If you’ve got a sweet tooth it can be difficult to find dessert options that are both slimming friendly and satisfying.
Snacking on a piece of fruit is great for taking the edge off a craving for something sweet, but it doesn’t quite cut it when what you really fancy is a proper pudding.
The good news is that we have a wide selection of delicious dessert recipes that are lower in calories, without compromising on taste.
Because fruit is so good for you, naturally sweet and low calorie, we love to include it in so many of our favourite puddings.
From fresh, tangy berries to crisp, juicy apples, we’ve created lots of irresistible fruity desserts that taste far more indulgent than they really are.
Here’s a few fruity dessert ideas to see you through the summer months.
Berries
Summer is the season to celebrate British berries.
Plump, juicy and full of flavour, berries are cheapest when they’re in season and don’t need to be flown in from warmer climates.
If you don’t mind paying a little bit more, you can enjoy strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and other delicious summer fruits all year round.
One of our favourite ways to enjoy strawberries is by making our classic Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries.
These can be served as a dessert or simply enjoyed as a snack whenever you fancy something sweet – they only take ten minutes to make.
That little sprinkle of biscuit over the top adds more flavour than you might think.
It really transforms these to taste like cheesecake and you can play around with the final taste just by switching the digestive for a different kind of biscuit.
Why not try crushing up a chocolate bourbon or a gingernut?
Blackcurrants are often overlooked when we think about summer berries but they work so well in desserts.
They have a sharp, tart flavour that can be transformed into something vivid and sweet just by adding a little bit of sweetener.
They’re full of vitamin C and add colour and flavour when you pop them into crumbles, fruit pies or jams.
Have you tried making our Blackcurrant Mousse?
It’s the perfect way to finish a meal, and fancy enough that your friends and family will be impressed when you bring it to the table.
Each portion is less than 100 calories too, so there’s no need to save these for a special occasion.
If you find yourself with lots of summer berries that need using up before they spoil, we’ve got the perfect recipe.
This Summer Berry Cobbler is our twist on a classic American dessert.
A little like a crumble, the fruit is sweetened and topped with a mixture of crumbly, oaty biscuits that get golden brown in the oven.
As they cook, all those summer fruits soften and create a rich, sweet syrup that bubbles up between the cobbler biscuits.
This dessert is so satisfying. Served with a good dollop of low fat yoghurt, it’s fruity and refreshing.
You have to give it a try!
Enjoying fruity desserts doesn’t always have to mean using fresh fruit!
In certain recipes, frozen fruit can work just as well, if not better.
This Summer Puddings recipe is the perfect example.
It uses frozen summer berries that have been left to defrost.
When you add sweetener to the berries and all the juices that they’ve released as they’ve defrosted, you create a fruity syrup that’s essential for this dish.
Soak all of the syrup into the bread to create these vivid, juicy puddings that are bursting with those sweet summer fruits.
Bananas
Banana is amazing in desserts because of how well it pairs with other flavours.
From chocolate to peanut butter, coffee to caramel, there are just so many sweet recipes that feature this fruit.
Our Banoffee Tiramisu is a great place to start.
It layers slices of banana with sponge fingers, bitter coffee and syrupy sweet caramel.
Leave it to set in the fridge and you’ll have a showstopper of a dessert that looks and tastes incredibly luxurious, with far fewer calories than other similar recipes.
If you’re feeling fancy or cooking for friends, these Banana and Caramel Filo Rolls are impressive but super easy!
You only need six ingredients, but they’ll look like they’ve come straight from a restaurant kitchen.
Using filo pastry is a great way to keep the calories low, and it gets really crunchy so it adds lots of texture.
These filo rolls are crying out to be dipped – we’ve used a reduced sugar caramel sauce but you could also try low fat chocolate sauce, sweetened quark or even custard.
Speaking of custard, it’s one of those things that goes so well with bananas.
We’ve combined the two elements to make this unbelievable Banana Cream Pudding.
