Easy Overnight Fruit Salad is a refreshing, crowd-pleasing side dish that easily comes together ahead of time for stress-free entertaining.
This fruit salad is a mashup of Easy Fruit Salad, made into a sweeter, decadent dessert similar to Ambrosia Salad. You can also find a lot of other fun treats to make for friends and family on my Fruit Desserts page for more inspiration.
Sabrina’s Overnight Fruit Salad Recipe
Overnight Fruit Salad is one of the best recipes to make during the holiday season for a few very good reasons: it’s super quick and easy, it tastes best if you let it chill overnight so you don’t have to stress about making it the day of, and it’s one of the tastiest, most refreshing desserts you’ll ever try.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs , beaten
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cups green grapes
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
- 20 ounces pineapple chunks , drained
- 15 ounces mandarin oranges , drained
- 2 medium bananas , sliced (not too ripe)
- 4 cups whipped cream , (recipe) or cool whip
- 1/2 cup pecans , chopped
Instructions
- In a double boiler on medium heat, add the eggs, sugar and vinegar whisking constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees.
- Remove from the heat then whisk in the butter until well combined and cool completely.
- In a large mixing bowl add the grapes, marshmallows, pineapple, oranges and bananas and toss with the custard mixture.
- Refrigerate overnight, or for a minimum of 6 hours.
- Toss with whipped cream and pecans and serve immediately.
Nutrition
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Sabrina’s Tip
This one is great to make with the kids because they can help out without any risk of burning themselves. Plus, if they sneak a few bites while helping to wash and prep the fruit, they will get a nutritious snack! Pro tip, if you cut the fruit first so the kids can wash it, pour a little lemon juice over the pieces so they don’t turn brown before you can finish making the sauce.
Table of contents
About this Recipe
This Overnight Fruit Salad is a creamy, refreshing favorite loaded with juicy grapes, sweet pineapple, mandarin oranges, bananas, and fluffy marshmallows. As it chills overnight, the flavors meld together, and the fruit becomes infused with the sweet, creamy dressing, creating a perfectly balanced side dish. Easy to prepare ahead of time and always a hit with guests, this classic fruit salad is ideal for holiday tables, potlucks, brunches, and family gatherings.
How to Store
- Serve: Salad is better chilled, the dairy in it will go bad if you leave it out at room temperature for longer than about 2 hours, so don’t chance it. Spoiled diary can make you very ill.
- Store: Overnight Fruit Salad is fine in the fridge for about 3-5 days, as long as it is sealed up properly.
- Freeze: It is not recommended to freeze fruit salad because of the dressing. The dressing freezes in such a way that the texture changes when you thaw it back out, so you should enjoy it straight out of the fridge instead.
Ideas to Serve
A fun way to put a personal touch on your Fruit Salad is to make your own Homemade Marshmallows. They’re actually really easy to make, and you can cut them into small bites or if you’re feeling extremely fancy you can use a small cookie cutter and make them into fun shapes. To make them even cuter, add just a little bit of red or green food coloring in the mixture to make them Christmas themed.
Frequent Questions
One of the easiest ways to preserve the color of fruits such as apples, pears, bananas and avocados is to toss them in an acidic substance such as lime and lemon juice.
Not all fruits play well together. Acid fruits like grapefruit and other citrus, pineapples, pomegranates, sour apples and plums, strawberries and tomatoes don’t pair well with sweet fruits like grapes, bananas, persimmon, figs, prunes, and dates.
Because this fruit salad needs to sit overnight to become fully saturated with flavor.
Variations
- Cool Whip: You can swap the whipping cream for Cool Whip if that’s more your style. Plus, if you want to brag about making everything from scratch, you can make Homemade Cool Whip. It’s really quick and simple, and there’s something really satisfying about making it yourself.
- Yogurt: If you just aren’t feeling the cream or cool whip variations, you can actually make Overnight Fruit Salad with Greek yogurt. Greek yogurt has a slightly different consistency, so you may need to chill it sightly longer for it to thoroughly absorb the flavors of the fruit. And it’s a great option if you want to keep it a little lighter.
Related Recipes
More Fruit Salads To Try!
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