Whether you need a mid-afternoon energy boost or a late-night indulgence, snacks are a quick and delicious respite. A piece of fruit is a simple, , but there's a fun and easy way to transform your favorite fruit into a frozen dessert. Highly perishable, soft, or even unpleasantly mealy fruit would all benefit from a smash to release their flavorful juices followed by a stint in the freezer to improve and solidify their texture.
This frozen smashed fruit hack will save fruit from going bad, resuscitate bruised or otherwise inedible fruit before it goes in the trash, and provide a refreshing, all-natural fruit popsicle.
Fruits best suited for smashing include berries, kiwis, bananas, peaches, nectarines, mangoes, and any other fruit that the back of a fork can effortlessly mash into a pulpy yet cohesive mass. You can mash fruit in a bowl with a spoonful of honey or sweetener before spooning cookie-sized mounds onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and placing them in the freezer to solidify.
After a few hours or an overnight stay in the freezer, you'll have delicately sweet frozen fruit desserts with luscious textures. like peaches, mangoes, and nectarines will provide a velvety smooth sorbet-like texture.
Bananas assume a super creamy and rich consistency akin to ice cream. Berries and kiwi will create a popsicle-like texture dotted with delightfully crunchy seeds.
While a drizzle of honey, agave nectar, or even maple syrup is enough to sweeten and enhance the natural flavors of smashed fruit, you have many options to further elaborate frozen fruit rounds. Once they're frozen, you can dip them in melted chocolate or yogurt before returning them to the freezer to solidify into veritable ice cream bars.
You can also stir in a drop or two of vanilla or almond extract to add complementary depth to the fruit pulp.
For instance, you could smash bananas with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and agave nectar, dip the frozen bananas in melted dark chocolate, then roll them in chopped peanuts. Bananas would also taste delicious blended with maple syrup and peanut butter, then drizzled with milk chocolate. Frozen, smashed raspberries would taste delicious infused with almond extract, a white chocolate coating, and an outer layer of thinly sliced almonds. For a tropical twist, you could dip frozen mango in vanilla yogurt followed by a dredging of sweetened shredded coconut.
For thick or fuzzy-skinned fruit like peaches and nectarines, you can use the fork to both smash the pulp and scrape it from the skin. You can also combine different fruits like peaches and raspberries, blueberries and mangoes, or kiwis and strawberries with a squeeze of lemon, orange, or lime juice and honey for a dairy-free, guilt-free dessert.
