Healthy Dessert Recipes

Dessert is sinful, sweet, and now… it can be healthy too! This collection of healthy dessert recipes won’t leave you feeling guilty for eating them.

An overhead view of a stack of these Black Bean Brownies.

Healthy Dessert Recipes

Who doesn’t love dessert?! From chocolate cake to ice cream sundaes, cookies, cupcakes, brownies, parfaits, and more, you no longer have to feel guilty or avoid dessert because you just can’t fit your favorite guilty pleasure foods into your clean eating lifestyle!

These clean eating dessert recipes are not only made with real food, but they’re all super easy to make, sinfully good, and totally shareable! Party-ready recipes, delicious after-dinner treats, or school snacks; you bet you can find a decadent dessert recipe in this collection!

Don’t give up on dessert just yet, I promise you can have your cake and eat it too with this ever-growing collection of clean eating, healthy, dessert recipes!

What Are Healthy Desserts?

What exactly do I mean by “healthy desserts”? When I say “healthy”, I’m referring to desserts made with ingredients that are real-food ingredients. Ingredients your body will get some actual nutrition from. There are no boxed mixes or pre-made ingredients. Just good, ol’ fashioned, regular food that our bodies are used to and can utilize well.

Does that mean these recipes are calorie-free or fat-free?

Absolutely not. No real food ever is. Both of those labels come from companies that are trying to sell a product as well as from the diet industry trying to make a quick buck. Real food has fat and calories because that’s what our bodies need for fuel. We need to normalize eating. It’s not a mortal sin to eat a little fat or a few calories.

So can you go crazy eating these?

Of course not. As with anything in life, balance and good judgment are required. But you can absolutely feel good about eating actual food that your body knows how to process and gets some real nutrition from. Enjoyed in moderation, there should not be an ounce of guilt associated with that.

Healthy Brownies & Bar Cookies

If you love brownies, I’ve got your back! Brownies don’t have to be a total junk food bomb. They are easy to make, and so crazy delicious when they are warm, just out of the oven.

All you need is a basic brownie pan or casserole dish and a mixing bowl.

And if these aren’t enough for you, I’ve got more of these delicious recipes here.

Healthy Cake Recipes

Cake is part of our lives for everything from celebrations to funerals. There is a cake for almost every type of life event, in almost every culture I have ever encountered.

A good cake, made from scratch, will outdo any cake from a boxed mix. Homemade always tastes better, despite the fact that most people’s taste buds have been trained to think otherwise. Take back the homemade cake! Celebrate with something made from scratch! And remember, “from scratch” doesn’t have to mean long, complicated hours in the kitchen. I promise.

Need more cake recipes? Find the rest of my healthy cake recipes here.

Healthy Candy Recipes

Candy has come to be a “bad word” in diet culture. And honestly, that’s only because the store-bought stuff is so incredibly horrible. Candy manufacturers use all sorts of unhealthy chemicals, preservatives, and low-quality chocolate imaginable. But I’m here to tell you, candy can be better. Much, much better.

See more healthy candy recipes here!

Healthy Cookie Recipes

Cookies are part of life. Or at least, they should be if they aren’t already. We bake cookies for everything from after-school snacks, to housewarming gifts. There is never a wrong occasion for cookies.

See even more healthy cookie recipes here.

Healthy Cupcake Recipes

While I don’t have a ton of cupcake recipes, I do have these, and they are pretty darn yummy! After all, they are literally just mini cakes. You could even turn some of the cake recipes above into cupcakes!

Healthy Frosting Recipes

I don’t have a lot of healthy frosting recipes, but so far, these have been the only frosting recipes I’ve needed. As the need arises, I’m sure I’ll come up with more!

Healthy Fruit Desserts

You can’t get too much healthier than fruit-based desserts. Fruit is a natural dessert that can be enjoyed any time, anywhere. But turn some basic fruit into something else, and you take dessert to a whole new level. I love fruit-based desserts for their freshness, and you’ll love these desserts because they hit the spot every time!

Find lots more healthy fruit desserts here.

Healthy Homemade Ice Cream

Who doesn’t love ice cream? Like cake, ice cream is engrained in our lives. It’s hard to have a celebration without it! And on a hot summer day, it just makes sense to serve up a small bowl after a meal.

If the ice cream recipes below don’t do it for you, I have lots more healthy ice cream recipes here.

Healthy Muffin Recipes

It’s easy to say that muffins are just cupcakes without the frosting. And for some recipes, that’s probably not too far from the truth. But really like to think there’s a difference. Maybe I’m kidding myself, but cupcakes have a softer cake texture, while muffins can have any varying degree of textures. And some muffin recipes are too low in added sweeteners to be considered a cupcake. So there. That’s my excuse for enjoying a muffin for breakfast.

If the recipes below doing grab your attention, here are all my healthy muffin recipes!

Healthy Pie Recipes

In my humble opinion, pie is the staff of life. I love a good slice of pie. But… only if it’s homemade. I don’t care for store-bought or restaurant pies. Homemade pie is where it’s at for me. I have loved every single one of the pies shown here and I can’t say I didn’t eat my fair share before sharing with Mini Chef. Does that make me an awful mom? The jury is still out on that one…

Find all my healthy pie recipes here.

Healthy Sweet Breads

Sweet bread isn’t just good for dessert, it makes a great gift too! See all my healthy sweet bread recipes here.

Healthy Syrups

Sometimes, dessert needs sauce. Syrups are a great way to do that! And while I currently only have these two recipes, I promise, more are coming.

Healthy Tarts

Tarts are a nice change of pace when cake or cupcakes become “run-of-the-mill”. I see them as pies without tops, but they are actually much more than that. They tend to be a much lighter dessert, depending on what you make and how you serve it.