15 Memorial Day Desserts That Will Make Your Cookout Sweeter

What's a cookout without something sweet?

By
Rabi Abonour
Rabi Abonour is a contributing writer at Serious Eats.
Rabi Abonour
Rabi Abonour is a planner specializing in transportation, but has also been a photojournalist, writer, and editor for several online and print publications.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Published May 11, 2025
Three strawberry shortcakes

Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

With all the grilling that happens on Memorial Day, you might not end up with much room for dessert. But what's a cookout without something sweet? After a meal of smoky, savory grilled meats, dessert is certainly welcome. It's also a great opportunity to show off fruit that's just starting to come into season: Think flaky, golden-crusted pies bursting with fresh cherries or blueberries, a moist and tender blackberry cake topped with tangy cream cheese frosting, the best strawberry ice cream, and more. Don't let the fun stop with fruit, though—we've got no-bake chocolate squares and Texas sheet cake to please the chocolate lovers-out there. Whatever you're in the mood for, you'll find the right recipe for your cookout in this collection of 15 Memorial Day dessert recipes.

May 2019

  • Strawberry Pretzel Salad

    Angled shot of strawberry pretzel salad

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Delightfully salty-sweet, creamy, and crunchy, strawberry pretzel salad is a staple at picnics, potlucks, and holiday celebrations. This version skips the Cool Whip and the strawberry jello mix. Instead, it involves making a no-bake cheesecake for the filling and a homemade strawberry syrup for the jello—both of which are good enough to enjoy on their own.

  • Strawberry Cheesecake Bars

    Strawberry cheesecake bars in a purple tray, on purple velvet

    Serious Eats / Jen Causey

    Cheesecake ticks a lot of boxes: It’s sweet, savory, creamy, and tangy all at once, and its versatility makes it a great canvas for other flavors such as fruit, chocolate, and nuts. Here, sweet-tart strawberries provide a bright foil to the cheesecake's richness, helping to lighten up an otherwise heavy dessert.

  • Sunny Lemon Bars

    Lemon bars cut into squares and dusted with powdered sugar on a marble countertop

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    The texture of this tangy, bright dessert falls somewhere between lemon curd and lemon meringue pie—soft, rich, and just firm enough to hold its shape when you cut it. The key is making a custard with equal parts whole eggs and egg yolks; cooking it on the stove allows for precise control of the custard's final temperature, preventing soft or runny bars.

  • The Best Cherry Pie

    20160608-cherry-pie-vicky-wasik-14.jpg

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Fruit pies can feel like an exercise in frustration—how many times have you followed a recipe to a T and still ended up with a filling that was too loose or gloopy? There's a science to nailing the ideal texture of pie filling: If you combine the fruit with 25% of its weight in sugar and 5.5% of its weight in tapioca starch, you'll end up with a thick but juicy pie every time. The formula works with either fresh or frozen fruit, so you can make this pie even if cherries haven't appeared at your farmers market yet.

    Continue to 5 of 15 below

  • Old-Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler

    20170629-blackberry-cobbler-vicky-wasik-10.jpg

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Our blackberry cobbler relies on three key ingredients: baking soda (to tame the acidity of the fruit), cinnamon (which intensifies the flavor of the blackberries), and—perhaps surprisingly—a few raspberries. The latter adds a complex sweetness to balance out the blackberries, which can be bitter if they're not perfectly ripe. Beyond that, the recipe is just a matter of mixing the filling ingredients together, topping with a simple drop-biscuit dough, and baking until the filling is bubbling and the biscuits are golden brown.

  • Easy No-Bake Cheesecake

    20170526-no-bake-cheesecake-vicky-wasik-18.jpg

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    A no-cook, no-bake cheesecake is the perfect dessert for beating the summer heat. This version has a silky-smooth cream cheese filling that's tangy and cool, and an excellent vehicle for fresh summer berries.

  • No-Bake Chocolate Squares

    A plate of layered chocolate squares with a fudgy and textured appearance topped with sea salt

    Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze

    Fudgy and rich with bittersweet chocolate, they combine the best of brownies, fudge, and mousse. Plus, they only take 20 minutes of active time to prep and require zero cooking.

  • The Best Strawberry Ice Cream

    Three scoops of strawberry ice cream in a ceramic bowl, with half of a fresh strawberry.

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

    Making strawberry ice cream can be tricky: When you use fresh berries, the fruit's moisture easily turns to ice; make it with cooked berries, and you lose that fresh strawberry flavor. Using the best strawberries you can find (for a more concentrated flavor and less moisture) and macerating them—rather than cooking—yields ice cream that's both flavorful and creamy.

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  • Blueberry Cornbread Cobbler

    blueberry cornbread cobber hero

    Serious Eats / Jen Causey

    In our version of this classic summer dessert, we pair a jammy blueberry filling with a sweet lemon-scented cornbread topping. A small amount of cornstarch is just enough to thicken the blueberry juices without making them gloppy, and a pinch of cinnamon helps amplify the natural flavor of the fruit.

  • Blueberry Yogurt Popsicles

    20200811-yogurt-fruit-popsicles-blueberry-vicky-wasik-9

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    These vivid purple popsicles get their bright color and flavor from fresh blueberries. Cooking the fruit brings out their jammy sweetness, giving the popsicles a wonderfully concentrated flavor, while full-fat Greek yogurt provides a luscious, creamy texture.

  • Strawberry Shortcake

    Three strawberry shortcakes

    Serious Eats / Debbie Wee

    These shortcakes are rich and buttery, with a tender, cake-like center that's perfect for absorbing plenty of sweet strawberry juice. Served with a generous helping of sweet berries and thick dollops of whipped cream, it's a delicious and easy dessert to enjoy all summer long.

  • Strawberry Icebox Cake

    Overhead view of icebox cake

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    This icebox cake features strawberries and cream, a flavor combination that’s especially delicious when the fruit is at its ripest and juiciest. Strawberries and cream are delicious as is, but serving them with vanilla wafers and a strawberry compote makes it a more substantial dessert.

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  • Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp

    20170410-rhubarb-strawberry-crisp-vicky-wasik-23.jpg
    Photograph: Vicky Wasik. Video: Natalie Holt

    Sweet strawberries help tame rhubarb's assertive tartness, making for a dessert that has just the right amount of tang. Here, we incorporate anise seed and Chinese five-spice powder in the topping, which complements the rhubarb and coaxes out more of its natural aroma.

  • Blackberry Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

    20170627-blackberry-cake-vicky-wasik-26.jpg

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Making a fruit-flavored cake isn't as simple as adding fruit purée to your favorite cake recipe—a properly hydrated cake batter can't take the extra moisture. Instead, you'll need to replace the other wet ingredients entirely with the fruit, which works with blackberries because they're acidic enough to tenderize the cake and help it rise.

  • Texas Sheet Cake

    a piece of sheet cake on a white plate beside a full sheet pan full of cake
    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    This sheet pan–sized chocolate cake is enough for Memorial Day and then some. The thin cake itself is made with buttermilk and natural cocoa powder, giving it a relative lightness that's immediately counteracted when you douse the whole thing in hot fudge. For a crunchy finish, shower the cake with toasted pecans.

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