10 Best Durian Desserts

Unless you enjoy exotic fruits from outside the U.S., you may be wondering what the “durian” in durian desserts is. 

It’s a fruit, considered a superfood, from Southeast Asia with a spiky greenish-yellow outer rind and lumpy, bright yellow “meat” inside.

It doesn’t exactly smell great, which turns some people off, but if you can get past the smell, it actually tastes pretty amazing – like a sweet, vanilla-ish custard.

Plus, it’s really good for you, as it’s loaded with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and helpful antioxidants.

It can also help lower blood pressure, regulate the thyroid, and help with depression and anxiety.

And those are just a few of the great things durians can do for you, so why not hold your breath while slicing them and indulge in a few of these durian desserts?

1. Durian Ice Cream

Because durian already has a custard-like taste and consistency, it lends itself nicely to ice cream, and it’s effortless to make.

You can whip it up in about an hour, and all you’ll need to make it are egg yolks, sugar, whole milk, heavy cream, vanilla paste, and the durian flesh. 

2. Durian Pudding

This 20-minute durian pudding is another easy and convenient way to incorporate more durians into your diet.

You’ll need durian ice cream to make it, which is why I listed that one first.

The pudding is smooth, creamy, and refreshing, and it has a delicately sweet taste that’ll make you want to scrape the sides of your bowl to get every last bite.

3. Durian Puree Cheesecake

Cheesecake is another dessert for which durian is perfect!

The fruit already has a soft, creamy, cheesecake-like texture, and it fits right in with your traditional cheesecake recipe. 

Plus, the durian flavor really complements the tart tanginess of the cheesecake.

Perhaps best of all, it’s super simple to make, taking only 15 minutes (or less) of prep time. 

It looks nice, as well. It comes out this lovely golden-yellow color that you’ll usually only get with turmeric or saffron.

Finally, the texture is unimaginably smooth and creamy — even more so than a usual cheesecake.

(The scent while cooking takes a little getting used to, though.)

4. Durian Chiffon Cake

If you’ve never had one, a chiffon cake is somewhere between a sponge cake and a traditional cake. It’s soft and spongy, but it’s also moist and tender. 

Once you add the filling (made from cream cheese, durians, heavy whipped cream, and sugar), this already yummy cake becomes unbelievably delicious. 

The whole thing is like biting into a super tasty cloud. 

5. Es Lilin Durian (Durian Popsicles)

It’s tough to beat a dessert that you can make in 20 minutes with two steps and only five ingredients. That’s what makes these durian popsicles so wonderful. 

Simply mix your durian and water in a blender, then add that mixture, along with the coconut milk, mung bean flour, and sugar, to a stovetop saucepan. 

Finally, pour the mixture into freezable bags (or popsicle molds) and let them freeze overnight. That’s it. You’re done!

6. Durian Milk Candy

All you’ll need to pull together this four-ingredient durian milk candy is condensed milk, skim milk, durian fruit, and your favorite nuts. 

The result is a sweet confection similar to divinity; only there’s a stronger cream taste and less of a sugary one.

Don’t worry, though; it’s still plenty sweet enough.

7. Durian Chocolate Truffles

These durian chocolate truffles have a vibrant, unique taste that’s hard to put into words.

They take quite some time to make, but that’s only because they have a chill time of 2 hours. 

The actual hands-on work involved shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes! 

They’re super easy to make, and you only need five ingredients – dark chocolate, coconut milk, durian pulp, salt, and cocoa powder. 

You’ll definitely want to use dark chocolate, though, not milk chocolate or white chocolate.

The slight bitterness of dark chocolate helps balance out the rich taste of the durian pulp. 

These truffles may not look as pretty as some of the other truffles you’ve eaten, but they’ll taste just as good. 

8. Durian Whipped Cream

Durian whipped cream is a little creamier and wetter than traditional whipped cream.

It’s also not quite as fluffy or light, but the taste makes up for any discrepancies in the texture. 

Like most all the durian desserts on this list, durian whipped cream is surprisingly simple to make and requires few ingredients. 

All you’ll need is durian flesh, heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and a blender (preferably an immersion blender).

It takes less than 10 minutes to whip up. 

You can use it as a topping for any of your favorite desserts, or you can enjoy it by itself.

It has a sweet, durian-heavy flavor that makes it taste good just eaten with a spoon.

My favorite way to enjoy it is a little odd. I like to spoon it into an ice cream cone and eat it that way.

There’s just something about the sugar cone that goes so well with durian whipped cream.

9. Durian Swiss Roll Cake

Once you’ve got the recipe for durian whipped cream ready to go, you can use it to make this delicious durian Swiss Roll cake! 

The recipe calls for durian and whipped cream, but the homemade durian whipped cream recipe above works just as well for the filling if you ask me. 

This one takes a little more time and effort to make, but its sweet, spongy deliciousness is worth every second you spend on it. 

10. Musang King Durian Cake

This dense, moist cake is sweet and has a perfectly crispy exterior surrounding a lovely, fluffy golden-yellow interior. 

It uses both the flesh of and chunks of the fruit from a Musang King durian, and as a result, the durian flavor comes through strong and vibrant in this tasty cake. 

It’s also buttery and soft, and you’ll love the texture almost as much as you love the taste.

It’s relatively sweet, though, so you might want to serve it with coffee or black tea to help balance that out some.