I’ve never heard the word “pavlova” more than in the past month. It’s not a dessert that gets a lot of attention, but for some reason I’ve been seeing it everywhere: At parties we’ve gone to, on the Food Network, and even on one of my favorite blogs. Since it’s a naturally gluten-free dessert, I wanted to get in on the action and make my own.

The only part of the recipe that really ever changes is the base; everyone seems to make their meringue different. I like using powdered sugar for a sweeter and pure white meringue, with a little bit of cream of tartar to help it stay up. I also choose to let it “cook” overnight in a hot oven to get the best texture. When it’s done, the outside should be hard and crispy while the inside meringue is soft like a marshmallow.

The fun thing about this dessert is you can dress the meringue any way. Whip regular cream instead of coconut milk for a more traditional dessert. You can serve it with any fresh fruit that’s on hand or even use a fruit sauce.

Cherry Coconut Pavlova

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 12 hours(overnight)

Ingredients(Makes 3-4 servings):

• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup coconut cream*
• 1/2 cup pitted and halved cherries

*To get coconut cream, leave a can of full-fat coconut milk undisturbed in the pantry for a few days. Open it without shaking the can. The cream will be separated on the top from the coconut water, a clear liquid that you can save and use as a sports drink.

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whip the egg whites in a glass bowl slowly adding the powdered sugar and cream of tartar until it forms soft peaks.
3. Pour the meringue in a mound on a non-stick baking tray. Swirl a utensil on the top of the meringue for an artful effect.
4. Put the meringue in the oven and immediately turn off the oven. Do not open the oven door. Let the meringue sit undisturbed in the hot oven overnight.
5. When the meringue is ready, whip the coconut milk in a chilled glass bowl until it forms stiff peaks.
6. Spread the whipped coconut milk on top of the meringue and garnish with the cherry halves. Serve immediately.

This dessert definitely stops being pretty once you cut into it. That’s ok; it’s delicious enough that no one will notice. The best bites are the ones where you get a little of everything: The sweet meringue, the rich topping, and the tart cherries.

I doubt there’s any way you could reinvent s’mores and have it not be delicious. Food bloggers test this theory every Summer and it always holds true. Here’s one more delicious s’mores recipe to throw into the mix.

By the beaches in Maine there are candy shops that sell just about everything covered in chocolate. Graham crackers covered in chocolate? Sure. Marshmallows covered in chocolate? Mhmm. But no s’mores covered in chocolate. Why not? Beats me. Thankfully, you don’t need to travel farther than your kitchen for something as delicious as this.

Instead of melted marshmallows which would get stale in a refrigerator, this recipe uses marshmallow crème which is soft at room temperature just like a melted marshmallow. My favorite part about this is that Fluff is a naturally vegetarian marshmallow option, so you don’t have to go out and buy a $5 bag of marshmallows to get your s’mores fix.

Chocolate Covered S’mores

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 6 squares):

• 12 graham cracker squares
• 1/4 cup marshmallow Fluff
• 6oz chocolate(about 3/4 cup chocolate chips)

Method:

1. On half of the graham crackers, spread roughly 2 teaspoons of Fluff.
2. Sandwich each covered graham cracker with an uncovered one and put these aside.
3. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler until it is smooth and liquid.
4. One by one, lower the s’mores into the melted chocolate. Flip once and use a utensil to make sure the sides are covered as well as the top and bottom.
5. Take the s’mores out of the melted chocolate and put it on a non-stick surface to dry. You can quicken the process by moving them to the refrigerator once you’re done.
6. Repeat with all the s’mores.
7. Store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

A fun thing to do might be to decorate the outside while the chocolate is melting with graham cracker crumbs and mini-marshmallows. These are the things I think of after I’ve eaten the whole batch. Shame.

This is one of my favorite recipes. I’ve blogged about it several times before and now I’m blogging about it again. It’s worth it though; I promise.

