory courses to make a homemade pie, how about something easy like 5-ingredient strawberry shortcakes or an effortless angel food cake? Either way, keep reading for 29 Labor Day dessert recipes to celebrate the end of summer.

Pies, Cobblers, and Grunts

The Best Cherry Pie

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Vicky Wasik

Perfect cherry pie is all about the ratios. Making your filling with 5.5% tapioca starch thickens it into a light gel that holds together without turning gloppy, and a 4:1 ratio of fruit to sugar raises the gelatinization rate of the tapioca so that the filling and crust cook at the same speed.

Get the recipe for The Best Cherry Pie »

The Best Blueberry Pie

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Vicky Wasik

The same ratios that we use for our cherry pie work for other fruits, too. This recipe is exactly the same as our cherry pie recipe, except that it uses blueberries instead. For the best flavor, we recommend using a mix of wild and cultivated blueberries. Another trick: tempered-glass pie plates are more conductive than ceramic ones, so they make for crispier crusts.

Get the recipe for The Best Blueberry Pie »

Summer Strawberry Pie

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Yvonne Ruperti

I'm not much of a baker, so when I'm in the mood for pie I gravitate toward this ultra-summery recipe. The filling is made of strawberry purée, macerated berries, and gelatin, which gets poured into a simple graham cracker crust. Keeping the filling uncooked doesn't just make this recipe easy—it also preserves the fresh flavor of the fruit.

Get the recipe for Summer Strawberry Pie »

Old-Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler

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Vicky Wasik

If you want the flavors of a traditional cooked pie without having to deal with a crust then cobblers—fruit filling covered with a drop-biscuit crust—are the way to go. This cobbler is filled with blackberries, raspberries, and a pinch of cinnamon. The raspberries are there mostly to help round out the flavor of sour blackberries, so you can use 100% blackberries if they're sweet enough.

Get the recipe for Old-Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler »

Classic Biscuit-Topped Peach Cobbler

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Vicky Wasik

Here we fill our cobbler with peaches, which we mix with sugar, lemon juice, and just 3/4 teaspoon of cornstarch. It's also a good idea to add flavorings—bourbon, nutmeg, and almond extract are good choices, but feel free to get creative with it. Again, we top the filling with biscuit dough, but this time we also brush on a syrupy glaze to give the biscuits a crackly crust.

Get the recipe for Classic Biscuit-Topped Peach Cobbler »

Easy Stovetop Cherry Grunt

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Yvonne Ruperti

You don't have to turn on the oven to make a cobbler—a grunt is essentially the same dish, but cooked entirely on the stovetop. Our cherry grunt starts with frozen sour cherries (though you could use fresh if you can find great ones), which we cook with sugar, cinnamon, and corn starch and top with dumpling dough. Covering the pot lets the dumplings steam to moist, tender perfection.

Get the recipe for Easy Stovetop Cherry Grunt »

Cake

Texas Sheet Cake

Square of Texas sheet cake on a serving plate, with rimmed baking sheet with full cake alongside
Vicky Wasik

If you're having a cookout, you can't go wrong by serving a big Texas sheet cake for dessert. Perfect for feeding more than a few, this giant slab of chocolate cake gets topped with chocolate fudge while the cake is still warm, and then toasted pecans are sprinkled all over the top.

Get the recipe for Texas Sheet Cake »

Blackberry Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

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Vicky Wasik

This cake gets its striking color from blackberry purée, which stands in for the dairy you'd usually see in a cake recipe. Making the cake with egg whites rather than whole eggs also helps—purple blackberries plus yellow egg yolks will make the cake a rather unappetizing green. A tangy cream cheese frosting pairs wonderfully with the slightly sour blackberries.

Get the recipe for Blackberry Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting »

Double Strawberry Cake

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Vicky Wasik

Strawberries are a more difficult cake ingredient than blueberries, which have a high acidity that keeps the cake light. Strawberry purée just won't cut it—if you added enough to get the acidity you need, you'd have way too much liquid. Our solution is to add freeze-dried strawberries, which have concentrated flavor and acidity but no moisture. The result is a fluffy, vibrantly colored cake with an intense strawberry flavor.

