Fruit Cream (No-Cook 20 Minute Dessert)
Jun 19, 2024
This no-cook Fruit Cream is a refreshing dessert that's perfect to serve at a summer party. You only need 20 minutes to make this!
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Make this Indian style Fresh Fruit Cream in 20 minutes! This is one of my favorite summer desserts because there’s no cooking involved, it is refreshing and you can load it up with all your colorful summer fruits. I love eating this chilled on a hot summer day.
Back home in India, summers used to be brutal. And we would often get through them with lots of cold and simple desserts like fruit custard, kulfi and this fruit cream. My mom would always make the custard or fruit cream during summers when she had friends over or when we simply wanted to eat something sweet.
Fruit cream is nothing but whipped cream and fruits. And you can’t go wrong with cream and fruits, right? It is such a classic combination and it always works!
Making Indian Fresh Fruit Cream With Heavy Cream In The US
When I started making fresh fruit cream here in the US, I struggled with replicating the texture of fruit cream that I was used to in India. The reason was that in India, we mainly made fruit cream with Amul cream which has a very low fat percentage (20%) compared to the heavy cream that we get in the US.
In the US, we get heavy creams which have fat percentages ranging from 35%-40%. And using 100% heavy cream in fruit cream made the dessert quite heavy unlike the one we get in India.
After playing around a little with different proportions, I have come to a conclusion that this combination works best for Indian style fruit cream:
- First, I use heavy cream with 35% fat percentage for this recipe (there are 40% fat heavy cream also available in the US but don’t use that)
- And to cut the fat further, I replace some of the heavy cream with half & half. This combination gives me the fruit cream texture that’s light and just like the one we get in India.
Honestly, this is the easiest summer dessert you can make in 30 minutes or less. But as is the case with simple recipes often, a single mistake can ruin your dessert. And in this case, pay close attention to not over-beating the cream to stiff peak consistency.
Let’s Make Fruit Cream!
- To the stand bowl of your hand mixer add 1 & 1/2 cups heavy cream (35% fat) along with 1/2 cup half & half. You can also use a hand mixer. Make sure the cream and half & half is chilled before you add it to the mixer. Start beating the mixture using the wire whisk attachment of your stand mixer.
- When the mixture starts to get a little foamy, add 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk (or add more if you prefer a sweeter fruit cream). Also add 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder and 1/4 teaspoon orange extract to flavor the fruit cream. You can also add rose water or saffron and flavor it anyway you like it.
- Beat the cream mixture with the wire whisk attachment of your stand mixer until it forms soft peaks (where whipped cream hold its shape but the peaks bend when you lift the wire whisk attachment). We don’t want stiff peaks for this recipe. Add all the chilled fruits now. I added 1 & 1/4 cups sliced grapes (I cut each grape in half and then further slices each in two lengthwise), 1/3 cup pomegranate arils, 2 medium apples (cut into cubes), 2 bananas (sliced), and 2 medium mangoes (cubed).
- Using a spatula gently fold the fruits into the whipped cream. Now, transfer the fruit cream into individual bowls/cups. Top with more fruits and chopped nuts. I like to chill the fruit cream for 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!
Make Ahead Option
You can make this dessert in advance. The best way to do this would be to chop the fruits and store them in the fridge (minus the banana). And whip the cream and store it separately. You can then combine the two 30 minutes before serving.
You can also make and assemble the entire dessert before but I would skip the banana and apples in that case.
Manali’s Tips
- It is important to not beat the cream to stiff peaks if you are looking for that fruit cream texture that we get in India.
- If you have access to Amul cream, then you will just use 2 cups of Amul cream straight away. However if using Amul cream, make sure to chill the cream and the bowl of the mixer before you start beating the cream as it does take some effort to beat Amul cream.
- You can sweeten this fruit cream with sugar as well if you don’t have sweetened condensed milk on hand.
- Use whatever fruits you like here but avoid citrus fruits like oranges, kiwi and pineapple in this recipe. Also watery fruits like melons should be avoided.
- Sweet fruits work best here. Do not use a tart apple or an unripe mango. It just doesn’t work.
- Preferably chill the fruits before adding them to the whipped cream for best results.
Fruit Cream (No-Cook 20 Minute Dessert)
Ingredients
- 1 & ½ cups heavy cream use 35% heavy cream if you live in US and not the 40%
- ½ cup half & half
- ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons condensed milk or use ½ cup if you prefer more sweetness
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
- ¼ teaspoon orange extract optional
- 1-2 teaspoon rose water
- 1 & ¼ cups grapes I used green grapes, cut into thin pieces
- ⅓ cup pomegranate arils
- 2 medium apples cut into cubes
- 2 small banana cut into round slices
- 2 medium mangoes cut into cubes
- nuts (chopped pistachios, almonds) to garnish
Instructions
- Add the cream and half & half to the steel bowl of your stand mixer (or use a hand mixer). Make sure the cream and the bowl is chilled before you start doing this process. Start beating the mixture with the wire whisk attachment of your stand mixer.
- Add condensed milk, cardamom powder and orange extract (optional) and beat the cream until it forms soft peaks. Be careful to not overbeat the mixture. We do not want stiff peaks for this recipe. You can flavor the cream anyway you like.
- Then add all the cut and sliced fruits- grapes, pomegranate, apples banana and mangoes. Fold the fruits into the cream with a spatula.
- Transfer fruit cream to serving bowls/cups. Top with chopped nuts, rose petals. Chill for 2 hours before serving, enjoy!
Notes
- Use sweet fruits for best results. Do not use apple like Granny Smith here.
- The best way to make this dessert in advance is to chop the fruits and store them in an air tight container in the fridge (minus the banana and apples) and whip the cream and store in separately. Combine the two 30 minutes before serving!
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
