Green Desserts {St.Patrick’s Day Desserts}
Collection of the best green desserts or St. Patrick’s Day desserts. Cakes, cupcakes, cookies and no bake desserts are included. Some are naturally green.
Whether you have a themed green party or at St.Patrick’s day party to prepare for, today’s roundup has it all. I have gathered the best desserts from my archives to make your life easy. As a bonus, I have shared a new fantastic recipe at the end of this post for homemade pistachio chocolate that also fits this theme perfectly.
Obviously, be sure to check out this roundup of Rainbow Desserts, Recipes, Ideas for more inspiration.
Table of contents
How to Make Green Desserts?
- Food coloring- Liquid or gel based. I prefer gel because it’s more concentrated and vibrant.
- Freeze dried fruit and vegetable powders- Such as kiwis, grapes, spinach, seaweed, spirulina. Please note that using these can alter the flavor of your recipe.
- Matcha– This is naturally green and has a wonderful earthy flavor
- Pistachios– Use it as a nut butter or finely chopped, roughly chopped, powdered. This is naturally green
- Sprinkles and sugar decorations- There is a variety of designs, shapes and shades of greens available in the cake decorating aisles of grocery stores or even online.
- Fresh herbs– Such as pureed basil, mint, thyme, sage, cilantro, rosemary, parsley. Fresh herbs will have a brighter green color than dried herbs. Once again, they can alter the flavors of your recipe and I recommend using wisely with the correct pairing of other ingredients.
- Avocado– This adds a subtle green color and in many recipes, it can replace either some or all of the butter because it’s so creamy.
Popular Green Flavors
- Mint– Typically, extracts are used but crushed fresh mint is another option.
- Pistachio– These can be used as a nut butter filling in cakes or they can be chopped up and used to cover and decorate an iced cake.
- Matcha– This has a very mild grass-like taste and aroma. It can be used in cake, cupcake batters and even frostings.
- Lime– I really like key limes. They are tart but not too acidic.
- Green apples-These are more sour than red apples but work wonderfully in pies and tarts.
Green Cakes
Cakes are one of the most classic desserts out there. They are super soft and moist and you can make them from scratch or use a doctored cake mix recipe. After that, it’s all about the correct pairing of icings and decorations. Stick to a green theme through the use of green food coloring in the batter, in the frosting and obviously use green colored sprinkles to really fit this holiday theme. Both the recipes below start off with a cake mix and are super simple to make with basic ingredients from your pantry.
Green Cupcakes
Just likes green cakes, you can make green cupcakes too. You can use natural food colors or artificial liquid food coloring or even gel coloring. I highly recommend gel colors since they are thick and concentrated and are not likely to affect the consistency of the batter. The cupcake batter and the frostings can all be dyed green and paired with beautiful green edible decorations. Also, if you want natural green decorations, try roughly chopped pistachios. They already have that lovely color.
Green Cookies
They are certain extracts and flavors that are just associated with the green color such as avocado, pistachio or key lime or the super popular mint. Avocado cookies are healthier cake-like cookies that are low fat and it replaces butter with avocados. Naturally green colored. Key lime cookies, on the other hand, are sugary and crispy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside and have a stunning neon green color. Finally, the easiest cookie you can make is composed of saltine crackers, topped off with melted white chocolate and chopped up green candies.
Mint Desserts
As I mentioned earlier, mint is the most popular flavor choice that comes to mind when you think of green recipes. Mint extract, on its own, does not have a green color. It’s typically clear in color. However, you can add food coloring to the extract to make it green, if you like. You can also use fresh green mint leaves and that will add a lovely pastel green color. In these recipes below, my fudgy brownies are paired with green frosting with a subtle mint flavor to create a very balanced dessert. My family and friends LOVE this. The chocolate mint truffles are a close second and very ooey gooey.
Other desserts
You don’t even need to turn on the oven for these apple nachos because they are no bake. Furthermore, they are healthy too! Use green apples instead of red apples. As for the trifle, layers of green, orange and white frostings, cakes, fruits are assembled in a gorgeous way in large mug. Both of these treats come together quickly and with great ease.
Beverages
Although these are not desserts, they are green in color and still satisfy those sweet cravings. Natural green color can easily be achieved from matcha powder or spinach or kiwis. They are also healthier alternatives to traditional party drinks.
My favorite green dessert- Pistachio Chocolate (Naturally Green)
My favorite treat happens to be these super simple no bake pistachio chocolates. You can make them as large bars or as a bark or use a chocolate mold. They require just 2 ingredients: pistachios and dark chocolate. The pistachios add a lovely natural green color that compliments the warm chocolate colors so well.
You can replace pistachios with other nuts of your choice. Some other add-ins you can try are shredded coconut and dried fruits like cranberries. Even the dark chocolate can be replaced with semisweet or milk or even white chocolate. To really fit the green theme, use green colored chocolate.
These chocolate molds are available online and even at the cake decorating aisles of more big grocery stores. Each compartment was 1 inch in diameter. So, the candies are fairly small and bite-sized. These can also be packaged in a nice box and used a lovely homemade gift, especially during the holidays.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Chocolate chips, Dark or Semisweet, Melted
- 1 cup Pistachios, Roughly chopped
Instructions
- Use a paintbrush to brush melted chocolate in the small chocolate molds.
- Fill them with pistachios.
- Fill a piping bag with melted chocolate and cover the tops of each mold.
- Chill the molds in the fridge until chocolate sets. This takes about 30 minutes.
- Turn over the molds onto a tray with wax paper or parchment paper and tap it until small chocolates are released. Enjoy!
Storage
Keep them in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. They can also be kept at room temperature, as long as it’s not too hot where you live. I don’t recommend freezing homemade candies because they don’t thaw well and end up with odd condensation marks on them.
Wow, these treats are amazing. Adding these to my favorites.