Fruit pizza is a beautiful summer dessert that never disappoints! The sugar cookie crust is delicious, but when paired with a simple cream cheese mousse and lots of fresh fruit it’s not overly sweet. Even people who don’t love cream cheese tend to like this easy dessert. It looks super impressive, but it’s not hard to put together. This is a great option for a summer party or family get together.
Ingredients
This recipe is SUPER easy and makes the best fruit pizza! Here’s what you need:
- Refrigerated sugar cookie dough. You could definitely make your own sugar cookie dough if you prefer, but you can’t beat the convenience of store-bought sugar cookie dough.
- Cream cheese, granulated sugar, vanilla, and Cool Whip combine to make a super simple, light and fluffy cream cheese mousse. (Most fruit pizza recipes don’t call for the Cool Whip but I love addition – it lightens up the cream cheese layer and makes it super smooth and creamy.)
- Fruit: The options are endless when it comes to the fruit you use. I used a whole rainbow of fruit but you can also keep it simple with just two or three varieties. See the note below the photo for more information on fruit choices.
What Fruit Should I Use?
There are lots of different fruits you can use on a fruit pizza! Here are a few things to consider:
- Avoid using fruits that will go brown once they’ve been cut and placed on the pizza, such as apples or bananas. The best fruits are ones that don’t brown and don’t release too much juice when sliced, such as berries, kiwi, grapes, etc.
- Fresh fruits are delicious in the summer, so that’s what I love to use, but canned fruits (such as mandarin oranges, peaches, or pineapple) can also be used. You just want to be sure to drain the canned fruit first and pat it dry with paper towels. Ensure all fruit is dry before placing on the pizza.
- It can be fun to create a rainbow effect starting with purple/blue fruit like blackberries, purple grapes and blueberries, then green fruit like kiwi or green grapes, yellow/orange fruit such as pineapple, peaches, mangos, and mandarin oranges, and then finishing with red fruit like strawberries and raspberries.
- Avoid fruit that is super juicy (like watermelon), as the juice will leak onto the cream cheese layer and it won’t look great.
How to Make Fruit Pizza
From start to finish the easy summer dessert will take about an hour, but some of that is cooling time. This fruit pizza can be sliced into 16 servings…but because it’s light and not overly sweet, some people may appreciate larger slices.
Make the Crust
The first step is to make the sugar cookie crust. Lots of recipes call for a homemade sugar cookie dough and you are welcome to use your favorite sugar cookie recipe here. But when I’m making desserts like this one I like to keep things easy when I can without sacrificing flavor. I’m not usually a huge fan or refrigerated cookie dough, but it actually works GREAT for making a crust! Slice a tube of sugar cookie dough into 1/4 inch slices and place them on a lightly greased 12-inch pizza pan. Press the pieces into an even layer.
Bake the crust at 375 degrees until it’s nicely golden brown. Now, while it’s baking it will puff up and look like it’s going to explode. But it won’t. And once it’s out of the oven and begins to cool it will settle back down and flatten out. Set the crust aside to cool completely. If you’re in a rush, put it in the fridge or freezer to speed cooling.
***While the crust is baking*** wash all the fruit you plan to use and pat it dry with paper towels. If you are using any canned fruit drain it well and then spread it out on paper towels and pat it dry. It’s a good idea to wash/drain the fruit while the crust bakes so the fruit is nice and dry by them time you are assembling the pizza.
Make the Cream Cheese Mousse
The cream cheese mousse is so delicious and so easy to make! It’s like a cream cheese frosting but lighter and creamier. Place a block of softened cream cheese in a bowl and use a mixer to beat in 2/3 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. When that is smooth, beat in half of a tub of thawed Cool Whip (frozen whipped topping). You’ll end up with a smooth, light mousse that tastes absolutely amazing. Spread the mousse on the cooled crust, leaving about half an inch from the edge uncovered.
Then I added sliced kiwi (it took about 4), once can of drained mandarin oranges, and sliced strawberries (less than a pound). Remember that you’ll need quite a bit more of the fruit that is on the outside than the fruit that’s in the middle. Once the pizza is assembled, cover it with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
Fruit Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 tube Refrigerated Sugar Cookie Dough 16.5 oz
- 8 oz Cream Cheese softened
- 2/3 cup Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1.5 cups Cool Whip thawed; about half an 8 oz tub
- Raspberries about 8
- Blueberries about 1/4 cup
- 4 Kiwis
- 1 can Mandarin Oranges 15 oz
- 1 pound Strawberries
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 12 inch pizza pan with nonstick spray.
- Spread sugar cookie dough out in an even layer across the pizza pan. It's easiest to slice the dough into 1/4 inch slices first and lay them across the pan, then press the dough into an even layer.
- Bake the cookie crust until light golden brown, about 14 minutes. The cookie will puff up in the oven and then flatten out as it cools. Cool the crust completely before continuing.
- In the meantime, wash the fruit you plan to use and gently pat it dry. Drain the mandarin oranges. Set fruit aside to completely dry while the crust cools.
- Beat softened cream cheese together with the sugar until smooth. Beat in about half the tub of Cool Whip, approximately 1.5 cups, to make the cream cheese mousse.
- Spread the cream cheese mousse in an even layer over the cooled sugar cookie crust, stopping about half an inch from the edge.
- Top the sugar cookie with fruit, arranged as desired.
- Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
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