Thickened Fruit Salad – Unique Mennonite Dessert Recipe

Thickened Fruit Salad is a bunch of different fruits, diced and mixed with an orange glaze which results in a colorful and delicious fruit salad dessert!

Wonderful Thickened Fruit Salad Dessert

Have you ever heard of thickened fruit salad? It’s a classic mixed fruit salad, only its got an amazing apricot flavored glaze mixed with it. Thickened fruit salad is a very well loved and common fruit dessert in the Mennonite culture, along with another family favorite of ours, Homemade Strawberry Dessert.

(I’m not sure why it’s called fruit salad, when really it’s a dessert, but anyway, whatever.)

Unlike a lot of the thickened fruit salads out there, this one does not contain any cream cheese, instant pudding or cool whip or anything like that, so it isn’t creamy in that way. It’s more of a Mennonite or Amish style fruit dessert I guess you could say?

At any rate, we love it and I admit, I don’t make it often enough! 

• It’s simple and fairly quick and easy to make.
  
• Only a few ingredients needed!
  
• It’s different. Wow your friends with this dessert; there’s a chance they’ve never seen a fruit dessert quite like this one!
  
• It’s delicious! Add only your favorite fruits to make this fruit dessert perfect for you. 

The cool, smooth texture of the glaze tossed with a mix of fruits makes the perfect fresh fruit salad for a special occasion, family gatherings or summer picnics. (It’s especially great in the summer months, but really any time of the year!). 

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Supplies

• Saucepan – a small pot or something to make the thickened glaze in
  
• Measuring cups and spoons
  
• Whisk
  
• Strainer or colander – for washing the fruits
  
• Cutting board and knife – to chop the fruits, if necessary 
  
• Mixing bowl – a large mixing bowl to mix the thickened glaze with the juicy fruits
  
• Spatula or two

Ingredients 

Fruit – see the Fruit Ideas section below for all the best fruits to add to this thickened fruit salad.

Fruit juice + water – for this recipe you save the fruit juice from the canned fruits instead of draining it away! If you want to use all fresh fruit, no problem; just use all water instead! (You might want to add a little extra sugar then too, since the fruit juice adds sweetness.)

Perma-flo – this is the thickening ingredient. We buy it at our local bulk food store, though you can buy something similar on Amazon here, or substitute with corn starch.

Gelatin – this is standardly made with apricot jello, (and to be honest we think that’s the best flavor for this dessert,) but hey, you can use any flavor! This is also where the color comes from, so keep that in mind. (Using apricot jello results in an orange-colored dessert, cherry jello makes a red dessert, and so on.)

Sugar

Find the full recipe on a handy little printable recipe card below!

How to make Thickened Fruit Salad

First, make the thickened fruit glaze. If you’re planning on using canned fruit, drain off the juice into a large measuring cup. Set the fruit aside. If you don’t have enough juice to equal 4 cups (which you probably won’t) add water until you have 4 cups of liquid.

Dump the fruit juice + water into a saucepan, add the sugar and perma-flo in with the liquid and whisk until no lumps remain. Then place on the stovetop and heat on medium-high heat, whisking all the while.

Keep whisking until eventually the mixture turns completely translucent and thickens somewhat. At this point, remove the saucepan containing the thick glaze from the heat and then whisk in the gelatin.

Transfer to a large bowl to cool. (Here’s where we like to tear off a length of plastic wrap and press it gently down, right on top of the glaze so it doesn’t get a dry “skin” on top while it’s cooling. This is totally optional; you don’t have to do it!)

Let the glaze cool in the fridge for about an hour or so. Meanwhile, prepare the fruit. We like to use a mix of fresh and canned fruit. (See the Fruit Ideas section below for more ideas) If you’re using canned fruit, you probably already drained it, so it’s ready to dump into the glaze. If using fresh fruit, wash and dice it (if necessary) before adding it to the glaze.

Mix thoroughly and chill in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve.

Enjoy!💛

Notes

If the glaze seems too thick, you can add water and whisk or stir until it’s the perfect consistency! Sometimes if using all fresh fruit the glaze can be a little thick, since canned fruits tend to add liquid even if they’ve been drained. 

Fruit Ideas

Yay, now for the fun part! The fruit. We almost always use a quart of canned peaches and a quart of canned pears, for sure. Then we like to add fresh pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, and red or green grapes. Canned mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits or pineapple chunks are great as well.

Here’s a couple more fruits that would make a great addition to this delicious salad dessert:

• Diced apples
  
• Raspberries
  
• Pomegranates
  
• Bananas (Be careful though, don’t add them until just before serving so the whole dessert doesn’t taste like banana!
  
• Maraschino cherries or regular sweet cherries
  
• Or, to simplify matters, use several cans of fruit cocktail. Skip the fruit washing, cutting, etc.!

The combination of fruit is up to you! Use your imagination and add a variety of fruits (all your favorites, maybe?). My favorite way to do this is to use a Pyrex 4-cup measuring cup; once I have it filled twice with bite-sized pieces of fruit (any type of fruit) I know I have a good amount of fruit. (Though a little more or less won’t hurt!) You can’t really mess it up!

How to store Thickened Fruit Salad

Store the fruit salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

Even More Dessert Recipes

• Homemade Strawberry Dessert (another Mennonite style dessert!)
  
• Chocolate Swiss Roll Bars
  
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bars
  
• Eclair Pudding Dessert

Save this recipe for later!

Have you made Thickened Fruit Salad?

Leave a comment below! We’d love to hear your thoughts on it.

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’til next time, we love you and we’ll be praying for you,

-Julie