Amish Fruit Salad Recipe - Amish Heritage (2024)

Amish Fruit Salad

This recipe for Amish fruit salad is made with a sweetened homemade fruit sauce that has been thickened to perfection. And it incorporates a combination of both canned and fresh fruits, resulting in a delightful and refreshing medley of flavors.

Prepare to be enchanted with every spoonful of this amazing fruit salad, as it delivers a symphony of mouthwatering flavors that will leave you craving for more. This uncomplicated and light dessert is an ideal choice to grace potlucks or family gatherings, ensuring a delightful treat for all to enjoy.

Amish Cooking

In Amish culture, where meals are often served to large crowds, resourcefulness and frugality are highly valued. Amish women, renowned for their culinary skills, ingeniously create tasty dishes using ingredients already available in their pantry or cellar.

And growing up Amish, fruit salad with sauce was a dish that was often served alongside cakes, pies, and pudding.

Our group was predominantly comprised of dairy farmers, granting us an abundance of milk. So we made lots of homemade thick and creamy cornstarch pudding. Our pantry was always stocked with essential ingredients, allowing us to whip up a homemade cake whenever an occasion arose. And, of course, our shelves were lined with jars of canned fruits, preserved from the bounty of summer harvest. So homemade fruit salad with a glaze-like sauce was a dessert dish that was served many times.

And we never served a solitary dessert dish but rather presented an array of complementary dishes. Cake accompanied by pudding and fruit salad with dressing was a combination we thoroughly enjoyed.

Variety of Fruit

The specific ingredients used in Amish fruit salad can vary, depending on personal preferences and the availability of fruits. However, some common fruits that we typically included are:

1. Apples: Crisp and juicy apples, such as Gala or Fuji, are commonly used. They provide a sweet and slightly tart flavor.
2. Oranges: Segmented oranges or mandarin oranges add a bright citrusy taste and a burst of freshness to the salad.
3. Bananas: Sliced bananas contribute a creamy and smooth texture to the salad, along with their naturally sweet flavor. (However, I recommend adding them just before serving.)
4. Grapes: Red or green seedless grapes are often included (typically cut in half), offering a juicy and slightly tangy element to the salad.
5. Pineapple: Chunks or tidbits of pineapple bring a tropical sweetness to the mix, balancing the flavors of the other fruits. (And if preferred, you could use fresh pineapple as well.)
6. Peaches: Canned peaches bring a delightful sweetness that adds a pleasant contrast to the overall taste profile of the fruit salad. And the soft texture adds a pleasing melt-in-your-mouth quality to the fruit salad, complementing the firmer texture of other fruits.
7. Berries: Depending on the season, berries such as strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries can be added, adding vibrant colors and a delightful sweetness.

This amazing fruit salad can be made with whatever fruit you have on hand. Sometimes we made it made with mostly canned fruits such as peaches, pears, and pineapple. But we loved when it had grapes in it as well. And fresh berries are definitely a great addition.

Sweet Fruit Salad Dressing

Homemade fruit salad dressing is easy to make, and you can adjust the sweetness as desired.

Fruit is already sweet, so I don't like making the dressing too sweet. Therefore, I only add a 3/4 cup full of sugar. My original Amish fruit salad sauce recipe had one and a half cups of sugar, and that's too much for me. But if you enjoy really sweet sweets, then you might like it with 1 1/2 cups.

The sauce is thickened with clear jel and jello. And you could adjust that a bit too depending on how thick you like the sauce.

Can I Use Cornstarch?

I have not tried this recipe using cornstarch instead of clear jel. But if you must, you can use cornstarch. However, it works a bit differently, so it probably won't be an even trade.

I'm honestly not sure how much cornstarch you will need to use to replace the clear jel. But some folk will tell you that you need to use a little more than half the amount of cornstarch. So, in other words, to replace a half cup of clear jel, you may need an approximate one-third cup of cornstarch.

Fruit salad can be enjoyed as a refreshing side dish, a light dessert, or a standalone snack. Combining fresh, juicy fruits with creamy dressing creates a harmonious blend of textures and flavors that are both satisfying and wholesome.

More Amish Dessert Recipes with Fruit

Creamy Grape Salad

Strawberry Tapioca Pudding

Peach Delight Dessert

Frozen Fruit Slush

Strawberry Danish Dessert

Amish Fruit Salad Recipe

Amish fruit salad is a refreshing medley of fruits like apples, pineapples, peaches, berries, etc., mixed with a tangy homemade sauce made from fruit juice and lemon jello. A great dish for potlucks, family gatherings, etc. that is delightfully wholesome and satisfying.

Nutrition

Serving: 0.75cupCalories: 205kcalCarbohydrates: 52gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0.1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.2gMonounsaturated Fat: 0.1gSodium: 9mgPotassium: 321mgFiber: 4gSugar: 39gVitamin A: 263IUVitamin C: 26mgCalcium: 31mgIron: 1mg