4th of July Fruit Kabobs with Yogurt Dip

These star spangled 4th of July Fruit Kabobs are the perfect healthy treat to serve with your holiday spread this upcoming Independence Day! Healthy and tasty with an easy, yummy yogurt dip for serving, these red, white, and blue fruit skewers are a healthy dessert option and a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Table of Contents

1. How do you keep apples from browning?
2. What You'll Need
3. How to Make Patriotic Fruit Kabobs
4. Recipe FAQ's
5. Tips for Success
6. Substitutions
7. More Fourth of July Desserts
8. 4th of July Fruit Kabobs with Yogurt Dip Recipe

A universal truth for kids and grown-ups alike is that everything is more fun to eat on a stick! And that's especially true for these 4th of July treats that look like sparklers and win the award for the most fun addition to your holiday spread.

There's no baking involved in making this tasty snack or healthy dessert and it's easy enough that the kids can put them together pretty much entirely on their own. Just slice a few apples and strawberries and give the kids some small star-shaped cookie cutters and appetizer toothpicks and they can assemble a platter of fruit kabobs that will get tons of compliments.

The tasty yogurt fruit dip is perfect with the patriotic fruit kabobs and makes these extra fun, although you could use my regular fruit dip with marshmallow fluff and cream cheese if you prefer.

How do you keep apples from browning?

The biggest trick I'm sharing with this recipe is my favorite method for preserving apples so they don't turn brown after being cut, and no, it's not by soaking them in lemon juice or lemon water. It's using a salt water brine!

To preserve the apple’s white color and prevent browning, soak the cut apples for 10 minutes in a salt water brine made by dissolving 1 teaspoon kosher salt in 2 cups water, then rinse with cool water.

You won't even taste the salt at all and the apples will stay fresh and pure for more than 12 hours on the counter and up to 5-7 days in the fridge if stored in an airtight container! It's kind of amazing. It's a great lunchbox hack for kids and we use it all the time.

What You'll Need

Supplies:

• 4-inch appetizer toothpicks – These make cute petite kabobs! But more importantly, they don’t split the apples in half when pierced and are more proportional to the small pieces of fruit, unlike regular kabob skewers.
• Star-shaped cookie cutters – I used these ones here. There are 3 different sizes: 1.6-inch, 1.3-inch, and 1-inch. I used all three for these kabobs because I liked the variety. Metal cutters work best for a clean cut and you can also use them to cut out stars from pie crust to decorate a pie!

Ingredients:

• Apples – I used pink lady apples, but any type of apple that you like will do! Honeycrisp or Envy would be my next choice.
• Blueberries – I recommend fresh blueberries rather than frozen because the frozen ones will stain the other fruit and make a mess as they thaw.
• Strawberries
• Lemon juice – This is used to flavor the dip.
• Plain yogurt – I used Stoneyfield plain whole milk yogurt, and I LOVE it! Stoneyfield has a plain 0% fat Greek yogurt option as well.
• Pure vanilla extract
• Honey – For sweetening the yogurt.
• Kosher salt - This is mixed with water to create a simple salt water solution for brining the apples after they cut to prevent them from browning. It's my favorite method and works even better than lemon juice!

How to Make Patriotic Fruit Kabobs

1. Prep work. Wash and prepare fruit for cutting. Dry the strawberries well after washing.
2. To make stars out of strawberries: cut off the stem, then cut each strawberry in half (from the top down). Depending on the size of the strawberry, use a 1-inchor 1.3-inch cookie cutter to punch out a star shape. Gently remove the strawberry from the cookie cutter and set aside. Repeat for all strawberries.
3. To make stars out of apples: cut two halves around the core for each apple. Cutoff the rounded peel side of each half to make it flat (it should be about a half inch thick) and use the 1.6-inch cookie cutter to punch out a star and set aside. With the remaining core piece, use the 1-inch cookie cutter to punch out stars on either side of the core. Repeat for all apples. (I can usually get 2 large stars and 4 small stars per apple). Soak the apples in salt water for 10 minutes before assembling the kabobs to help prevent discoloration.
4. Assemble kabobs. Skewer the cut fruit using 4-inch toothpicks, alternating between blueberries, strawberries, and apples. (I found that I was able to comfortably fit 2 blueberries, one strawberry star, and one apple star for each toothpick).

5. Make yogurt fruit dip. To prepare yogurt dip, combine plain yogurt, vanilla extract, honey, and lemon juice together in a bowl. Serve promptly with kabobs or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Recipe FAQ's

Tips for Success

• All fruit should be at least ½ inch thick to be able to be pierced for the kabob.
• Go the extra mile and dip some of your fruit in melted white chocolate for an extra sweet treat!
• Don't skip brining the apples unless you plan to serve these kabobs immediately. Untreated, sliced apples can start turning brown within about 15 minutes.

Substitutions

• Replace apples with pineapple (my personal favorite alternate), bananas, marshmallows, or even mozzarella cheese!
• Replace strawberries with watermelon or raspberries (note: raspberries won’t work for star shapes, but they are still good for the red color needed for the patriotic color scheme).
• Swap blackberries or purple grapes for the blueberries.
• Use strawberry extract, orange extract (or a little orange zest and juice), or coconut extract in place of the vanilla extract.
• Swap honey with maple syrup.
• Replace lemon juice with lime, orange, or grapefruit.

More Fourth of July Desserts

If you are looking for 4th of July recipes or Memorial Day recipes with a patriotic look, be sure to give some of these a try!

• Red, White, and Blueberry Bacon Burger with Basil Aioli
• Patriotic Pretzel Rods
• Chantilly Cake

Cake

Red White and Blue Berry Trifle

4th of July

Red, White, and Blue Bundt Cake

Pie

Red, White, and Blueberry Cream Pie