Ideas For Fruit Salad – Festive Holiday Fruit Salad
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If you’re searching for festive ideas for fruit salad, you need this holiday fruit salad in your life! Featuring a variety of fruit in a creamy custard-like sauce, this fruit salad is one of my favorite treats… ever!
When it comes to ideas for fruit salad, I’ll always instantly turn to and recommend my Grandmama’s holiday fruit salad recipe. It’s my absolute favorite thing in the entire world to eat. I adore it. I love it. As my son said once, “This is so good. If it were a girl, I’d marry it!”. Yep, it’s THAT good.
So, what makes this refreshing fruit salad recipe so irresistible? Well, it includes lots of different fresh fruit, like apples, oranges, and grapes, plus multiple cans of fruit cocktail. Then instead of a , you drain the fruit juice and make a deliciously creamy and custard-like sauce with the juice, sugar, and egg yolks. Let the fruit salad sit in the fridge overnight so the fruit can soak up all that creamy goodness and you have yourself the perfect winter fruit salad.
This is a great dessert dish to take to festive potlucks and gatherings with friends and family. No one will be able to resist!
Recipe Ingredients
- Apples
- Oranges
- Seedless grapes
- 3-4 cans fruit cocktail (with juice)
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 egg yolks
Let’s first start with the ! Peel and chop apples. Place in a bowl.
Peel and cut up oranges. Cut oranges up over apples and stir so that the orange juice prevents them from browning.
Yep, no need for or . The does the job!
Cut grapes into halves. Place in the bowl.
Pour all of the fruit cocktail cans into the bowl, juice and all.
Stir well.
Drain the juice from the bowl of fruit into a saucepot.
Add sugar.
You CAN use Splenda in place of sugar here!
Separate eggs.
You can discard the whites or find another use for them. I’ve included some ideas in the notes section of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Beat egg yolks well.
Add to the saucepot. Stir well.
Cook for approximately 15 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.
Cool.
Pour over fruit. Stir, cover, and refrigerate.
Make at least 24 hours ahead so that flavors can marry.
Or they can just date for a bit. They’ll likely get along better if they haven’t signed on for a commitment after such a short time anyway!
Serve cold.
If you had any idea how wonderful this tastes you’d be dying right now!
Grandmama and Mama always store theirs in glass jars in the fridge, kind of like this one.
Storage
Leftovers will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for a week. I don’t recommend freezing leftover fruit salad.
Recipe Notes
- When it comes to topping ideas for fruit salad, I recommend coconut and/or pecans. You could also garnish the with or
- If you’d like to add more fresh fruit, you can add bananas to this fruit salad recipe. However, they turn dark quickly and the fruit salad will not last as long in the refrigerator.
- This is a . I wouldn’t recommend using .
- Another idea is to transform this into a , by using .
- Instead of fruit cocktail, you could use a variety of canned tropical fruit, like crushed pineapple, peach slices, or maraschino cherries.
- This is the perfect time to save those egg whites for the meringue on top of a pie or banana pudding! Here are my favorite dessert recipes using meringue:
Here are more fabulously festive recipes to make these holidays:
Southern Plate’s Must Make Christmas Cookies
Christmas Candies (On A Budget & In A Hurry)
Christmas Tie-Dyed Cheesecake Brownies
Sugared Cranberries (3 Ingredients Only)
Ingredients
- 6-8 apples
- 6 oranges
- 1 lb seedless grapes
- 3-4 cans fruit cocktail 15-ounce cans. You can use generic, it is every bit as good!
- 1 cup sugar
- 6 egg yolks*
Instructions
- Peel the fruit and chop them into small pieces. Cut the oranges over the apples so that the juice from the oranges will stop the apples from turning dark. Pour fruit cocktail cans over the fruit.6-8 apples, 6 oranges, 1 lb seedless grapes, 3-4 cans fruit cocktail
- Drain the juice from the fruit into a saucepan. Add 1 cup of sugar and 6 egg yolks. Blend well.1 cup sugar, 6 egg yolks*
- Cook for approximately 15 minutes over medium heat stirring occasionally until slightly thickened. Cool. Pour over fruit.
- Stir, cover, and refrigerate. Will keep in the fridge for a week. Make at least 24 hours ahead so that flavors can marry.
- Optional: coconut and pecans. Bananas can be added but they turn dark quickly and the fruit salad will not last as long in the refrigerator.
Notes
Banana Pudding
Lemon Meringue Pie
Orange Meringue Pie
Coffee Cream Pie
Nutrition
Christy,
Are we by chance sister and didn’t know it? Your holiday recipes have been lifted out of my mother’s, grandmother and aunt’s kitchens. This is one of my mothers favorites. We have quit making it in the last several years but I intend to this year.
We might just be Cheryl, in spirit if nothing else!! Merry Christmas!
We make something very similar to this fruit salad but omit the eggs Cut up fruit of your choice, nothing canned, sprinkle sugar (amount is up to you) then pour milk over but not to cover, just enough to make a simple sauce, stir and let marinate for a few hours in the fridge. We serve it with all the cakes and trust me…it’s yummy over german chocolate! My husband doesn’t rally like it, he calls it ‘fruit cereal’ but all my family LOVE it! Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Nelda, my mother always put mini marshmallows in this recipe. It’s delicious! Christy, one of the things I love about your posts is how much our mothers cooked alike. I have forgotten about some of these recipes. When I see them posted on Southern Plate it reminds me to make the recipe and relive some wonderful memories. Because I don’t have some of the recipes, I use yours since I know it’s going to be just like Mothers.
can this be frozen? how many marshmallows would you suggest?
Christi, my mom makes this every holiday but with vanilla pudding.
Susie, does the vanilla pudding take the place of the sauce or is the vanilla puffing in addition to?
Sorry, that would be pudding!
Just wondering… ever put mini marshmellows in this salad? Can’t wait to try it.
My Mom used to make a salad very similar to this and she put miniature marshmallows in it. Just pour in how many you want. It was wonderful.
I just made this for a birthday brunch, and I’ve decided I want it in my fridge at ALL TIMES. My hubby can’t eat eggs, so I followed another reader’s advice by mixing the cocktail juice with a small box of Jello instant vanilla pudding. It is the most heavenly-tasting sauce. I can see why this is one of Christy’s favorites!
Christy, I tried making this for Christmas, the cookbook varies from your website. I dont’ have the cookbook with me but I think it says stir constantly and use only 1 can of fruit cocktail? I never have noticed a difference between the site and your book so was wondering what happened.