A friend mentioned how much he likes s’mores made with Reese’s peanut butter cups. In the back of my mind popped up my recipe for peanut butter s’mores bars and I promised to make them for July 4th.

After I made them I took fresh-looking photos and updated the recipe page. A few of the commenters who have made this said that their crusts didn’t stick together the way mine has. I think some of the confusion might come from how many graham crackers to use. I use Kinnikinnick 16 graham crackers(3 are pictured above), which would be the same as 4 sheets of graham crackers. It’s also relevant to mention the peanut butter I use for this recipe is always the kind without added oil so it generally mixes easier.

These have all the goodness of s’mores with added peanut butter and put into a portable form. They really are the ultimate Summer dessert. If gluten-free graham crackers didn’t cost an arm and vegetarian marshmallows a leg, I’d probably make these every month. For now they can just be a once in a long-while treat. 

There are few things better than fudge or candy, except maybe fudge that tastes like candy.

Coconut tends to be one of those touchy flavors; people either love it or hate it. Alone I think it’s pretty good—nothing special. Combine it with chocolate and sugar, though, and you’ve got a clear winner. This fudge has a standard chocolate base but with a layer of coconut-white chocolate fudge on top, topped with an almond. If you omit the almonds it’ll taste just like a Mounds bar.

The best part about this dessert? It can all be made in the microwave so you can enjoy it any time. OK, maybe that’s not such great news…

Almond Joy Fudge

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 16 servings):

• 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons coconut milk
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
• 16 almonds

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or over the stove.
2. Mix into the melted chocolate 2 Tablespoons of butter, 3 Tablespoons of coconut milk, and 1/4 cup of sifted powdered sugar until the chocolate is smooth.
3. Pour the fudge into the bottom of a non-stick 6×6 pan. Put the pan in a refrigerator temporarily to cool the chocolate.
4. Melt the white chocolate using the same method, keeping an eye on it making sure that it doesn’t burn.
5. Mix in the remaining butter, coconut milk, powdered sugar, and coconut until smooth.
6. Take the pan out of the refrigerator and spread the coconut layer on evenly(It won’t be runny but shouldn’t be too solid to spread either).
7. Place each almond about an inch apart in a 4×4 square pattern.
8. Refrigerate the fudge for 20-30 minutes until it’s solid. Cut into 16 squares with an almond at the center of every square and serve cold.

By itself the top layer tastes too much of white chocolate(I wasn’t aware that was even possible) to be like the coconut center of a Mounds Bar. But eaten together the chocolate and coconut fudge taste eerily similar to the candy joy. You might want to use an even larger pan such as 8×8 for flat rectangular pieces of fudge.

And as long as we’re on the topic of coconut and chocolate, recently I updated the recipe page for Homemade Mounds Bars with better pictures and easier to read steps. It’s one of the most pinned dessert recipes I have so I can’t be the only one who thinks they’re amazing.

Cookie recipes can be hard sometimes. You need to preheat the oven, mix the ingredients in a certain order, chill and slice the dough sometimes—it’s usually more work than I want to do for a quick sweet fix.

I love macaroons since they’re about as easy a cookie as you can make and still have a satisfying dessert to bite into. As a bonus, they’re naturally gluten-free and have a healthy dose of fats and fiber. It’s even more fun when you make them extra big like they just came from a bakery and eat them warm.

You could try to make these with an egg substitute, but definitely use some sort of binder since the almond butter alone isn’t really enough to hold them together.

Honey Almond Macaroons

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients(Makes about 1 1/2 dozen):

• 2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
3. Either fill an ice cream scoop with dough and release as mounds on a lined baking tray OR roll balls of dough in your hands, flattening one side and placing it on the baking tray.
4. Bake for 15-17 minutes until the outside has browned slightly.
5. Remove from the oven and let cool.

These aren’t too sweet, so I like a little extra honey drizzled on top. They’d be perfect for dessert with some tea or coffee.