Farm Fresh for the Fourth: Dessert Edition

Farm Fresh for the Fourth: Dessert Edition

It’s almost the Fourth of July, and if you’re looking for easy ways to impress your cookout guests, you’re in the right place! Local fruit makes for a delicious, nutritious, beautiful dessert, and there are many goodies to choose from in July. Today, we’ve gathered three of our favorite easy, locally inspired dessert recipes, perfect for any Fourth of July get-together! Visit our list of preserved farm stands to discover where you can find these ingredients and support the farmers who keep Lancaster flavorful, and visit local orchards for an authentic pick-your-own experience.

Fruit Pops | Bakers Royale

Ingredients – Makes 10 Fruit Pops

  • Large star cookie cutter
  • 10 skewers
  • 7 apples, sliced
  • Handful of blueberries
  • Half a watermelon, sliced
  • 1/3 cup lime or lemon juice (optional)

Instructions

  1. To keep the apples from browning, lightly brush them with lime or lemon juice.
  2. Cut watermelon and apple pieces to thickness of the cookie cutter.
  3. Use the larger star cookie cutters to cut the watermelon and apples.
  4. Stack the watermelon stars, apple stars, and blueberries on skewers as desired.
  5. Serve and enjoy!

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries | Dessert Now Dinner Later

Ingredients

  • 24 large fresh strawberries
  • 8 oz block-style cream cheese, room temperature or softened slightly
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp.  vanilla extract
  • ½ cup fresh blueberries

Instructions

  1. Cut the stems from the strawberries, so the strawberries can sit cut-side down.
  2. Cut a deep “X” from the tip down, being careful not to cut all the way through.
  3. Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a bowl with a hand mixer until nice and fluffy.
  4. Gently open up each strawberry and pipe the filling inside using a pastry bag or zip-top bag with a star piping tip. Don’t have a pastry bag or piping tip? Just cut off the corner of a zip-top bag and squeeze the cheesecake filling inside the strawberries that way.
  5. Top each filled strawberry with a blueberry. These are best served after the strawberries have been chilled for at least an hour. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Blueberry Bars | The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients – Crust and Topping

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • Ingredients – Filling
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 tsp. cornstarch
  • 3 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
  • 1/2 cup blueberry jam
  • 2 tsp. lemon zest
  • 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • Pinch of salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375° with the rack positioned in the lower third of the oven. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Line the pan with parchment paper.
  2. To make the crust and topping: Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, and sugar in a medium bowl until combined. Add the butter. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work the butter into the flour mixture until well combined and the mixture is the texture of wet sand (the mixture should hold together when squeezed). Press half of the mixture into the prepared pan in an even layer. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.
  3. To make the filling: Whisk together the sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Add the blueberries, jam, lemon zest and juice, and salt, tossing to combine. Spread the filling in an even layer over the warm crust in the pan.
  4. Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture over the top of the blueberry filling in an even layer, leaving some larger clumps. Bake until golden brown on top and the filling is bubbly around the edges and in the center, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack, about 3 hours. Cut into bars and serve.