Healthy Spring Dessert Recipes

This no-sugar-added fruit snack is a healthy treat kids and adults will both love. It's perfect for packing in a lunchbox for school or work or just enjoying as a snack or better-for-you dessert at home.

Here's your new cookie jar staple. This recipe for classic oatmeal chocolate chip cookies gets a healthy boost with whole-wheat flour and uses less sugar and butter than traditional recipes. Don't hesitate to make a double batch--they're so satisfying they'll be gone fast.

We combine cran-raspberry juice with sparkling white grape juice to make a dazzling raspberry jello recipe. We like to add fresh raspberries to enhance the flavor but any small berry would work well too.

A quick stir-in of grated carrots not only makes these easy drop cookies reminiscent of spicy carrot cake, it also adds sweetness and keeps these cakey cookies moist. A drizzle of cream cheese frosting on top finishes off these better-for-you goodies perfectly.

Instead of buying pricy energy bars, fuel your fitness routine with this great-tasting homemade energy bar recipe. Whether you use these energy bars as a pre-workout snack or to refuel and recover post-workout, they'll give your body what it needs. Best of all, you can make this energy bar recipe in minutes.

This all-purpose lemon glaze recipe is just right for adding a touch more sweetness to scones or muffins. It makes a modest amount--just 1/3 cup--enough to glaze a dozen treats with about 1 teaspoon each. If you want to glaze a cake, double the recipe. For a more neutral flavor, opt for milk, and/or for a hint of vanilla, add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

We gave no-bake cookies a healthy makeover, bumping up the peanut butter and cutting back on added sugar and butter. The result is a chewy, peanut buttery, oat-packed delicious cookie. It's easy to whip up a batch of these--only a few simple ingredients are needed to make these chewy peanut butter cookies and there's no baking required.

This gorgeous homemade ice cream is a showstopper, thanks to bold swirls of blueberry syrup that cut through tart buttermilk-yogurt cream.

Mix Greek yogurt with sweet jam and crunchy pistachios and freeze so you can break into chunks just like chocolate bark (but healthier!). This colorful snack or healthy dessert is perfect for kids and adults alike. Use full-fat yogurt to ensure the creamiest bark possible.

Pure maple syrup gives the fruit filling rich flavor in this healthy blueberry pie recipe. If you don't want to make a lattice top, simply lay the second crust on top and cut three slits into the dough to vent steam.

This show-stopping dessert is a New Zealand (and Australian) classic reportedly created in honor of the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova when she visited the Southern Hemisphere. Our version delivers a wonderful combination of sweet meringue crunch and velvety tart lemon curd. The meringue is somewhat fragile--expect it to crack and crumble a bit as you slice it into individual servings. For the best results, avoid making the meringue on a humid or rainy day. The extra moisture in the air may prevent it from drying and crisping properly.

Coconut extract gives these homemade granola bars tropical-inspired flavor. Feel free to swap the blueberries, cashews and flaxseeds for any combination of your favorite dried fruit, nuts or seeds. We tested several sticky sweeteners, including maple syrup and honey, but found brown rice syrup held the bars together the best.

Linzer Tart (or Linzer Torte) is an Austrian specialty: an almond pastry topped with raspberry jam. Here it is reinvented as an American cake: almond-rich layers divided by raspberry jam. It's even better when prepared a day in advance, giving the jam time to soak into the cake. If you like, buck tradition by using strawberry jam and garnishing with fresh strawberries.

Skip the granola bar options at the grocery store--they're easy to make at home! You can vary the add-ins to your taste, swapping 2 cups of any combination of small (or chopped) dried fruit, nuts and/or seeds for the chocolate, cherries and coconut in this version. We tested several sticky sweeteners, including maple syrup and honey, but found brown rice syrup held the bars together the best.

This muffin-tin mini cheesecake recipe is an adorable, healthy dessert that's the perfect cute size. If making 2 dozen seems like overkill, the recipe can easily be cut in half. If you avoid gluten, use gluten-free graham crackers to make the crust.

Smooth and soothing; a great classic pie right down to the crust, redefined with a generous amount of lemon and fewer egg yolks in the filling.

These magical little desserts start out as one batter and separate during baking into fluffy cake hiding a creamy layer of lemon pudding.

Blueberries add all the sweetness you need, naturally, to protein-rich Greek yogurt in this satisfying snack.

Lemon squares are so delicious, but classic lemon square recipes tip the scales with their calories and saturated fat. Our healthy lemon squares recipe shaves almost 200 calories and more than 5 grams of saturated fat per lemon square. For a variation, use lime juice in place of the lemon juice.

Serve this refreshing fruit salad featuring juicy watermelon, grapes and berries on its own or with other colorblock fruit salads (like green, purple and orange) for a fun, crowd-pleasing rainbow side dish.

Use whatever fresh or frozen fruit you have on hand to make this old-fashioned crumble. Typical crumble topping has as much as a half cup of butter--ours has just a bit of canola oil and, for richness, chopped almonds, which are full of healthy monounsaturated fats.

This summer berry fruit salad recipe makes enough for a crowd. Serve with granola and yogurt at brunch, as a healthy potluck side, or halve the recipe to serve 4.

In this grown-up take on jello, we combine cran-raspberry juice with Champagne and fresh raspberries for a sparkling crimson dessert recipe.

These lemon cookies are made healthier with whole-wheat pastry flour and they get their zippy flavor from fresh lemon zest and juice rather than lemon extract. This lemon cookie recipe would be the perfect accompaniment to afternoon tea.