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A fresh fruit platter might not be the first thing people gravitate towards at a party, but it usually ends up being the most popular by the end of it. Sweet, crunchy, and accompanied by a few different sweet dips, a fruit platter provides a healthy, sugary and delicious snack no matter the season.
For this fruit platter, you can make three dips: a basic brown sugar fruit dip, a more complex Cannoli Dip, or a Cream Cheese Fruit Dip.
Fresh Fruit Platter with Dips
While most people probably focus on the dips that accompany a fresh fruit platter, the real trick is trying to get the fruit right.
This means not only picking the correct contrasting fruits but also cutting and preparing them so that they work well on the dipping station.
You want them easy to pick up, with clear handholds, while also still being large enough to be able to pick up a large amount of dip.
The choice of fruit is up to you, but fruit preparation is tricky no matter what you choose, so here’s some advice for how to prepare some of the most common choices.
Watermelon – How To Cut & Prepare
Watermelon is, thankfully, very easy to prepare for a fruit tray because you just need to get the flesh out of the fruit and onto the plate.
You have an important choice, however; do you cut the melon into slices or ball out the flesh?
For cutting into slices, the easiest thing to would be to cut your watermelon in half and then cut it into half again.
Take your melon quarter, and then cut thin wedges out of the fruit, making sure that some of the rinds are on each piece. This rind acts as a convenient little grip for guests to pick up the fruit, letting them eat the flesh and discard it like a banana peel.
For a bit of a prettier presentation, you can just use a melon baller to scoop out the melon onto the plate. You will need to stick some cocktail sticks into a container at the side of the platter to make dipping easy, though, as otherwise, your guests will walk away with sticky fingers and dip all over their hands.
How To Get Your Strawberries & Kiwis Ready
Strawberries and kiwis are a great combination, which is why you can always find tons of different recipes featuring both fruits.
Cutting strawberries is super easy – just take a sharp paring knife and cut them in half. However, instead of removing the green tops like you usually would when preparing strawberries, leave them on; the green top provides a handy grip for partygoers.
Kiwis are a little bit trickier – although all parts of the fruit are technically edible, including the tougher outer skin, most people prefer to only eat the peeled flesh.
To make it easier, cut the kiwis in half and then separate the halves into smaller wedges, but leaving them still attached at the base of the fruit. This will make little cut sections, almost like a divided blooming onion, that guests can take off and dip at their leisure. This way, people can make the choice about the skin themselves.
How To Cut Up Your Apples
Cutting apples are nice and simple, as they only need to be cut into little wedges, leaving a little bit of skin on each of them. While you could peel them all, the skin not only gives a beautiful color contrast, but it is also where the majority of the nutrients in the fruit reside, so why waste it?
The only slightly tricky bit is removing the apple core. You can either cut the apple off of the wedges using a sharp knife, removing each side of the now squared apple core, or you can use one of those apple corers.
What Other Fruits Could You Use?
The fruits listed here are just a few of the very best and most common choices to pair with this recipe, but there’s no reason to stop there.
You could cut up some oranges into wedges, as long as you don’t mind a lot of orange peel littering everywhere.
Raspberries and blueberries are in season and cheap, so I eat them while I can during the summer months!
You could chop up a peeled pineapple and serve them as sticks for a more acidic, tropical bite. Or you could just go super old school and serve some grapes.
The Dips
The dips shown here are just a few of my favorite fruit dip recipes.
The most simple is definitely the Fruit Dip being made of just cream cheese, brown sugar, and vanilla, and it serves as the perfect starting point for all kinds of recipes.
The Cream Cheese Fruit Dip acts as a slight upgrade, adding some marshmallow fluff and some much-needed sweetness to the recipe.
Or, you could go really fancy and make a chocolate chip-infused Cannoli Dip.
The best part of these dip recipes, though, is how customizable they are. Use them as a base and add in whatever ingredients you prefer to make your custom fruit dip for your party.
Looking for some delicious savory party Dip recipes? Try these savory recipes out:
• Rotel Dip, The BEST Velveeta Cheese Dip
• Hot and Cheesy Artichoke Dip
Enjoy! Fruit is at it’s best right now, so enjoy!
Love,
Karlynn
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Fresh Fruit Platter with Dips
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
- 1-2 tangy apples
- 1 cup cantaloupe or honeydew melon balled or chopped
- 6-8 pineapple spears
- 1-2 cups red and green grapes
- 1-2 cups watermelon sliced or chopped
- 1-2 kiwi fruit
- 1 mango
- 1 orange
- 1 batch cannoli dip
- 1 batch cream cheese fruit dip
- 1 batch fruit dip
Instructions
- Clean, peel and slice fruit as desired.
- Prepare the dips of choice, then cover in bowls with plastic wrap. Refrigerate everything until ready to serve.
- To serve, place the dips on a large platter or cutting board, then arrange the fruit around the dips. Serve with toothpicks and forks for the fruit.
Notes
- Calories depend on how much dip you eat etc
Gloria says
what do you use to stop the apples from browning?