Fruit pizza is a fruit dessert which is made like a pizza. Although a fruit pizza looks like a more traditional savory pizza, the ingredients are actually totally different, and, unlike regular pizza, fruit pizza is not very appetizing the next morning. This dessert is ideally suited to large groups, and it can be served at dinners, potlucks, and parties where a note of something a little different is desired for the dessert course.
This dessert is made by baking a large round of cookie dough to serve as the “crust” for the pizza, spreading a creamy mixture onto the cookie, and then topping it with sliced fresh fruit. Some cooks also drizzle syrups over their fruit pizzas for added color and flavor. Making a fruit pizza can actually be kind of fun, as the fruit can be arranged in all sorts of interesting ways to create a distinctive pattern.
Sugar cookie dough tends to be the best for fruit pizzas, although other types of cookie dough could be used as well. Crumbly doughs like shortbread tend not to work as effectively, because it is difficult to handle them without making a mess. Many people also like to stick with a plain dough, rather than using a dough with inclusions like nuts, fruit, chocolate chips, oatmeal, and so forth.
For a creamy spread, most people use cream cheese frosting, or cream cheese which has been blended with a little bit of heavy cream to make it spreadable, with some sugar to sweeten it. Flavorings like vanilla, almond extract, or orange extract can be blended with the creamy spread to make the fruit pizza more interesting. Chocolate ganache and other sweet spreads can be used as well, of course. Any number of fruits can be used, including grapes, berries, orange slices, pears, apples, and so forth. If you have to cut fruit for the topping, you should squeeze lemon juice on it to keep it from browning.
Garnishes like white chocolate, chocolate syrup, caramel sauce, or a variety of fruit sauces can also be used on fruit pizza. It is also possible to use chocolate shavings to dress a fruit pizza up a bit.
As a fruit pizza sits, it tends to get soggy, thanks to the natural juices from the fruit. The fruit will also slowly start to wither and brown, even with a squirt of lemon juice. For this reason, it's a good idea to eat a fruit pizza as soon as possible after assembly, and leftovers should be avoided, because they will turn into a soggy, unappetizing mass.
