Fruit Pizza

If there’s one thing I like, it’s fruit. And cookies. And food really…. But… Putting fruit on a sugar cookie with a “sauce” layer… and calling it a pizza? I’m down for that! Seriously!

When my mom was pregnant with me, I guess she ate a quart of strawberries and a tub of cool whip every night. Every. Night. At that time there were 3 grocery stores in town and she would alternate between them so that they didn’t see the pregnant lady coming back for more. I think when you’re pregnant you get a free pass card, but who knows. My big thing was cheeseburgers. I think strawberries would have been the healthier choice truthfully….

Anyway, back to fruit pizza… So we went to a surprise birthday party for a friend this weekend. They were supplying the meat, everyone else supplied side dishes and dessert. Hubby and I were trying to decide what to make for the occasion when I suggested fruit pizza. He looked at me questioningly and I said, no really! I started describing and the “sauce” layer is cream cheese mixture. That’s about when he drew the line… and suggested cool whip. I was like just trust me.

So long story short, he trusted me and while I was making the cream cheese mixture up Friday night, I dipped a piece of fruit in it and made him try it. Well, he was sold. I used my 12″ Cast Iron skillet to bake the sugar cookie and there was a piece about 2 bites worth left at the end of the night. I would say that is a winner.

So how did I do it you ask? Well……. I’m so glad you asked!

Ingredients:
refrigerator store bought cookie dough (although I’m sure you could make your own)
1 8oz-block cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
about 1 tsp vanilla (give or take, I don’t measure)
fruit (I used strawberries, kiwi, and green grapes, but you can use any combo you like or have on hand)
Jelly (I used Cherry… I think….)

Directions:

1. Place the sugar cookie dough into (or on to) your pan. I used a 12″ Cast Iron skillet that I sprayed with some cooking spray just to be on the safe side (didn’t want it sticking) although you could easily use a pizza pan or pie plate.
2. Place in a 350˚ oven for 18-20 minutes. For my oven, 18 minutes worked great. You want it a nice gold brown color and when you take it out, to press down on it and it spring back.
3. Place an aluminum foil tent over it just to make sure it baked through thoroughly. Then remove and allow to cool.
4. While the mixture is cooling, make the cream cheese mixture. I used my small bowl Ninja because I didn’t want to have to clean my mixer as I had just used it for another cookie and the dough was still sitting in the bowl waiting for my oven to free up. Place a softened block of cream cheese into your mixer/ninja bowl. Add 1/3 cup sugar and about a tsp of vanilla (I don’t measure vanilla). Turn on and mix thoroughly.
5. Once the cookie has cooled, spread the cream cheese mixture on top of the cookie.
6. Then wash and slice up your fruit. Grapes I sliced in half, the strawberries into fourths. Blueberries I would probably leave whole (I didn’t use blueberries), just use your best judgement on the fruit. The kiwi I peeled and then sliced in half and then sliced each half into moon shape. Like I said, use your best judgement.
7. Place on top of the cream cheese mixture.
8. Next mix your jelly up and use a spoon to glaze over the top.
9. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour if not over night.
10. Refrigerate leftovers (If there are any…)

And I’ll leave you with one last funny story. We pulled jelly out of the pantry and there was no label on it. My mother in law made it for us and I guess the label fell off or something. So I grabbed 2 spoons out of the drawer, one to taste the jelly with and one to use for drizzling. I took a bite to see what flavor it was and couldn’t decide so made hubby try it. He thought it tasted like honey. We were puzzled but I used it anyway. Then after I was done drizzling I took a big ole bite of the jelly and thought it tasted like cherry pie. So We think it was cherry jelly that had been sweetened with honey. But who knows 🙂