The Best Healthy Dessert Recipes

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Make a delicious and healthy dessert by topping cooked, store-bought whole-wheat pizza dough — or small, toasted, whole-grain tortillas for individual fruit pizzas — with any wholesome spread (like nut or seed butter or plain Greek yogurt) and toppings (like fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, or miniature dark chocolate chips). Want a step-by-step recipe? Try our grilled peach pizza.

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This delicious frozen dessert only requires one ingredient: bananas. Peel the bananas and then cut them into coins. Place the coins on a baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze. When the bananas are frozen, place them into the bowl of your food processor and purée them into a delicious and creamy healthy dessert: banana "ice cream." 

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Even chocolate desserts can be healthy; dark chocolate is a great source of antioxidants and has less sugar and fat than white or milk chocolate. Pairing dark chocolate with fruit will give it the extra sweetness you love. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a double-boiler and then pour it onto a cool bowl. Then, dunk fruit in the chocolate before placing it on a piece of waxed paper to cool.

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Oats are great source of fiber and with a few simple tweaks, oatmeal cookies can be a delicious and healthy dessert. Look for a recipe that calls for applesauce; it usually replaces a portion of the fat and sugar in the more traditional version of the recipe. And, to make your cookies extra healthy, swap whole-wheat flour for all-purpose. 

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If you're looking for a healthy dessert recipe that's also easy to make, try nut butter bites. Just mix ½ cup of nut butter with ⅓ cup of honey and a teaspoon of vanilla. In a separate bowl combine 1 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of coconut flakes, and ½ cup of coarsely chopped sunflower seeds with 1 cup of your favorite add-ins (like mini chocolate chips or dried cherries). Mix the contents of the two bowls and then let the mixture chill for a half an hour before shaping the bites into balls.

Kristie Collado is The Daily Meal's Cook Editor. Follow her on Twitter @KColladoCook.