Summertime desserts call for a mixture of freshest ingredients with decadent sweet treat essentials like chocolates or ice cream. The two opposing elements can often be brought together in a contrasting mix of hot and cold temperatures that explore a balance between fresh and indulgent offerings.
Perfect for relaxed summer gatherings, these are desserts that go well with different dinner menus which showcase a similar refreshing and seasonal take on flavours, textures and temperatures. Prepare a dinner menu that comprises these complementary interlinkages between different courses to play around with spicy, aromatic notes and warm and chilled temperature nuances.
Choco Lava Cake With Ice Cream
One of the easiest, most fuss-free and straightforward contrasting pairing is a warm, molten choco lava cake that is delightfully moist on the inside, served with a dollop of chilled creamy vanilla ice cream. As the chocolate oozes out of the cake, it flows into the cold ice cream to create a mixture of two opposing temperatures on your summer dessert plate. Indulgent and rich, this is a dessert that can follow a meal dominated by savoury flavours.
Dinner Recommendation: Pair the dessert with dishes like herb-roasted chicken or grilled vegetable skewers where the light, spiced and filling mains pave the route to an indulgent sweet treat.
Apple Crumble And Custard
A comforting dessert that combines the fruity, sweet notes of warm apples aromatised with cinnamon and the creamy density of chilled plain custard, this fresh yet dense treat is the perfect summer dessert for a laidback dinner gathering. The buttery nuance of the roasted apples undercuts the richness of the custard to deliver a well-balanced sweet dish.
Dinner Recommendation: The dessert combines well with a savoury main course such as a lasagna or spaghetti bolognese whose tangy notes are balanced out by the sweet flavours of apples and custard.
Mini Gulab Jamuns And Ice Cream
Think a creamy fusion of vanilla ice cream with small, grape-sized sweet gulab jamuns as an indulgent summertime hot-and-cold combination. This is a very heavy dessert that befits a festive or celebratory meal, making it appealing at a special occasion hosted in summer weather.
Dinner Recommendation: Gulab jamun and ice cream is a dense and rich summertime treat that ought to be paired with an equally luxe dinner menu such as a desi fare comprising aromatic mutton biryani, rich butter chicken and naan pairings or smoky kebabs.
Churros With Chocolate Dip And Fruit Sorbet
Warm churros fresh out of the frying pan can be coated in chocolate syrup and cinnamon sugar. Serve them with a delicious seasonal fruit sorbet that places watermelons, muskmelons or assorted berries at the centre of the recipe. The Spanish dessert brings a crispy exterior and gooey interior together with a fresh sorbet as an unexpectedly delightful summer treat.
Dinner Recommendation: Mexican-themed or Spanish-inspired tapas spreads and bright cocktail rosters are perfect pairings with this hot-and-cold dessert and its fruity, summery twist.
Honey Noodles And Ice Cream
Deep-fried noodles encrusted with honey syrup and lightly toasted sesame are a warm treat that goes well with salted caramel or vanilla ice cream. The stickiness of the noodles and their chewy, crunchy bite brings a very welcome textural flourish into the simple but quite indulgent dessert. Slightly thick noodles can be deep-fried and dipped into honey syrup to prepare this dessert. Craft a bed of the noodles and the sesame garnish and place a scoop of ice cream over it before serving.
Dinner Recommendation: Pair the honey noodles and ice cream course with an Asian-themed menu featuring dimsums, stir-fried vegetables, chicken satay and cold raw papaya salad. Such light and refreshing summertime spreads can be finished off with the subtly dense nuance of this sweet-forward dessert that gives the meal a feeling of completion.