Get the recipe for Double Strawberry Cake »

Effortless Angel Food Cake

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Vicky Wasik

Pillowy angel food cake seems like an impressive dessert, but the truth is it only takes about 15 minutes of work—all you have to do is whip up cold egg whites and sugar to make a meringue, stir in cake flour, and bake. We like to serve the cake with citrusy lemon chantilly and whatever berries look best at the farmers market.

Get the recipe for Effortless Angel Food Cake »

Easy No-Bake Cheesecake

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Vicky Wasik

Our no-bake cheesecake recipe is about as simple as it gets: cream cheese, heavy cream, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt whipped together until thick. It would be traditional to spoon the filling into a graham cracker crust, but for something different, try using Biscoff instead. You can also play around with whipping up a fruit-flavored no-bake cheesecake.

Get the recipe for Easy No-Bake Cheesecake »

Cookies and Bars

Sunny Lemon Bars

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Vicky Wasik

Individually portioned lemon bars are a natural choice for a party. Lots of lemon bar recipes call for whole eggs and cornstarch, a combination that makes for a stable but murky custard. We leave out the cornstarch, adding extra egg yolks instead to get the texture right. Make sure to use nonreactive cookware (pot, whisk, everything) so that you don't wind up with metallic-tasting bars.

Get the recipe for Sunny Lemon Bars »

Homemade Oreo Cookies

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Vicky Wasik

Don't be the person who just brings a box of store-bought cookies to the party—instead, wow the other guests with these homemade Oreos. The cookies are chocolate shortbread made with Dutch cocoa powder and baking soda, and the thick, creamy filling is made with clarified butter.

Get the recipe for Homemade Oreo Cookies »

Homemade Twix

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J. Kenji López-Alt

The beauty of copycat recipes is that you can take classic snacks and make them even better. Our homemade Twix hit all the same flavors as the original, but replace the mass-produced ingredients with flavorful shortbread cookies, buttery caramel, and high-quality dark chocolate.

Get the recipe for Homemade Twix »

Ice Cream

Cherry Ice Cream

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Vicky Wasik

I'm sure you've heard cooking meat bone-in gives it more flavor (it doesn't), but did you know that a similar concept can work wonders for some fruit? Our cherry ice cream starts with cherries that we roast whole (in the oven or on the grill)—the pits make the cherries extra flavorful. We then cook the cherries down to a jammy consistency and mix them into an eggless ice cream base.

Get the recipe for Cherry Ice Cream »

The Best Strawberry Ice Cream

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Vicky Wasik

While our cherry ice cream uses a slow roast to maximize flavor, our strawberry ice cream isn't cooked at all. Making the base with raw strawberry puree and macerated strawberries preserves the fresh flavor of the fruit. You need the best strawberries you can find to cut through the dairy and sugar—store-bought fruit just won't cut it.

Get the recipe for The Best Strawberry Ice Cream »

Blackberry Ice Cream

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Vicky Wasik

If you don't have the greatest strawberries available, but you do have access to some beautiful blackberries, this ice cream is similarly designed to let the fruit's flavor shine. A touch of cinnamon helps preserve that wonderful blackberry aroma, and a hit of lemon juice adds a bit of brightness to the mix.

Get the recipe for Blackberry Ice Cream »

Homemade Speculoos Ice Cream

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Vicky Wasik

Born out of an excess of speculoos leftover from homemade Biscoff testing, this mellow, comforting ice cream works with either homemade or store-bought cookies. Once you have the cookies, the rest of the ice cream is pretty simple—the only trick is replacing regular white sugar with caramelly toasted sugar.

Get the recipe for Homemade Speculoos Ice Cream »

Fior di Latte Gelato

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Vicky Wasik

This frozen Italian treat contains no eggs, no fruit, no chocolate—nothing but dairy. So it really does behoove you to get the best dairy you can, preferably dairy produced by grass-fed cows, as the quality really comes through in the final product. If a study in simplicity isn't what you're after for your Labor Day dessert, you could also try our straciatella recipe, or our raspberry ripple goat's milk gelato.

Get the recipe for Fior di Latte Gelato »

Classic Vanilla Ice Milk

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Vicky Wasik

If you're looking for a sweet frozen treat that isn't too heavy, yet is plenty refreshing, ice milk is the way to go. Its light vanilla flavor and silky mouthfeel are strongly reminiscent of Dairy Queen soft-serve.

