Summertime Fruit Salsa with Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Crackers

Fruit Salsa is a versatile dish that can be an appetizer or dessert!

This week it’s my birthday (June baby!) and to celebrate I’m having all my girls over this weekend for a girls-only celebration. I’m deciding on the appetizers and food to make, keeping them simple and somewhat healthy. Also easy to prepare seeing as how it’s basically summer with this crazy heat, meaning I do not feel like having the oven on all night.

I had the idea to make fruit salsa after having it at other get togethers, and thought about making homemade crackers to go with it. Of course, they would have to be sweet crackers instead of savoury.

Last year I made these Savoury Everything Crackers to go with cheese platters and other appetizers and I thought about making them sweet for something like this. Pairing them with fruit would mean they should have some sugar and cinnamon. I used coconut sugar instead of regular sugar and mixed it with cinnamon for a cinnamon-sugar spread.

You can make the fruit salsa and crackers ahead of time so they’re ready to go for your get together. The salsa can stay in the fridge for 1-3 days, it will get a little mushy after the sugars from the fruit blend together. The crackers can stay on the counter in a ziplock bag for up to a week, and freeze easily. Just take them out 20 minutes before eating.

The crackers are a little thicker than the savoury crackers, because I wanted them to be more of a soft cracker, almost like a cinnamon bun cracker. They’re softer in the middle and crisp along the edges. As they cool they get crispier. The crackers take less than 15 minutes to make including baking time.  

The salsa is easily adaptable for any fruit you like. Try blueberries, apples, pears, raspberries etc.

Fruit Salsa with Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Crackers

Ingredients

for the crackers:

• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbs. vegetable/canola oil
• 3/4 cup flour (any flour will work, white, whole-wheat, gluten-free)
• 1/2 Tbs. coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 Tbs. coconut sugar

for the salsa:

• 6 strawberries
• 2-3 kiwis, peeled
• 1/2 mango
• 1 nectarine
• 1 Tbs. chia seeds

Directions

To make the Crackers:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. In small bowl add flour. In measuring cup add water and oil, pour over flour. Using a whisk stir together until dough forms, switch to a spatula push dough together into ball. Turn out onto floured surface and roll together until elastic dough forms, add more flour if it is too sticky.
2. Roll out dough onto baking sheet or parchment paper until a little more than 1/4″ thick. Transfer to the baking sheet. Using a pastry brush or spoon spread the melted coconut over top of the dough.
3. Sprinkle dough evenly with cinnamon-sugar mixture and press in slightly. Use a pizza cutter to slice into pieces, cutting on the diagonal.
4. Bake in pre-heated oven for 12 minutes. The crackers will naturally spread/pull apart, no need to move the dough away from each other. Let cool on counter. Makes approx. 3 dozen

To make Fruit Salsa:

1. Dice all fruit into small cubes/pieces using a sharp knife. You can add more/less fruit depending on how many guests you are serving. Sprinkle with chia seeds and mix together well. Transfer to small bowl. Serve with Cinnamon Sugar Crackers.
2. Fruit salsa will keep in the fridge for 1-3 days. The fruit sugars will mix together the longer it sits, making it less crunchy. I suggest eating it in the first couple of days, or making it the day of the event.

In the summer I like to bake anything in the oven later at night when it’s less hot out, these crackers can be made ahead of time the night before and kept in a container or even frozen until needed.