Today I’m sharing a new favorite fruit dessert with you that is so easy, fresh and delicious, you will want to serve it all year round.

It is a fruit pizza-style dessert that I’m calling Tutti Fruiti. You know, like Little Richard’s hit that came out in 1955 about a boy named Rudy and a girl named Sue. You have to admit, the songs of the 50’s, although not super deep, were super catchy, and many have certainly withstood the test of time. But I digress…

Recently, we were participating in a dinner program where one month we host, one month we bring the salad, and one month we bring the dessert. On the day of my dessert turn, I wanted something fresh and not too heavy.  Having always loved the beautiful fruit tarts with their shimmering glaze that grace the refrigerated dessert case at our local grocer, I thought I could make something similar in an individual serving.

The base for these fruit pizzas is refrigerated sugar cookie dough. I cut the tube in half, then divided each half into four “cookies.” On a parchment lined cookie sheet, I spread them out, gently pressing a little with the palm of my hands. I baked, following the directions on the package, 10-12 minutes. Keep a close eye on these, because the second batch I did burned before I knew it. Luckily, I had purchased two tubes of dough!  I also tried sprinkling cinnamon sugar on this first batch, but I don’t think they really need any extra sweetness, so the next time I made them, I left it off.

For the pizza “sauce” I created a mixture of cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and to cut some of the sweetness, a little lime juice. Those ingredients were blended with a hand mixer. If the mixture appears too thick, add a few drops of milk at a time until you have a frosting consistency.

Now comes the fun part! Select the fresh fruit of your choice, and place on the frosted cookies in concentric circles. For this dinner, I used strawberries, raspberries, kiwi (love the pop of green), nectarines, and blueberries, which work nicely to fill in the gaps.

For the glaze, warm ¼ to ½ cup of apricot jam or apple jelly in a small saucepan until it is warm and thinned. With a pastry brush or spoon, top each fruit pizza with the glaze. Refrigerate until serving, and that is it!
More recently, we had a couple of friends over one evening and I made a smaller, less complicated version of these Tutti Fruiti pizzas. Instead of making 4 cookies out of one half of the roll of dough, I made 6. They were more like large cookies and a little thicker, which was nice.

And to simplify things, for these smaller cookies, I used the two fruits I had on hand; strawberries and blueberries. With the smaller diameter, there isn’t room for the amount of fruit I did on the larger ones anyway, so this worked out well. Just a touch of mint that had popped up in my herb garden, and they were super cute.

Thinking back to the years when my three children were in preschool and we made English Muffin Pizzas as a class project, these pizza desserts would be a fun thing for kids to do in the kitchen at home. Once you’ve made the cookie and the “frosting” you could place bowls of fruit out and let their creativity go wild!

So, if you want an easy, fresh, and pretty end to your meal, look no further than the refrigerated cookie aisle, the fresh fruit section, and Little Richard for your inspiration by making some Tutti Fruiti dessert pizzas!

Good Tidings,
Diane

Tuitti Fruiti – Words and music by Little Richard
Bop bopa-a-lu a whop bam boo
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy
A whop bop-a-lu a whop bam boo
Got a girl named Sue, she knows just what to do
Got a girl named Sue, she knows just what to do
She rocks to the east, she rocks to the west
She’s the girl that I know best
Tutti frutti, oh Rudy

Tutti Fruiti Dessert Pizzas
One tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough
½ block cream cheese (4 ounces) at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. lime juice, fresh or from concentrate
1 tsp. vanilla
Milk to thin, if needed
1-2 cups fresh fruit, washed and sliced, if necessary
1/4-1/2 cup apricot jam or apple jelly warmed and thinned with a few drops of water
Bake 8-12 sugar cookies out of one tube, depending on desired size of pizzas, and let cool
In a mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, lime juice and vanilla and blend until smooth
Frost cookies with cream cheese mixture and top with assorted fruits of choice. Brush on glaze mixture, covering all fruit and refrigerate until serving. Enjoy!