Fresh Fruit Pizza

One of my favorite things to do is get together with my tribe for a pot luck dinner, sans families. Just us girls. Our lives are busy and while we all still see each other, sometimes it’s just in passing. Lately it seems like it’s only on social media. That bites. So when Janita sent out an invite to gather for a girls only night we all jumped in!

So here’s the thing. I’m going to be open and honest with you. I love dessert. There, I said it. I am a dyed-in-the-wool dessert lover. I don’t know how I can be anything else. I can try to make everything gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan, paleo and keto, if you want. It’ll get me a zillion likes and a million accolades, but then I wouldn’t be me. You can choose to modify my desserts if that’s your thing.

I love dessert. Does that mean that I want to eat processed, overly sugary dessert. Sometimes. Mostly, my favorite desserts center around desserts with fruit. Give me all the fruit. The fresher the better I say! As we head into summer, I love a lighter fair when I go for dessert as well. Keeping all that in mind I decided a fresh fruit pizza was on the menu.

I started with a cookie crust to my fruit pizza. Yes, you can shorten the time to make it by purchasing sugar cookie dough in a tube, roll it out and bake. If that’s your jam, go for it. I made mine with lemon cookies, crushed, mixed with butter and sugar and pressed into my pizza pan. Note that my pan has a lip, think of it as a really large, shallow tart pan if you want. In the recipe below, all measurements are for a standard-sized tart pan, I’ve doubled the recipe to accommodate my pan of choice.

Because the pan is large, I first used my hands to press and move the crust around the pan, then finished it off by using my measuring cup to press it down and finish the edges.

Once pressed, the crust went into the oven about 20 minutes, until the edges started to brown. It was removed and set to cool. Make sure your crust is cooled completely before preparing the “pizza”, it works even better if a little chilled. While mine cooled, I prepped my fruit, first deciding a design and then cutting the fruit to make executing that design easier. Note: you don’t have to make a design, you can go free-form by slicing your fruit, tossing it all together and then sprinkling it on top of the pizza. It’s all up to you.

After my fruit was ready, I went on to my topping. I wanted a tasty, creamy topping that wasn’t overly heavy. Some dessert pizzas will use a frosting for the topping, some will use whipped cream. I wanted something in the middle. I blended mascarpone cream, sugar, vanilla and whipped cream to get a lightly sweetened, creamy vanilla flavored topping that was just thick enough to hold up to my ultimate…marbling homemade lemon curd into the topping! To make assembling easier, I also chilled my topping for about 2 hours.

Yes, I may get redundant, but I love fruit and lemon curd together. I can’t help it. I love that I can make a double batch of lemon curd and put it to multiple uses. For the recipe head over to my original recipe Lemon Berry Tart or to Lemon Poppyseed Crepes for another recipe idea!

Once all the pieces of my pizza were ready, it was simply assembling it. I spread the mascarpone whipped cream in a nice even layer of middle thickness over the pizza crust. Spooning my lemon curd into a ziploc baggy and snipping off the end, I piped lines onto the topping. Then using the tip of a knife, I made a fun marbled pattern.

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After that was completed, it was simply placing my fruit on the topping, sprinkling with powdered sugar and covering it with wrap until I was ready to serve it. I sliced the pizza for serving just like I would any other pizza, by the slice according to the recipients desired width. It was a solid hit with my friends, and I’m sure it will be with yours as well! Enjoy Peeps!

I absolutely love sharing all the yumminess with you peeps! I’d love it if you tag me when you make any of my recipes @peppyfitfoodie ! Don’t forget to subscribe to this blog to get all the latest! Follow me on Facebook and IG too! I have so many adventures to share!