Bionicos fruit bowls is a popular Mexican street vendor fruit salad served with a sweet cream sauce and toppings like granola, coconut and honey. This fresh fruit bionico recipe is a delicious treat and a quick and easy dessert sure to be a crowd favorite!
Bionicos Fresh Fruit Bowls
Bionicos fruit bowls are bursting with the vibrant colors and refreshing flavors of fresh fruit, served with the most luscious tangy and lightly sweet creamy sauce made with plain yogurt and sour cream or Mexican crema.
Flavored with sweetened condensed milk and vanilla extract and loaded with fun toppings like toasted nuts, crunchy granola, coconut shavings and dried fruit, this bionico recipe can be served as a mid-day snack, is a tasty breakfast option and the perfect dessert to end any meal.
Why You Will Love This Mexican Fruit Dessert?
- Flavor: Like many Mexican fruit cocktails, the combination of fresh seasonal fruit and the sweet cream mixture is a delicious wining formula!
- Versatile: This recipe can be made with a variety of fruit and can be served with your your favorite toppings.
- Quick and Easy: These Mexican fruit salad bowls don’t require any cooking and can be ready in about 10 minutes.
What Are Bionicos?
Bionicos (bee-oh-nee-koze)aka Bionico de Fruta is a popular street food similar to a yogurt parfait. Bionico is made with a variety of fruits, chopped into small bite size pieces and served with a sweet cream mixture and favorite toppings.
Bionico fruit salad originated in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico where it was served as a healthy breakfast item. Just like a Mexican fruit cup, this sweet treat has become so popular that is often served as a snack or delicious dessert.
Any seasonal fruit or berry can be used although, typically this Mexican fruit salad is made with strawberries, pineapple and bananas. The smooth and luscious sweet sauce or dressing gets it’s creamy texture from the combination of Mexican crema or sour cream, plain yogurt and decadent condensed milk.
Bionicos Recipe Ingredients and Substitutions
For specific ingredients and their quantities, check the printable recipe card below.
- Fruit: Make this recipe with your favorite fruit. Choose ripe, organic and local seasonal fruits when available. Common options are strawberries, pineapple, banana, papaya, cantaloupe and blueberries. Other fruit combinations can include raspberries, peaches, mangoes, pitted cherries, pears, apples and grapes.
- Sour Cream: Traditionally, Mexican crema is used to make this tasty dish. Sour cream is the best substitution for crema Mexicana.
- Yogurt: Plain Greek yogurt makes the sauce a bit thicker than regular plain yogurt but both varieties work.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: This ingredients balances the tartness of the sour cream and yogurt. You can use a bit less to cut on the sugar if preferred. As a substitution use honey.
- Dairy-Free Alternatives: Substitute the crema or sour cream with cashew crema and choose dairy-free yogurt such as coconut yogurt. Instead of sweetened condensed milk, use store bought or try this recipe for homemade dairy free sweetened condensed milk.
- Topping Ideas: Granola, chopped pecans, almonds or walnuts, coconut flakes or shavings, dried cranberries or cherries, raisins, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, chia seeds.
How To Make and Serve Bionicos Fruit Bowls
This is a quick overview on how to make this recipe. For detailed instructions check the printable recipe card below.
- In a large bowl, gently toss the fruit together.
- Combine the sour cream or crema, plain yogurt, condensed milk and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl.
- To serve, divide the fruit among small serving bowls and drizzle it with some of the sweet creamy mixture. Finish the dish with your favorite toppings. Alternatively, you can serve this delicious treat by placing some of the sweet cream at the bottom of the serving bowls and layering the fruit and creamy sauce all the way to the top of the bowls. Add your topping and serve!
Can I Use Frozen Fruit To Make This Recipe?
I prefer using fresh fruit to make this fruit salad. Because of the additional moisture, frozen fruit gets mushy when thawed out.
Making Ahead and Storage
- You can cut up most of the fruit a day ahead and store it covered in the refrigerator. Bananas should be cut when ready to serve to prevent them from turning brown.
- You can make the bionicos sauce 1-2 days ahead. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- You can store the chopped fruit and the sauce separately in the refrigerator. I don’t recommend storing the fruit combined with the sauce.
Bionicos Recipe Tips
- Keep the fruit chilled while combining the sauce ingredients. Chilled fruit is more refreshing and delicious!
- Cut the fruit into small bite size pieces for easy scooping.
- Don’t cut up or mix in the bananas until you are ready to serve this dish. Bananas turn brown quickly after they are peeled and cut.
- Make bionicos with seasonal fruits for best results. During fall and winter, apples, pears, mandarin oranges and pomegranate arils make a wonderful fruit combination.
Take A Look At These Other Sweet Dessert Recipes:
- Fresas con Crema (Strawberries and Cream)
- Carlota de Limon (Lime Icebox Cake)
- The Best Spanish Flan
- Fresh Fruit Tart Recipe
- Arroz con Leche (Spanish Rice Pudding)
Bionicos Mexican Fruit Bowls
Ingredients
Fruit salad
- 1 cup strawberries hulled and sliced
- 1 cup pineapple diced
- 1 cup cantaloupe diced
- 1 cup papaya diced
- 1 large banana sliced into rounds
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
For the Sweet Creamy Sauce
- 1/3 cup sour cream or Mexican cream
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 1/3 cup condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping Ideas
- Granola
- Pecans
- Raisins
- Shredded coconut
- Walnuts
- Honey Fresh mint
Instructions
- Toss the fruit gently in a large bowl. Refrigerate while you mix the sauce ingredients.
- In a small bowl, stir together the sweet creamy sauce ingredients.
- Place a spoonful of the creamy sauce into individual serving bowls. Top the sauce with fruit.
- Right before serving, drizzle each fruit salad bowl with remaining sauce (about 1/4 cup each). Top with your preferred toppings. Serve.
Recipe Notes
- Use ripe seasonal fruits for best results.
- Other fruit combinations can include chopped apples and pears, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, pitted cherries, chopped peaches.
- For a thicker consistency use plain Greek yogurt. Regular plain yogurt has a thiner, sauce-like consistency which I prefer for this recipe.
- Double the sauce ingredients for a sweeter dessert.
- Don’t cut up or mix in the bananas until you are ready to serve this dish. Bananas turn brown quickly after they are peeled and cut.
- You can store the chopped fruit and the sauce separately in the refrigerator. I don’t recommend storing the fruit combined with the sauce.
- Dairy-Free Alternatives: Substitute the crema or sour cream with cashew crema and choose dairy-free yogurt such as coconut yogurt. Instead of sweetened condensed milk, use store bought or try this recipe for homemade.
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