Fruit or lightly sweet desserts -

I have curtailed my sugar intake drastically but enjoying fruit immensely. I usually eat bananas or apples with nut butter, strawberries with chocolate, chocolate bark, yogurt with fruit and coconut chips, etc. for desserts. What are your best fruit desserts? I am not looking for sugar substitutes or floury baked goods. I do love the raw brownies and avocado mousses and such.

Stephanie G
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7 Comments

Gourmetsyl July 5, 2021
Another low sugar European dessert is fruit crepes. Using any crepe recipe, fill with fresh or cooked fruit (our family favourite is cooked thickened blueberries), sprinkle with icing sugar.
 
Gourmetsyl July 5, 2021
I second the suggestion to make European desserts. This fruit flan is a family favourite - we usually use canned mandarins, and fresh strawberries, blueberries and kiwi plus the Oetker glaze to cover the fruit. Elegant, mildly sweet and refreshing! https://germangirlinamerica.com/german-fruit-flan-recipes/
 
Stephanie B. January 9, 2021
I second fruit tart. With the pastry cream I don’t add any other sweetener to the fruit.

I also love fresh fruit with mascarpone (bonus for not having to actually make anything) and dark chocolate mousse with fruit. Crepes and fresh fruit-sometimes I find the fruit+Nutella combo too sweet and will use lightly sweetened or unsweetened whipped cream instead. Basically any combo of fruit with something creamy: if its good fruit I prefer minimal prep to let the fruit shine. None of these are particularly low fat though, so I hope that’s ok.

If you’re into making your own granola (you can control the sweetness and have more yummy add ins like toasted nuts), you could do a baked fruit crisp/cobbler type thing topped with granola. Clafoutis is another option for baked fruit dessert that isn’t cakey.
 
Nancy January 9, 2021
Fresh fruit compote or salad, garnished with small amounts of nuts or dried coconut. As is or mixed with some dairy (yogurt or cream).
 
Kristen W. January 9, 2021
This is super-simple (and more of a summertime dessert) but it is really light and tasty and of course, full of fruit: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/macerated-berries-with-vanilla-cream
 
Stephanie G. January 9, 2021
Yum, the berries look delicious with the orange flavor.
 
702551 January 8, 2021
Without a doubt my favorite fruit dessert is hands down a fruit tart. It's up to you to decide how much sugar to add to your fruit.

In general European desserts are far less sweet than American ones. If you focus your attention on European dessert recipes you will end up with far less sugar.

There are also common sense tricks by cutting back on quantities. You could make eclairs and cut the pastry cream with an amount of unsweetened whipped cream. Another would be to make lemon crepes and cut back on the application of the lemon custard.

And yes, there's the simple concept of portion control, something America has largely abandoned in the past thirty years...
 
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