Making your own custard can seem daunting at first but it’s easy once you know how.
The key is in the whisking – take it slow when you add the hot milk to your eggs.
No one wants scrambled eggs for dessert!
This pudding comes out so creamy and luxurious. It’s perfect at the end of a roast dinner.
We couldn’t talk about banana desserts without mentioning the obvious one – Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips!
There’s no denying that banana bread was one of the heroes of 2020, keeping us all busy baking in our kitchens.
Thanks to a few clever swaps, our version is so much lighter than traditional recipes, but every bit as much of a treat.
It’s hard to beat a slice of this with a cup of tea in an afternoon.
Apples and Pears
Some of our most comforting fruity dessert recipes use apples or pears.
Warming apple pies and crumbles are the perfect puddings for cooler evenings and just so satisfying when you’re craving something sweet after dinner.
These Toffee Apple Pies might make you think of bonfire night and autumn evenings but they’re delightful all year round.
We’ve used our favourite filo pastry again for these – it’s so versatile and much more slimming friendly than other butter-heavy pastries.
That delicious toffee flavour comes from reduced sugar caramel dessert topping, cooked with the apples and then drizzled over the top right after the pies come out the oven.
For a twist on another comforting classic, we’ve used pears instead of apples and mixed in some warming ginger to make this Pear and Ginger Crumble.
With fresh ginger grated into the filling, and crunchy ginger biscuits crumbled into the topping, you get a kick of heat as well as sweetness from the syrupy pears.
Add a drizzle of custard or a scoop of ice cream for an irresistible pud.
Would you ever have thought that high calorie, buttery pastry could be swapped for a tortilla wrap to create a slimming friendly version of an Apple Strudel?
When it comes to creative ways to cook with wraps, this is one of our favourites.
We’ve added some mincemeat into these, which is a little bit festive but far too good to save for Christmas!
These Apple Pie Cookies can work as a dessert, a snack or even breakfast!
A cross between an apple pie and a crumbly cookie, they’re sweet, satisfying and so versatile.
You can whip up a batch in just 20 minutes and, at 95 calories per cookie, they’re a much lighter alternative to other sugary pastries.
Tropical and exotic
Zingy and supersweet, tropical fruits are a great choice for dessert.
From mangoes to pineapples, there’s a huge selection of exotic fruits that are readily available in supermarkets.
You can even buy frozen tropical fruits, which can be cheaper and less wasteful.
We’ve used frozen mango in this creamy Mango and Raspberry Ice Cream, along with fresh bananas and frozen raspberries.
It’s so easy to make, low in calories and perfect for pudding, either served on its own or scooped onto the side of one of our other recipes!
This next dessert will take you back to the 70s!
It might be retro, but our Pineapple Upside Down Cake is a tasty, tropical delight.
Topped with zingy pineapple, we like to finish this cake off with a blast of the blow torch to give the top a lovely crunch!
Popping it under a very hot grill will work too, if you don’t have a blow torch to hand!
Serving this at the end of a meal is a surefire way to impress your guests.
Desserts don’t always have to be fancy though.
Sometimes the simplest recipes can be just what you fancy!
These Syrupy Cinnamon Figs with Greek Yoghurt are the perfect example.
Ready in ten minutes, the figs are simmered gently in cinnamon infused maple syrup, bringing out the beautiful flavours and juices of the fresh fruit.
Served with a swirl of Greek yoghurt, this is a light, refreshing dessert – you could even try it for breakfast.
The simplest fruity dessert of all? A classic fruit salad of course!
Just about anything goes with a fruit salad, and you can throw in anything that you’ve got left in the fruit bowl.
Our Festive Fruit Salad is a wintry take, using fruits that are easy to find in the winter, combined with some warming spices for that Christmassy taste.
The spiced syrup is delicious all year round, and can be drizzled over any fruits you like.
What’s your favourite fruity dessert? Tell us over on our Facebook Group, where there are already almost 1 million members sharing support and inspiration.
