22 Stone Fruit Recipes That Are Pure Summer
Celebrate juicy peaches, plump cherries, and tart raspberries at their best.
Summer is the season of stone fruit, and we've pulled together over 20 recipes here that showcase them at their best. Dessert may immediately come to mind, and we've certainly got recipes for those, from a Lemon Lavender Nectarine Cobbler to a Plum Upside-Down Cake, which is just as pretty as it sounds. But if you're looking for more of a savory preparation, have no fear — you'll also find Spicy Mango Pork with Noodles here, as well as Grilled Apricots with Burrata, Country Ham, and Arugula. Keep reading for our favorite stone fruit recipes, and start making your shopping list now so you can squeeze in a few before fall.
Stone Fruit Salad with Collard-Peanut Pesto
"Nowadays, when I serve plums and nectarines, like in my Stone Fruit Salad with Collard-Peanut Pesto, I'm transported to parties where we dapped, hugged, boogied, and kissed under the moonlight," says writer Nicole A. Taylor, of her Juneteenth celebrations. In this savory fruit salad, roasted peanuts, collard greens, and Parmesan yield a hearty pesto that's the perfect partner for honey-dressed wedges of plums and nectarines.
Lemon Lavender Nectarine Cobbler
This summery cobbler is spicy, sweet, and tart with a delicate lavender aroma. Fresh nectarines are the star of the filling — skin-on ones are ideal, but you can also make this dessert with thawed frozen peaches.
Apricot Kuchen with Labneh Whipped Cream
This simple, sweet cake is studded with juicy, tart apricots and served with a tangy labneh whipped cream. Frozen apricot halves will work when fresh are unavailable, as will many fruits as the seasons change; try grapes, apples, or nectarines.
Blackberry-Cardamom Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting
These lightly spiced, fruity vegan cupcakes have a tender and delicate crumb with a soft texture from the full-fat oat milk and a blend of baking soda and baking powder. The frosting is soft after beating but will pipe beautifully and is surprisingly stable. Its bright lemon flavor and light, melt-in-your-mouth quality are similar to Swiss or Italian meringue buttercreams.
Almond-and-Plum Snack Cake
This snack cake catches the eye with its ripe red plums, toasted almonds, and glistening sugary crust, but the tender cake hidden underneath is the real star. The moist cake has a tight crumb, but a trio of butter, sour cream, and chunks of thick, sweet almond paste make it exceptionally tender.
Peach Salad with Peanuts and Chile
Spicy chiles and sweet peaches come together in this simple, summery salad perfect for backyard parties. Lemon vinegar and manuka honey lend each bite a sweet-tart zing and silky texture, amplifying the juiciness of fresh peaches. The sweet honey mellows the sharp and punchy lemon vinegar, adding brightness without overpowering the delicate fruit.
Chè Khúc Bach
Doris Hô-Kane, who runs Ban Bè, a Vietnamese-American bakery in Brooklyn, is particularly fond of chè khúc bach, or "white chunk dessert soup." Drizzled with sweet coconut cream, this Vietnamese dessert of flavored panna cotta, tropical fruits, and shaved ice is a riot of color and texture. Here, Hô-Kane uses both canned longans and lychees. Her approach to this dessert is an amalgamation of her Vietnamese heritage and her American upbringing — she likes to add beet juice, butterfly pea flower, and coffee to the panna cotta to add both color and contrast to the chè.
Spicy Mango Pork with Noodles
The technique of tempering — heating spices gently in oil or ghee to release their essential oils — is commonly used in Indian cooking to build layers of flavor. Here, sweet and peppery mango teams up with pork for a gentle simmer in the spice-laden oil.
Sour Cherry Mezcal Margarita
This fruity spin on a margarita combines smoky mezcal, citrusy Cointreau, and sweet-tart cherry puree in a vibrant red drink perfect for late-summer sipping. Bright, pleasantly tart sour cherries are in season for a limited window, so this simple roasted puree is an easy way to preserve their flavor. Try it on ice cream or over pancakes, too.
Black Rice Salad with Cherries and Plums
Fresh plums and cherries add pops of juicy sweetness to this hearty summer salad. Black rice gives the dish a dark, moody hue and an extra textural bite. The salad builds to a delicious crescendo with its finishing touch: crunchy, craggy, blue cheese–infused breadcrumbs, which provide a lovely textural reprieve to the chewy rice and fruit.
