Minnie Christmas Fruit Snacks
Last week I posted a recipe for my “Minnie” Zucchini 🌲Christmas trees, and since they were so much fun and it’s almost Christmas, I decided to serve up some sweetness to go with that savory treat. I love baking and decorating cookies this time of year—I feel like it’s just good for the soul… So I thought about breaking out the flour and sugar and baking up some holiday goodies, but after some thinking, I figured there had to be a healthier way than making cookies to put my cookie cutter and decorating skills to use. You get the best of both worlds with these! They’re still as much fun to decorate as regular Christmas cookies, but these are healthy, guilt-free and much easier to make!
To decorate my apples, I used Wilton Squeeze Bottles, but if you don’t have those, you can use either a piping bag or just a plain old Ziploc bag with a small snip cut off one corner.
Most of the cookie cutters that I have would probably be too large to cut shapes out of an apple slice, but for this recipe I used miniature cookie cutters that came in a 6 pack from Target.
| Servings | Prep Time | Cook Time | Total Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 "cookies" | 15 mins. | 0 mins. | 15 mins. |
Ingredients:
- 2 apples
- 6 small strawberries, stems removed
- 6 raspberries
- ½ teaspoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- Lemon wedge, (optional)*
* After cutting the apple slices, I rubbed a lemon wedge over each slice to prevent browning, so they’d be photo ready. This is a good idea if you decide to serve these for a holiday party or gathering, but if you’ll be enjoying these immediately, you can skip this step.
Directions:
- Using a blender or food processor, blend strawberries, raspberries and maple syrup until a smooth puree is achieved. You want a consistency that is thin enough to squeeze out of a squeeze bottle or piping bag, but thick enough so that it doesn’t run. You can test it on a plate and if it is too thin add more berries, one at a time, or if it is too thick add a touch more maple syrup. Pour mixture into a squeeze bottle. Set aside.
- Fill a second squeeze bottle with peanut butter. Depending on what type of peanut butter you use, you may need to heat the bottle in the microwave for 15-30 seconds so that it’s manageable for decorating.
- Thinly slice the apples into round slices from either side until the core is reached. Repeat with the other side until you’ve gotten as many slices as you can out of the apple.
- Using the smallest cookie cutters you have, cut as many shapes as you can out of each apple slices.
- Then decorate the apple shapes by piping them with berry mixture and peanut butter. If you’d like, you could always add “sprinkles” like cacao nibs, buckwheat groats, or shredded coconut.
Happy Holidays! ☃🎊
Toddler Tip:
Let your toddler help decorate the apple shapes!
