This popular 24 Hour Fruit Salad dessert, originally from the Midwest, is a traditional and iconic no-bake fruity treat made with juicy fruit, crunchy pecans, and mini marshmallows – tossed in a homemade creamy egg custard and chilled overnight for all flavors to blend and intensify!
Originally fresh fruit would have been used in this creamy fruit salad, and could still be used if so desired, but the convenience of canned fruit being available year round makes life even sweeter when it comes to whipping up this fruity dessert for the holidays, summer barbecues, or family gatherings.
If you love fruit salads with a twist, try this Peach Pretzel Salad, Watermelon Cake, and Peach Burrata Salad.
Are you a fan of marshmallow salads like Watergate salad and Ambrosia salad? You’ll love this wonderful salad, too.
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🍇 Ingredients:
- Canned pineapple chunks – Plus the juice, which will be incorporated into the recipe. Pineapple tidbits (much smaller pieces) can also be used. Be sure to choose cans of pineapple and oranges that are in juice rather than heavy syrup
- Canned mandarin oranges – Plus the juice, which will be incorporated into the recipe.
- Lemon juice – Preferably freshly squeezed juice from a lemon. Bottled lemon juice can be used in a pinch.
- Granulated sugar – to sweeten the custard mixture.
- Cornstarch – Used to thicken the custard.
- Butter – Unsalted butter is best for this sweet fruit salad.
- Heavy cream – This adds a creamy thickness to the homemade custard for extra decadence!
- Eggs – Make sure to have your eggs at room temperature for this recipe. We use whole eggs, but you can add 1-2 egg yolks for extra richness.
- Grapes – Seedless is best; we used green grapes, but any variety (red grapes or cotton candy grapes) will work just fine.
- Mini Marshmallows – If you can’t source mini marshmallows, cut regular marshmallows down to size. You’re looking for all of your ingredients to be fairly the same size.
- Bananas – Sliced into thick slices.
- Pecans – Folded into the fruit salad mixture and can also be added as a garnish.
For a complete list of ingredients and their measurements, please refer to the printable recipe card 📋 at the bottom of the post.
Optional Garnish:
Top your overnight fruit salad with additional pecans, sliced almonds, or coconut flakes. This fruit salad is delicious as is but can be served with vanilla ice cream.
Equipment Needed:
No special equipment is required when making this overnight fruit salad. You’ll only need a saucepan, whisk, and a large mixing bowl.
Substitutions and Variations
- Use whipped coconut cream and confectioners’ sugar instead of egg custard and heavy cream for a vegan 24 hour fruit salad.
- Strawberries, kiwi fruit, and cubed cantaloupe are lovely additions or substitutes. They are juicy and colorful and help to make it all look bright and attractive.
- Use fruit-flavored mini marshmallows for a fun addition to this easy fruit salad instead of regular mini marshmallows.
- Omit the pecans for nut allergies.
- Cool Whip can be swapped in for the whipped cream.
- Learn How To Cut A Mango and add that in or mix in Air Fryer Pineapple if you have fresh pineapple available.
🔪 Instructions:
PREP: Allow the eggs to reach room temperature and wash and pat dry the grapes in preparation for assembling this overnight fruit salad.
Step 1: Drain pineapple and mandarin oranges, catching the juice in a clean bowl. Combine the pineapple and orange juice, and then measure out 1 cup of the mixed juices. Pour 1 cup of juice into a medium saucepan.
Step 2: Add lemon juice, granulated sugar, and cornstarch to the juice mixture, and whisk.
Step 3: Add the eggs to the juice mixture and whisk until frothy.
Step 4: Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking until it turns into a light and thickened custard. Remove the custard from the heat and whisk in the butter. Allow it to cool for about an hour.
PRO TIP: You do not want a skin to form on your custard as it cools. To avoid this, press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard and leave it to cool.
Step 5: Whip the cream until stiff peaks form (you can use sweetened whipped cream, but there is enough sweetness in the recipe that it’s not necessary.) Add the cooled custard to a large bowl and fold in the whipped cream.
Step 6: In a separate bowl, combine the pineapple chunks, mandarin oranges, grapes, mini marshmallows, and pecans. Pour the cooled custard over the fruit mixture and toss to coat well. Slice the bananas and gently fold them into the fruit salad mixture.
Step 7: Cover the freshly assembled fruit salad with plastic wrap and chill overnight in the refrigerator.
GARNISH AND SERVE: Serve this overnight fruit salad recipe chilled with optional garnish such as additional nuts, maraschino cherries, and coconut flakes.
