18 Healthy Summer Desserts Made with In-Season Fruit
Take advantage of fresh, in-season produce and enjoy our best healthy summer desserts at your next gathering or after a weeknight dinner. These light treats are so delicious and satisfying you won't even notice they're under 300 calories with beneficial nutrients from fruit, whole grains, and naturally sweet ingredients.
Dessert Pizza with Banana Ice Cream
Banana "nice" cream (pureed frozen bananas mixed with a bit of milk to achieve an ice cream-like consistency) is the sauce on this crispy rice cereal-crusted fruit pizza. Cool and crispy, it's a must-make healthy summer dessert for hot weather. Tailor it to the season by loading it up with strawberries and mango slices in early summer or peaches and blackberries later in the season.
Blueberry and Peach Slab Pie
Stick with one crust instead of two for this summer fruit pie to keep each slice under 300 calories. Not only does that save calories, but it also allows the summer fruits—blueberries and peaches—to shine. Because there's no need to keep this recipe cold or hot for serving, it's one of our go-to healthy summer desserts when we want a sweet that's not too rich.
Fresh Berry Bruschetta
Nope, there are no tomatoes in this bruschetta recipe; we're going all sweet with this under-250-calorie healthy summer dessert. Sprinkle bread slices with cinnamon and sugar, stir in fresh mint to your cream cheese spread, and top with fresh, slightly mashed summer berries for a fast sweet that fits your healthy eating plan.
Sour Cherry Sorbet
Three ingredients and 10 minutes of prep are all it takes to get this make-ahead, healthy summer dessert in the freezer. Serve by the scoop for one of our best light summer desserts (only 70 calories!), in a glass with your favorite cola for a soda-shop treat, or make it a boozy dessert with sparkling wine.
Carrot and Zucchini Bars
Move over, summer salads. Zucchini-carrot bars are a more fun way to feature fresh summer produce. Top off the bars with a generous slather of our citrus-spiked cream cheese frosting, all while keeping dessert under 150 calories.
Peach-Berry Slump
The cobbler mixture in this healthy summer dessert only requires two tablespoons of butter keeping the 245-calorie sweet at just four grams of fat. With a full pound of peaches and two cups of berries as the base, this is a fruit-forward dessert that won't weigh you down.
Choco-Zucchini Cupcakes
Moist, cocoa-loaded, and secretly healthy, these single-serving cakes get their summer style via two cups of shredded zucchini. Everyone will be so distracted by the peanut butter cup-like flavors that they won't notice the veggies hiding inside the cupcake batter.
Berry Slab Pie
Load a light, flaky crust with your favorite berries for the ultimate summer dessert. Frozen puff pastry simplifies the prep, so you can enjoy your sweet (116-calorie) treat sooner.
Triple-Berry Cobbler
Raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries are topped with a crumb mixture for an impressive after-dinner sweet from your slow cooker. Get it going in the morning, and this healthy dessert recipe will be ready whenever you are.
Stovetop Peach-Blackberry Crisp
Leave the oven off and cook this peach and berry crisp recipe on your stove. Use your creativity (and whatever looks best at the market) to make this 30-minute dessert recipe your own. Nectarines or plums make stellar peach stand-ins, while blueberries or raspberries work wonderfully instead of blackberries.
Peach Crisp with Cornbread Topper
Grab a package of corn muffin mix, and you're halfway to making this delicious and healthy summer dessert idea. Make a bubbly brown sugar peach mixture and top it with spoonfuls of corn batter. Drizzle it with honey right out of the oven and serve it warm with vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt.
Blueberry Lemonade Poke Cake
A homemade blueberry sauce infuses this summer cake recipe with sweet berry flavor. Before you spread it over the cake, drizzle on lemonade concentrate to echo the flavor of the classic warm weather drink. Finish with a fluffy lemon curd whipped cream.
Schaum Torte
If you've never had Schaum Torte before, you're in for a treat! The cake is very similar to a meringue with a crisp exterior and marshmallow-like center. Pile on whipped cream and fresh raspberries or strawberries and serve immediately.
Roasted Strawberry Frozen Yogurt
Roasting the strawberries first helps intensify their flavor. Our recipe testers also adored the jammy strawberry pieces throughout the frozen yogurt. Each serving clocks in at 157 calories and 3 grams of fat.
Confetti Cake and Ice Cream Pops
Give ice cream cake a remix by making it into easy-to-eat pops. Here, confetti cake is layered with sorbet and finished with sprinkles. One reviewer raved, "Delicious! We just ate it as an ice cream cake."
Raspberry-Peach Clafouti
Clafoutis is a French dessert made with fresh fruit and a custardy batter. Here, we're using fresh raspberries and peaches. Top the finished dessert with a light sprinkle of powdered sugar and fresh basil.
Mini Blueberry Pies
Each of these individual pies is under 300 calories. The filling is made with fresh blueberries, water, cornstarch, and sugar. Top the finished summer dessert with more fresh berries, lemon zest, and whipped cream or yogurt.
Coconut-Blueberry Cheesecake Bars
This big-batch dessert recipe makes 32 servings. To make, layer a homemade coconut crust with cheesecake filling and fresh blueberries. Cool completely before slicing and serving.