Fruit Pizza Cookies (Amazingly Delicious!)

Not to overstate it, but I think I may have solved your summertime dessert quandary. Introducing individual fruit pizza cookies. They are the best summer dessert! Several things make this dessert a stand out success:

1. The display is breathtaking. Look at all that colorful fresh fruit!
2. Basic ingredients come together to form an addicting dessert experience.
3. Everyone assembles their own. #lessworkforthehost #happyeaters
4. Did I mention that these little guys are amazingly delicious?

Try these mini fruit pizzas whenever good fruit is in season. Our favorites are Easter, Mother’s Day, graduations, and 4th of July. However, fruit pizza cookies are a great recipe for wedding showers or rehearsal dinner desserts as well.

🥇 Why it’s better!

By making this an individual, build-your-own dessert, we have given the classic fruit pizza a modern spin that keeps the problematic sides of fruit pizza at bay.

• Everyone can assemble their own fruit pizza cookies which makes it less fussy than traditional fruit pizza.
• The frosting is the perfect consistency which makes it easy to spread.
• These are cute and easy to decorate.
• This base isn't too sweet. It's also tender and easy to work with!

No matter if you serve them at a baby shower, bridal shower, Memorial Day, or Fourth of July celebration, these mini fruit pizzas are a huge hit every time!

🍓Ingredients

Flour: Basic all-purpose.
Sugar: White granulated sugar is used in both the cookie base and the frosting. No powdered sugar here.
Butter: Salted or unsalted.
Egg: One is all you need.
Cream of Tartar: This is essential to the texture. Don’t skip or substitute.
Baking soda: Helps create the soft cookie we are looking for.
Cream Cheese: Plain block cream cheese is perfect.
Vanilla extract: Use the real deal here. With only three ingredients in the frosting, each one is important.
Fruit: Our favorites are: fresh berries (all kinds), mandarin oranges, banana, kiwi, pineapple, tangerines, peaches, nectarines, grapes, and mangos.

Step 1: Make individual cookies.

This is your basic cookie method. After beating the butter and sugar together in a large bowl for a couple minutes so that it gets nice and fluffy, it’s time to add the egg. Once the egg is mixed in, the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar) are added just until combined. At this point, you want to handle the dough as gently as possible so that it remains tender. To take the dough out of the bowl, gather it in a ball.

Now it’s time to roll it out. This is very similar to rolling out sugar cookies. Set it on a lightly floured surface and roll it ¼ inch thick. Here’s the trick. You want to roll it in a shape that will produce the most circles on the first round of cutting. It is fine to gather the scraps of dough and keep cutting but each time the scraps are gathered the dough gets a little more tough. Be gentle though and all will be fine.

Use a medium-sized round cookie cutter (affiliate) to get as many cookies as possible out of the first roll of dough. Place the circles on a parchment (affiliate)lined baking sheet.  

Gently gather up the remaining dough and roll out again. Repeat with the cookie cutter. Then bake at 350º for 9-10 minutes until they are puffy and the edges are very lightly golden.

As a helpful side note: If I ever make these using the roll of parchment paper that is too wide for my cookie sheet, the paper ends up sliding around when removing the cookies from the oven, causing the cookies to squish and become misshapen. I have started to cut down the paper to the size of the cookie sheet or use pre cut parchment sheets (affiliate) for this particular recipe.

Step 2: Make the fruit pizza frosting.

So easy but so delicious! Add the three ingredients to your medium bowl and mix on medium speed for a couple minutes. As it beats it gets fluffier so don’t cut the time short. If it doesn’t look quite fluffy enough feel free to beat a bit longer. 

Step 3: Slice fruit.

First, choose your favorite fruits that are in season. Since these little jewels are going to adorn the tops of the pizzas, pay attention to how they are cut. While it doesn’t require precision, the pieces of fruit should be approximately the same size as the other pieces of fruit. Of course, the blackberries and raspberries do not get cut. Whatever size they are is the size they should remain. 

Honestly, the list of possible fruit toppings is a very flexible list. Probably the number one tip is to use what is in season for the best flavor. Pick a range of colorful fruit for the best end result.

How to assemble fruit pizza cookies

Once the baked cookies have cooled, spread some of the sweet cream cheese mixture onto the cookie. If the cookies are still warm the frosting will melt and slide off. This can also cause the fruit pizza to become soggy.

Adorn each individual pizza with a combination of fresh fruit pieces. Be sure to use a variety of colors for a pleasing presentation.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦  For a crowd

This dessert is always a crowd pleaser! The base of this cookie doesn’t come out as well if you triple it, so for best results make two (or more) double batches to keep the cookies tender.

If you are serving these fruit pizza cookies to more than 20 people, have two separate stations for each item. Two lines moves faster than one. 😉 Each person assembling their own makes this a very easy fruit pizza!

🙋 Questions & Answers

📖  More recipes

• Summer screams lemon and these three are absolute perfection. Bake up this Lemon Curd Coffee Cake, Lemon Loaf, or Blackberry Cheesecake (with lemon crust).

• Fourth of July Cookies are a fun summer treat that can really be made anytime.

• For berry desserts, try these amazing Philadelphia Cheesecake Bars or this easy berry cobbler made with cake mix!
• Summer is also the quintessential time to turn on the grill and this Grilled Sweet & Savory Flank Steak with pineapple juice is a winner any day of the week. Or try these Grilled Honey Chicken (un)Kabobs. Getting my grill ready now!

👨🏼‍🍳 Tips & Tricks

• Be super gentle with the dough once the flour has been added to ensure a tender cookie.
• Do not overbake. The cookies will become hard and they need to be soft and chewy.
• Cut all the fruit to approximately the same size. And make sure they are small enough to easily fit on the cookie.