Recipe Tips for Old Fashioned 24 Hour Salad
- You must cook the custard for the length of time directed by the recipe otherwise, the custard will be too thin to cover the fruit or to stick to the fruit. Remember that custard becomes thicker as it cools.
- Be mindful not to add any fruit to the custard until it is cool. Otherwise, the custard will become thinner and have a runny consistency.
- Fruits like bananas will go brown from oxidation when cut. Squeeze lemon juice over the banana slices to help prevent this. Having the custard ready (cooled) before slicing the bananas is also helpful. The remaining fruit can be prepared in advance.
- Keep your marshmallows sealed until you are ready to add them to the fruit and custard mix, so they do not dry out. Fruit-flavored mini marshmallows are also fun to use for this dessert.
- Marshmallows tend to swell in the mix from absorbing liquid. As much as you love these little delights, do not add more than the recipe calls for.
- The combination of fruit juices, cornstarch, and eggs makes a lovely mild custard sauce with a subtle fruity flavor. You will love the light and fresh appeal of this fruit salad!
- There are several methods of preparation for this delicious salad. Using a double boiler to make the custard reduces the chances of burning your custard on the bottom of the pan, but if you whisk constantly and keep the pan over low heat or medium heat, you should be fine.
Fun Fact
Fruit salads were properly introduced to the world during World War 2 as a good supplement for Vitamin C!
Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can. This dessert needs to be chilled for a minimum of 6 hours and preferably overnight, which makes it an ideal dessert to prepare the night before.
Chilling this fruit salad overnight allows the different fruits and custard to set and the flavors to blend. This fusion enhances the fruity sweetness of the dessert and the subtleness of the custard. Take your bowl of fruit salad out of the refrigerator before serving it.
Unfortunately not. You cannot freeze this dessert at all. On thawing, you would have a soggy mess of collapsed and discolored fruit and thin liquid for what once was lovely custard!
You can use whipped coconut cream and confectioners’ sugar instead of eggs. Simply toss your fruit into the whipped cream, chill overnight and serve!
If you try this 24 Hour Fruit Salad or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how you liked it in the 📝 comments below.
24 Hour Fruit Salad
Ingredients
- 20 oz. can pineapple chunks plus juices
- 15 oz. can mandarin oranges plus juices
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 cup heavy cream whipped (2 cups once whipped)
- 2 cups seedless grapes
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 2 large bananas sliced into thick slices
Instructions
- Pour the juice from the pineapple chunks and the mandarin oranges into a measuring cup – you will need one cup total – you can combine the two juices or use one and substitute water to make a full cup.
- In a medium saucepan, pour that 1 cup of reserved juices. Add it to the lemon juice. Whisk in the sugar and cornstarch.
- Add the eggs to the juice mixture and whisk until combined and frothy.
- Place the saucepan over medium heat and constantly whisk, cooking until the mixture thickens into a light custard.
- Remove from heat, stir in the tablespoon of butter, and allow to cool completely (about 1 hour).
- Once the custard has cooled, fold in the whipped cream.
- In a large bowl, toss together drained pineapple chunks, drained mandarin oranges, grapes, marshmallows, and pecans. Slice bananas and add them to the fruit mixture. Immediately toss with custard mixture, cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator overnight.
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Notes
- You must cook the custard for the length of time directed by the recipe otherwise, the custard will be too thin to cover the fruit or to stick to the fruit. Remember that custard becomes thicker as it cools.
- Be mindful not to add any fruit to the custard until it is cool. Otherwise, the custard will become thinner and have a runny consistency.
- Fruits like bananas will go brown from oxidation when cut. Squeeze lemon juice over the banana slices to help prevent this. Having the custard ready (cooled) before slicing the bananas is also helpful. The remaining fruit can be prepared in advance.
- Keep your marshmallows sealed until you are ready to add them to the fruit and custard mix, so they do not dry out. Fruit-flavored mini marshmallows are also fun to use for this dessert.
- Marshmallows tend to swell in the mix from absorbing liquid. As much as you love these little delights, do not add more than the recipe calls for.
- The combination of fruit juices, cornstarch, and eggs makes a lovely mild custard sauce with a subtle fruity flavor. You will love the light and fresh appeal of this fruit salad!
Nutrition
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Comments & Reviews
Tamara says
Hello!
When do you add the butter? I make a similar recipes that my grandma makes, but it doesn’t call for butter. Her recipes also only uses Pinapple. Looking forward to trying this. I think adding coconut would be good too. Thank you!
Stefanie says
You whisk the butter in to the custard after removing it from the heat. It’s optional, you could skip it, but it adds a bit of creaminess and richness to the custard. I would love it with coconut, let me know what you think!