Fruit pizza

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Fruit pizza is an easy, fun, crunchy and refreshing recipe made with a quick, homemade sugar cookie pie crust base, topped with dairy-free cream cheese and a mix of fresh seasonal fruit.

We add a layer of melted dark chocolate on top of the pie crust to prevent the base of this cake from getting soggy and to make the fruit pizza even more delicious.

Jump to:

• What is a fruit pizza?
• Ingredients & Substitutions
• Equipment
• How to make fruit pizza
• Tips
• Frequently asked questions
• Optional glossy finish
• Variations
• Storage
• Recipe

What is a fruit pizza?

A fruit pizza is a dessert made with a sugar cookie pie crust base, covered with a layer of cream cheese mixed with powdered sugar, and finally topped with fresh seasonal fruit.

It's very similar to an Italian fruit tart, without a rim and without custard. It's fun and easy to make and everyone will love it.

To prevent the base from getting soggy, we added a thin layer of melted dark chocolate on top of the pie crust. Once cold, the chocolate creates a shell that protects the base from the moisture in the cream cheese.

Ingredients & Substitutions

For the sugar cookie pie crust

• Flour: you can use all-purpose flour. We also tried with wholewheat flour and first-clear flour and it turned out delicious. To make it gluten free, we recommend using a gluten-free flour mix.
  
• Sugar: we use white sugar. Unrefined sugar works too.
  
• Water: cold tap water is fine.
  
• Oil: we use sunflower oil. Any other vegetable oil, except olive oil, works. We recommend choosing a refined oil, so you won't taste the flavour of the oil.
  
  You can replace vegetable oil with vegan butter or margarine. In this case, multiply our oil measurements times 1.3.
  
• Baking powder: to make the pie crust more crumbly and crisp.

For the topping

• Dark chocolate: any dark chocolate with chocolate content above 50% will work. Dark chocolate chips work very well too.
  
• Cream cheese: we use dairy-free cream cheese. Some good brands of non-dairy cream cheese in the US are Tofutti, Trader Joe's, Daya, and Follow your heart.
  
  If you are in Europe, good brands that make dairy-free cream cheese are VioLife, Simply V, Val Soia, Luve, Oatly and many others.
  
• Powdered sugar: we use it to add sweetness to the cream cheese. It also adds a bit of structure to it.
  
• Fresh fruit: you can pick any fruit you like, as long as it is not too watery, like watermelon. Play with colours and flavours. To save money, pick local and seasonal fruit. You can even do fruit pizza with just one fruit, like with green kiwi, or strawberries.
  
  For our fruit pizza, we picked strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, nectarines, apricots, grapes, raspberries and some mint leaves.

Equipment

You'll need a rolling pin to flatten the pizza. Other than that, just a bowl, a spatula, and your oven's baking tray lined with parchment paper.

How to make fruit pizza

For the pie crust base

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C). Line your baking tray with parchment paper, and keep it our of the oven while the oven preheats.

In a bowl, add sugar, oil, water, and mix with a spatula for just a minute, to dissolve some of the sugar in the liquid. Add the flour and the baking powder and stir with a spatula till the flour absorbs the liquids.

TIP: to distribute the baking powder evenly, I like to sift it with the flour while adding them to the liquids. Alternatively, you could first mix flour and baking powder into a separate bowl, then add them to the liquids.

Now, on a worktop, knead with your hands, gently, for a short minute. Just the time to bring all the ingredients together and form a dough ball. Do not over-knead.

Take the sheet of parchment paper and with a rolling pin, flatten the dough ball into a disc. It should look like a pizza base. To make sure it turns out round, rotate the disc often while you flatten it.

We like our fruit pizza quite thin so we flatten it down to ⅛ of an inch, or 3 to 4 mm. Also, I like to trim the edges with a pizza wheel to make it look very round.

Transfer the parchment paper with the pizza on it onto the baking tray, and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool down.

For the topping

This step is optional, but we always end up doing it. Shred the chocolate, then melt it.

You can do that in a bowl in the microwave, heating the chocolate a few seconds at a time. Or you can do it bain-marie, that is, put the bowl with the dark chocolate into a larger pot, filled with hot water. The heat of the water will melt the chocolate.

Spread a thin layer of chocolate on top of the fruit pizza base, then let it cool down till it's hard. If you live in a hot climate, you can refrigerate the pizza base with the chocolate on it for 15 minutes to speed things up.

