9 Healthy(ish) Desserts For The New Year and Beyond

A crate of apples, ready to be added to healthy desserts!

Let’s face it, I didn’t start baking to focus on health foods. I love the richness, sweetness and decadence of a balanced dessert recipe. If you are on a search for some better-for-you recipes, these healthy desserts (featuring lots of fruit!) will do the trick.

Looking for more moderation? Check out my Small Portions episode of Season 3 (episode 5) of Zoë Bakes.

6 Healthy Desserts

Breakfast Cookies are the answer when you need a healthy breakfast but you're running out the door! Make these ahead of time and you won't need to skip the most important meal of the day.
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Sorbet is a light and fruity dessert. You can choose the flavor combination you like best, and while it's high in sugar, you can serve a small bite to cut down and focus on the fruity flavor.
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Whenever I bake this homemade granola the smell brings me back to my childhood living on a commune in Vermont. It's so delicious, I can't wait for you to try it!
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These tender and succulent poached pears are perfect with ice cream or sorbet. The pears are simple to make and beautifully absorb the poaching flavors of red wine and pomegranate.
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You don’t have to be on a Paleo diet to love these honey sweetened stuffed apples. Packed with nuts and cinnamon, they are a light and tasty dessert that are like an apple pie filling that feels like you're eating a healthy snack.
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Unless you made them yourself, you'd never know these are gluten-free oatmeal cookies. They are perfect! Soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. The flavor is all about the maple and oats.
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These Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookies from Stephanie Meyer’s The 30-Minute Paleo Cookbook are the ultimate snack to satisfy. They are super decadent and rich with flavor because they are made with almond butter. The cookies, like everything Stephanie creates, is gluten-free, in fact, these have NO flour at all and can also be made vegan.
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This is one of those desserts that looks magical and stands so far above the rim of the vessel that it seems to defy reason and gravity. It's really only three elements blended together (passion fruit curd, meringue and whipped cream), then frozen into an elegant semifreddo in the shape of a baked soufflé. The texture is a cross between an airy mousse and ice cream.
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What could be better than picking your own apples and making baked goods and applesauce with your bounty? When making applesauce, I like to use a variety of apples, so the sauce has a mix of tart, sweet, firm, and softer apples. It makes the applesauce taste better and have a more interesting texture.
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3 thoughts to “9 Healthy(ish) Desserts For The New Year and Beyond”

  1. Like your breakfast cookie recipe but I try to make some of your recipes and half them when I can. I use Splenda brown sugar a lot and do recipes have been good.

  2. I want the wire strainer Zoe uses to sift her flour. Its open weave and large flat bottom are perfect. I’ve been looking everywhere: Sur La Table, William Sonoma, various shops in my town, online, to no avail. I did not know where else to post an inquiry. Thank you.

    1. Hi Joyce, I checked with Zoë and she said it’s actually not flat (it must be the way it looks on screen) and she believes she got it at an Asian market in Minneapolis. It’s a single mesh inexpensive sieve that’s about 9 1/2 inches across the top. I hope this helps!

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