Get the recipe for Classic Vanilla Ice Milk »

Other Desserts

DIY Fudgsicles

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Vicky Wasik

Who doesn't like a popsicle on a hot day? Our version of Fudgsicles takes the old-school chocolate treat and makes it even fudgier with Dutch cocoa. We turn to gelatin to replicate that distinct Fudgsicle texture—the pops should be icy (but not grainy) and hold their shape as they melt.

Get the recipe for DIY Fudgsicles »

Tamarind and Palm Sugar Popsicles With Chili Salt

Several tamarind and palm sugar popsicles arranged on a marble slab
Vicky Wasik

These popsicles are sweet, sour, and savory, thanks to palm sugar, tamarind, and chili salt, respectively. Modeled on the flavor profile of Pelo Rico candy, they get an extra sour boost from the addition of malic acid. Perfect for a sweltering summer's day.

Get the recipe for Tamarind and Palm Sugar Popsicles With Chili Salt »

5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes

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J. Kenji López-Alt

Depending on how much effort you've put into the rest of your Labor Day bash, you might not have a lot of energy left for dessert. That's where these super simple strawberry shortcakes come in. The biscuits are made with nothing more than self-rising flour, sugar, and cream and come together in the time it takes the strawberries to macerate.

Get the recipe for 5-Ingredient Strawberry Shortcakes »

Grilled Banana Boats With Peanut Butter, Chocolate, and Marshmallows

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Joshua Bousel

If you've got the grill going anyways, you might as well use it for dessert. Banana boats are a campfire favorite that our bound to be a hit. Our recipe suggests making them with mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips, but you should put out a variety of ingredients and let guests choose their favorites.

Get the recipe for Grilled Banana Boats With Peanut Butter, Chocolate, and Marshmallows »

Tropical Pineapple, Mango, and Coconut Fools

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Yvonne Ruperti

These bright, refreshing, individually-portioned desserts are perfectly balanced thanks to the combination of tangy Greek yogurt and sweet fruit. We cook the pineapple down into a compote, mix it with whipped cream, Greek yogurt, and coconut, and then layer with fresh mango. More coconut on top emphasizes the dessert's tropical side.

Get the recipe for Tropical Pineapple, Mango, and Coconut Fools »

Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie

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Vicky Wasik

The retro dessert—based on the cocktail of the same name—gets a modern twist: Instead of the crème de menthe common in older recipes, we use a hit of Fernet Branca, which adds a slight and very welcome bitterness, as well as a whole lot of herbaceousness. The cool and creamy peppermint filling is offset just slightly by a topping of cocoa nib fudge.

Get the recipe for Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie »

Ube (Purple Yam) Ice Cream

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Rezel Kealoha

Ube ice cream is a classic and delicious Filipino dessert that’s made with purple yam. To complement the yam’s earthy, sweet flavors, we use a combination of coconut cream and milk—which gives the treat a creamy texture while unintentionally making it vegan. The secret to less icy ice cream? A splash of vodka and a bit of corn syrup. The soft, scoopable ice cream is perfect on its own, but even better scooped into pandesal or as a topping for halo-halo.

Get the recipe for Ube (Purple Yam) Ice Cream »

Ultimate Strawberry Popsicles

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Vicky Wasik

There’s no shortage of fruit flavor in this frozen treat thanks to the use of fresh strawberries, strawberry jam, and freeze-dried strawberry powder. While the latter ingredient is optional, it’s key to brightening and intensifying the strawberry flavor. Additionally, fresh strawberries are recommended, but frozen strawberries will still leave you with tasty pops.

Get the recipe for Ultimate Strawberry Popsicles »

Leche Flan (Filipino Baked Custard)

leche flan

Rezel Kealoha

A Filipino twist on the famous baked custard, leche flan is a creamy, dense, and ultra-rich dessert your guests will devour. It contains a whopping 12 egg yolks, along with sugar, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract, and a bit of lemon zest for brightness. Serve on its own or atop some halo-halo.

Get the recipe for Leche Flan (Filipino Baked Custard) »