Peach Chutney
Former F&W Senior Test Kitchen Editor Grace Parisi's gingery peach chutney is terrific on a grilled cheddar cheese sandwich or brushed on pork chops during the last few minutes of cooking. To make removing the pits easier, look for freestone peaches, rather than clingstone.
Raspberry-Hibiscus Sorbet
This sorbet by chef and ice cream maker Fany Gerson has a creamy texture thanks to the addition of corn syrup or honey, which increases the sugar content and helps make the final product richer, less icy, and more scoopable. Bright and airy, with the perfect balance of creamy and tart from the raspberries, this sorbet is a great palate cleanser.
Summer Peach and Blackberry Galette
"What I love about galettes is that they're so user-friendly," says 2015 F&W Best New Chef Katie Button. "No matter how you fold or crimp them, they always look beautiful; in fact, the more rustic they look, the prettier they seem to be." Button's easy-to-make galette dough bakes into a flaky crust with a crisp bottom thanks to a high initial baking temperature, which is then reduced to finish cooking, allowing the filling to get perfectly glossy and jammy.
Mango-Hibiscus Cooler
Let guests choose their own adventure with this make-ahead mixer flavored with sweet mango nectar and sour-tart hibiscus syrup, and studded with fresh chopped mango pieces. It's equally delicious on the rocks with sparkling water, topped with bubbly Cava, or stirred together with tequila for a cocktail.
Chocolate-Raspberry Icebox Cake
The answer to summer days when you want to serve a beautiful cake but it's too hot to turn on the oven, this alternative is creamy, it's dreamy, and it's so simple to make. Crushed cookies, fresh raspberries, and layers of tart raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream transform into a gorgeous marbled layer cake in about 15 minutes — no frosting required.
Es Teler (Shaved Ice with Jackfruit, Avocado, and Coconut)
Es teler sits comfortably in the middle of a Venn diagram of "dessert" and "refreshing drink." It's one of many similarly hard-to-classify (but wonderful to eat) sweets found throughout Asia. This Indonesian treat is served in a glass but is most often eaten with a spoon. Served throughout Indonesia — by street vendors and fancy restaurants alike — es teler is beloved for its cooling properties, and is often consumed as an afternoon snack, says Lara Lee, the author of the cookbook Coconut & Sambal. This dessert features young coconut meat; crunchy, jelly-like toddy palm seeds; creamy avocado; pleasantly fibrous jackfruit; and chewy tapioca.
Plum Upside-Down Cake
This pretty cake from pastry chef Joanne Chang is moist and buttery, with plenty of sweet and tangy caramelized plums on top. The finished cake can be stored in an airtight container overnight.
Cherry-Vanilla Clafoutis
Baking Cherry-Vanilla Clafoutis on the grill lends a delicious and unexpected smokiness to the simple French dessert, while whole-wheat flour provides a nutty kick to this otherwise-classic recipe. Want to move this indoors? This clafoutis can be baked for the same amount of time.
Grilled Apricots with Burrata, Country Ham, and Arugula
Here, chef Travis Lett pairs lightly charred grilled apricots with radicchio and baby arugula and tosses them in a simple lemon dressing. The mixture is then topped with shredded burrata, shaved country ham, and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar. Depending on the season, Lett also makes this salad with plums, peaches, and pears.
Triple Ginger Nectarine Jam
This jam uses three different forms of ginger — ground, candied, and fresh — for a deep flavor that beautifully complements the nectarines. Fresh lemon juice brightens everything up.
Spicy Mango Bisque with Scent Leaf
"This cool mango soup was inspired by the frenzied crawl, the hurry-up-and-wait pace of driving into Lagos from the west," food writer and recipe developer Yewande Komolafe says. You'll need four large mangoes for the recipe — don't forget to have some warm crusty bread on hand for serving, too.
Stone Fruit Butter
Fruit butters are made with less sugar than jam, so they have a less candied fruit flavor. Grace Parisi blends all types of stone fruits here, making combinations like nectarine-plum or cherry-peach. The yield here will vary slightly; when the fruit is especially juicy, there is more water to evaporate before the butter thickens, and the yield is smaller.
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