Fine Recipes: Fruit Pizza

As long-time readers are aware, one of the things I enjoy most is baking (see my earlier post on Strawberry Cupcakes here). Well, to be frank, I enjoy food in general. So for this evening's open house at work, I baked an easy and delicious fruit pizza.



This is the easiest dessert ever and a HUGE hit with kids! The recipe is, I believe, from an old issue of Woman's Day.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz package of ready to bake sugar cookie dough
1 8 oz pack of cream cheese (you can use light or regular)
1 container strawberries
2 kiwis
2 bananas
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1/4 teapoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons brandy, separated
*make sure you have a basting brush handy!

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 365* F. Take chilled cookie dough and cut into 1/2" slices. Layer in a well greased pizza pan, overlapping slightly.

2. With your hands, shape the dough into a circle that is at least an inch away from the edge of your pan. The dough will expand in the oven.

3. Place into oven and bake for 8 minutes (or until golden brown).

4. While the cookie is baking, you can chop your kiwi, strawberries and bananas into 1/4" slices.

5. Combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and 1 tablespoon brandy. Mix until smooth and spread on your giant cookie.

6. Cook preserves and remaining 2 T brandy on low until the mixture is smooth. Don't worry about apricot lumps.

7. Now is the fun part! Add your fruits!!! Kids will LOVE to help with this part. Let them go crazy. You can switch out your fruits as you like, but this combo has always been pretty popular (and is a part of the original recipe).

8. Baste the top of the pizza with preserve mixture. If you are serving immediately, you can skip this step - but if you will be eating it several hours from the time of preparation, definitely use the mix. Don't glop it on. A slight sheen will suffice. Be sure to keep your creation chilled!

I hope you all enjoyed the post. I LOVE sharing recipes with you guys and thought this was a good one. :D