In a bowl, mix the cream cheese with the powdered sugar. You can do that with a spatula or with a whisk by hand, or with an electric beater.

Just make sure to get rid of most lumps. You can even give it a quick blend with an immersion blender to make it lump free.

When the chocolate is hard, spread the cream cheese mix on top of the fruit pizza.

Now you just have to add the fruit on top, cut a slice, and eat it. We like to slice or chop the fruit in small pieces, and add it randomly, without a pattern, on top of the fruit pizza.

Tips

• Kneading: do not over-knead. Over-kneading a sugar cookie pie crust will make it hard, compact, and not crunchy. This happens because kneading develops the gluten in the flour making the crust tough and too compact.
  
• Rolling: this pie crust will grow slightly while it bakes. So we like to roll it quite thin, about ⅛ of an inch max. That is 3 to 4 millimeters.
  
• Baking paper: rolling pie crust can be difficult if you've never done it. To make things easier, roll the dough directly on top of a piece of baking paper. This way all you have to do after rolling is to move the baking paper with the dough into the baking tray.
  
• Make it round: before rolling, make sure to make a dough ball that is quite round. This will help. Then, while rolling, turn the dough often, a few degrees, after each roll, and keep rolling. This should help you keep a round shape.
  
  Finally, if your fruit pizza base is still not round, then you can use a pizza cutter, or a knife, to trim the edges and make it rounder.
  
• Chocolate: this is definitely optional, but recommended. With a little bit of extra effort you'll have an even more delicious fruit pizza.
  
  Also, spreading a thin layer of melted dark chocolate on top of the sugar cookie pie crust, and letting it cool down, acts as a protective layer against moisture leaking from the cream cheese to the pie crust. This way you'll have a crunchier fruit pizza for longer.

Frequently asked questions

Optional glossy finish

Often you'll see fruit pizzas and fruit tarts that are shiny and glossy on top. Most often, the glossy finish is made of gelatine.

This is intended to protect the fruit on top of the pizza from oxidising and turning dark. Gelatine acts as a protective layer against air protecting the fruit.

Since gelatine is usually made from fish or pork remains, we prefer to use a simple plant-based alternative. That is, apricot jam and water.

To do that, simply warm up three tablespoons of apricot jam - preferably one without fruit pieces - with a couple of tbsps of water.

Stir, then when the jam is liquefied, but not too hot, add it on top on the fruit pizza, and with the help of a brush, distribute it over the fruit creating a thin, shiny layer on top.

As the jam cools down, it will thicken up a bit, resembling gelatine. It will protect the fruit from turning brown, and also will add an extra pinch of fruity sweetness.

Variations

Fitness fruit pizza: for an healthier fruit pizza, replace all purpose flour with wholewheat flour, white sugar with coconut sugar, and cream cheese with soy or coconut yogurt. Quantities stays the same.

One-fruit fruit pizza: you can make a delicious fruit pizza even with just one fruit. In this case, we recommend a green kiwi fruit pizza or a strawberry fruit pizza.

You just need to slice 4 to 5 kiwis and arrange their slices on top of the cream cheese. Same thing with the strawberries. You'll need about 1.5 cups.

Fruit tart: another delicious fruity recipe is our fruit tart made with plenty of custard, fruit and the same pie crust.

Storage

We recommend storing this fruit pizza for a max of 24 hours. After that, it will start to get soggy. You can refrigerate the pizza overnight if you need to store it.

Can I make fruit pizza in advance?

Yes, you can prepare all the elements for fruit pizza in advance: the pie crust base, the cream-cheese filling, and the fruit. However, it is best to assemble it shortly before serving it.

Be aware that some fruit, like banana, peach, nectarine, strawberry and apple, will turn brown if you cut it in advance. So we recommend prepping those fruit last minute. If you prep the cream cheese filling in advance, then store it in the refrigerator.

You can prepare the pie crust in advance, then you have several options:

• Refrigerate the dough for up to a couple of days, wrapped in film. Then, when you need it, let it get closer to room temperature before rolling it flat.
• Freeze the dough for up to 3 months. Then when you need it, thaw in the refrigerator.
• Bake it and store it for for up to 2 days, but without adding the toppings. Keep it in a dry corner of your kitchen.

Recipe

If you liked this recipe you might also like our:

• lemon tart
• strawberry tart
• fruit tart

Did you try this recipe at home? Let us know in the comments below, or take a picture  and tag us on Instagram @italiaplantbased.