Who doesn’t want to satiate their sweet tooth without the guilt of indulgence? With these fruity desserts, you can eat all the sweet you want and take care of your health too.
When you’re watching your weight or just generally looking for healthy, fruit-based desserts, it’s important to find something that’s as nutritious as it is healthy and low in calories. Thankfully, new culinary innovations happen every day and finding healthy alternatives is a growing trend today. So here’s our roundup of delicious, refreshing fruit-based desserts for when you want to indulge in something sweet while still taking care of your health.
1. Fruit Yogurt Bark
Ingredients:
- 3 cups yogurt
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups sliced strawberries
- ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Directions:
- Prepare a baking sheet.
- In a bowl, mix together the yogurt, honey and vanilla.
- Spread the mixture evenly onto the baking sheet. Sprinkle the strawberries and chocolate chips on top.
- Freeze until it’s hard. Break into uneven pieces and serve.
2. Oats Apple Crumble
Ingredients:
- ½ cup rolled oats
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 apples, cored and cut into thin wedges
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 pack of vanilla yogurt
Directions:
- Preheat the oven.
- In a bowl, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Once it’s mixed, add the butter and mix until it starts forming clumps.
- In another bowl, toss the apples with the water, lemon juice and brown sugar.
- Transfer the apple mixture onto a pie plate. Add the oat mixture evenly over the apples.
- Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until the top is golden and the apples are tender. Serve warm with yogurt.
3. Mango Leather
Ingredients:
- 3 mangoes, peeled and chopped
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Directions:
- Preheat the oven.
- Puree the mangoes, water and lemon juice until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a pan and let it simmer.
- Let it continue cooking till it has reduced to 2 cups.
- Pour the puree onto a baking sheet and spread evenly, no more than ⅛ inch thick.
- Bake until it’s dry to the touch. Let it cool completely.
- Roll the fruit leather in a cylindrical shape and use a scissor to cut into 2 inch wide strips.
4. Caramelized Pears
Ingredients:
- 3 sliced pears
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- Pinch of salt
Directions:
- In a bowl, toss the pears with lemon juice.
- Melt the butter on medium heat and stir in the pears. Cook for at least 10 minutes.
- In the meanwhile, combine the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt in a bowl.
- After the 10 minutes are up, add the sugar mixture to the pears. Keep stirring until the pears are glazed.
- Serve warm.
5. Fruitcake
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups orange juice
- 1 ½ cups chopped candied orange peel
- 1 cup chopped dried cherries
- 1 cup chopped dried apricots
- 1 cup chopped dried pineapple
- ¾ cup currants
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons molasses
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large egg whites, divided
- 8 pecan halves, for garnish
Directions:
- Preheat the oven. Prepare loaf pans by lining with butter.
- In a small pan, bring the orange juice to a simmer on medium heat.
- Mix the orange peels, dried cherries, apricots, pineapple and currants in a large bowl.
- Pour the warm juice over the fruits and let it sit for roughly 10 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed. Strain out the excess juice.
- Toss the fruit with half of the all-purpose flour until well coated. Set aside.
- In another bowl, mix the remaining all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder and salt.
- Put the sugar, oil and butter in another bowl and process it until it’s a smooth, creamy texture. Then add in the molasses, vanilla and egg whites one at a time, and continue blending.
- Stir in the dry ingredients. Pour this batter over the fruit and mix well.
- Divide the mixture between the prepared pans. Decorate with the pecans.
- Bake until the cakes are light brown and firm, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let it cool completely and serve.