When people think of homemade snacks, what usually comes first (and maybe last) to their minds is typically savoury things they can make quickly and with a few ingredients. From sandwiches, rolls and wraps to finger foods, pan-cooked pizzas, and stews, they are all tasty. They are all easy. They are filling. But they might not be the ultimate snack choice for anyone with an innate sweet tooth.
Most of those who happen to like desserts often rush to the nearby coffee shop to get a muffin or a doughnut or that addictive lemon loaf from Starbucks to satisfy a sudden craving and get a little energy boost. However, there are so many other sweet options that can be much healthier and easier to get or make. Such as what, you are asking? Such as fruit salads.
In this article, we are giving you three different super easy fruit salad recipes to take with you to work or snack on when you are watching that new series on Friday night. What makes those recipes even more distinct is the delectable Cool Whip cream that is used in them either as a topping or a main ingredient.
Whipped cream could be one of the best culinary inventions that we will utterly be both proud of and grateful for as it completely changed our dessert-eating experience.
It is not known for sure by whom or when whipped cream was invented, but it is evident that it has been used for centuries now. It is made by incorporating air into heavy cream either by whisking or beating. After adding a little sweetness from sugar or honey, the result is usually a fluffy, delicate, sweet cream that now makes the perfect topping for most desserts in Western cuisine.
As you can probably tell, regular whipped cream is a dairy product since it uses heavy cream that is made from animal-based milk. But for the past few decades, Cool Whip has been known as an alternative to dairy whipped cream and was used by many vegetarians and vegans.
Cool Whip is an American brand name for whipped cream that was developed in 1966 by Kraft Heinz Company. Yes, this is the same food company that manufactures Heinz Ketchup.
Cool Whip is made from some hydrogenated oils, such as palm oil and coconut oil, water, corn syrup and even high-fructose corn syrup, in addition to other artificial additives. Maybe for those ingredients, many considered Cool Whip a non-dairy product. However, only recently, the company started adding skimmed milk and a small amount of light cream to the recipe, which disqualified Cool Whip from being vegetarian-friendly.
Like the regular whipped cream, Cool Whip has a slight sweet taste. It is sold frozen like ice cream, but it must be defrosted first to get that light, soft, airy texture and use as whipped cream.
Cool Whip comes in many different varieties. For instance, there is the original Cool Whip, Extra Cream—this apparently has a larger amount of cream and skimmed milk—and Fat-Free Cool Whip as well as a sugar-free option that uses a zero-calorie artificial sweetener called Neotame developed by the American nutrient company The NutraSweet Company.
Although it is not entirely dairy-free, Cool Whip could be a better and healthier option than whipped cream, for it contains less saturated fat and, accordingly, fewer calories. Its texture is more firm and stabilised than that of whipped cream as well. It can also be stored for longer, and it does not melt over time or lose its consistency.
That is why Cool Whip has been used with many desserts as a replacement for regular whipped cream, such as pies, cheesecakes, and cakes. In the next section, we are going to demonstrate three different fruit salad recipes to make with Cool Whip and enjoy as a healthy refreshing summer treat.
If Cool Whip is not available to you, however, you might want to replace it with regular whipped cream. The thing is, because Cool Whip is made from oils and many artificial additives, it may be quite hard to make it at home.
That being said, if you still want something that has anything in common with Cool Whip, you can use the following recipe to make a more stabilised whipped cream that has the same consistency as Cool Whip. You are going to need an electric hand mixer for this.
In a small cooking pod, add the water and the unflavoured gelatin. Whisk them a little, then let them sit for 2-4 minutes. Place the pod on medium-low heat and stir the water/gelatin mixture until the latter is totally dissolved. Take the pot off the heat and let it cool. You should not use this mixture until it has wholly reached room temperature.
Bring a small bowl and add in the cream of tartar with one tablespoon of heavy cream. Stir until well blended, then move this mixture to another large bowl. Add the cooled gelatin mixture and blend for around 30 seconds, then add the remaining heavy cream, vanilla extract and a quarter cup of sugar. You can replace that with two and a half tablespoons of honey, if you want.
Beat the cream and the rest of the ingredients for five minutes or until soft peaks start to form and you get that fluffy, airy texture. Once you get that consistency, stop beating and move your just-made, Cool-Whip-like whipped cream into a storage container.
If you are going to store this whipped cream in the freezer, make sure you deforest it before you use it for either of the following recipes or any other one.
The first fruit salad recipe we have is pretty straightforward and does not take more than 10 minutes to make. You can consume it either as a sweet snack between meals or a dessert after lunch or dinner. We are using homemade syrup to sweeten the fruits with a little bit of vanilla extract to give them a more heavenly taste.
The following ingredients make eight servings, yet you can tailor the quantities the way you want. You can add or extract any fruits as well.
Place a pan on medium-low heat. Add the water, four tablespoons of sugar and the lemon juice and stir. Bring the mixture to a boil and then let it simmer for around 5 to 7 minutes. Turn off the heat, add one teaspoon of vanilla extract and mix. Set the mixture aside to cool.
In a large bowl, add the raspberries, peaches, black raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and cherries. Add the sweet sauce we made in the previous step and mix it well with the fruits until the pieces are all well coated. Let the salad chill in the refrigerator for around 30 minutes.
Serve your fruit salad in smaller bowls, add one scoop of Cool Whip on each bowl and sprinkle some chopped hazelnuts on the top.
Instead of scooping Cool Whip on top, the next fruit salad recipe mixes fruits with Cool Whip and does not have any sweetness except that from the latter. You can make it with whatever fruits you have but try not to add citrus ones to avoid their sour taste, which might not be very suitable with the fluffy, sweet taste of Cool Whip.
If you want, however, you can drizzle a little bit of maple syrup or caramel sauce on top of your salad before serving.
In a large bowl, add your apples, raspberries, blueberries, black raspberries, strawberries, and bananas, then add one cup and a half of Cool Whip. You need to make sure it is not completely frozen like ice cream but instead defrosted and fluffy.
Mix the fruits with Cool Whip. Stir gently so you do not smash the banana slices. Let the salad chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before serving.
This fruit salad recipe might at first sound like the previous one, but it is actually much richer. It mainly uses more types of fruits, either diced or sliced, as well as a blend of cream cheese, Cool Whip and marshmallows to mix with the fruits.
You are going to need a Bundt pan for this recipe. If you do not have that, you can replace it with a ring mould.
If you want, you can also drizzle a little maple syrup or chocolate sauce on top of your salad before serving. This one works best as a summer dessert that you can enjoy after a big, delicious meal with your family.
In a large bowl, add the cream cheese, Cool Whip, almonds and marshmallows, then, with a spatula, mix all of those until well blended.
After that, add the green apples, cantaloupe, strawberries, grapes, kiwis, apricots, cherries and peaches and mix all with the cream cheese and Cool Whip blend. Move your fruit salad to the Bundt pan or ring mould and freeze it for an hour.
Before serving, unmold the frozen fruit salad on a serving platter or use an ice cream scooper to scoop it into small bowls. Drizzle any sauce of your choice on top.
Fruit salads are one of the best refreshing and healthiest sweet snacks one can enjoy when they have a craving or to get a little energy booster in the middle of the day.
The recipes we mentioned in this article are quite simple and super delicious and take only a few minutes to make. But adding a little bit of Cool Whip to them will take them to a brand new level of pleasure.
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