If I've learned anything while working at a school, is that teachers love to feed people. It feels like we have snackies / luncheons / treats all the time. :) The last luncheon we had was a pot-luck dessert luncheon; but several of us in our office were leery about the number of rich chocolate cakes we would be having, so we set out to find a "healthy-ish" dessert recipe to bring. I volunteered to do the baking, but this turned out to be a really easy (and really yummy!) recipe, so I'd thought I'd share it. It's an amalgamation of several similar recipes, so I'm not sure quite what to call it. If you think of a catchy name, please let me know!
Cream Cheese Fruit Dessert Pizza
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut cookie dough into slices and arrange on a 12-inch pizza pan, coated with non-stick spray. Press slices together to form a solid crust. Bake 12 to 15 minutes until golden. Crust is done when edges begin to brown.
**You can also alter the "shape" of your pizza by how you make the cookies. I was taking my recipe to a potluck, so I kept the individual cookies as single servings instead of forming a big pizza that would need to be cut apart.
Beat cream cheese until smooth; add sugar and whipped topping. Spread evenly over cooled crust. Top with fruit.
Combine 1/2 cup reserved peach juice, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Cook until thick. Drizzle over pizza and chill. (**I didn't do this part due to time restrictions, and my fruit browned overnight. I think the peach juice will help prevent that.)
Makes 8 servings of fruit dessert pizza.
I also tried a "savory" version of the recipe, using a tube of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (they come in a big sheet now, too) in case the sugar cookies were too sweet... I'm not fond of them. I don't know if it was the dough (the sheet of Crescent Rolls was not equal to normal Crescent rolls, boooo!) or what exactly, but it seemed to get soggy and un-appealing fairly quickly. It was still good, don't get me wrong, but the fruit on sugar cookies was SO GOOD that the rolls never stood a chance.
Overall, this recipe is super fast and easy -- the only real "cooking" you do is 15min of baking sugar cookies and cutting up a lot of fruit. Of course, you all know me, the time-consuming part for me was arranging the fruit to me mathematically precise and pretty. ^_^ Cut to my kitchen: Me, humming happily, "Strawberry here, then a banana, then strawberry, then bana-- DARNIT! FIT BANANA! GET IN THERE! ... lalala,then another strawberry...."
Cream Cheese Fruit Dessert Pizza
- 4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
- 4 ounces frozen whipped topping, thawed
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1 pkg.(16.5 oz.) refrigerated sliceable sugar cookies, sliced (**You can always make your own sugar cookies. I normally hate the ready-made cookie dough, but this time around I was short on time and used the "break and bake" cookies.)
- 4 cups assorted cut-up fruit (kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, drained canned mandarin oranges, bananas, raspberries, blackberries, etc.)
- 1 16-ounce can sliced light peaches, drained (reserve juice)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/3 cup sugar
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut cookie dough into slices and arrange on a 12-inch pizza pan, coated with non-stick spray. Press slices together to form a solid crust. Bake 12 to 15 minutes until golden. Crust is done when edges begin to brown.
**You can also alter the "shape" of your pizza by how you make the cookies. I was taking my recipe to a potluck, so I kept the individual cookies as single servings instead of forming a big pizza that would need to be cut apart.
Beat cream cheese until smooth; add sugar and whipped topping. Spread evenly over cooled crust. Top with fruit.
Combine 1/2 cup reserved peach juice, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Cook until thick. Drizzle over pizza and chill. (**I didn't do this part due to time restrictions, and my fruit browned overnight. I think the peach juice will help prevent that.)
Makes 8 servings of fruit dessert pizza.
I also tried a "savory" version of the recipe, using a tube of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls (they come in a big sheet now, too) in case the sugar cookies were too sweet... I'm not fond of them. I don't know if it was the dough (the sheet of Crescent Rolls was not equal to normal Crescent rolls, boooo!) or what exactly, but it seemed to get soggy and un-appealing fairly quickly. It was still good, don't get me wrong, but the fruit on sugar cookies was SO GOOD that the rolls never stood a chance.
Overall, this recipe is super fast and easy -- the only real "cooking" you do is 15min of baking sugar cookies and cutting up a lot of fruit. Of course, you all know me, the time-consuming part for me was arranging the fruit to me mathematically precise and pretty. ^_^ Cut to my kitchen: Me, humming happily, "Strawberry here, then a banana, then strawberry, then bana-- DARNIT! FIT BANANA! GET IN THERE! ... lalala,then another strawberry...."
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